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Ab Imperio: Second World-Second Time?
Del 28/10/2011 al 28/10/2011; Russia (Federación Rusa).
Ab Imperio: Second World-Second Time?
Posted by: Sergey Glebov
Dear Colleagues,
The editors of Ab Imperio would like to invite contributions to the
journal's issues in 2011. You can access the journal's program at
http://net.abimperio.net/ru/node/1320
Sergey Glebov
"Second World - Second Time? The Concept of the "Second World" at the
Crossroads of Social Sciences and Imperial History"
The concept of the Second World underlies a range of theories that
explain the emergence and spread of Communism and objectify political
divisions during the Cold War. This concept formed part of
modernization theories as an attempt to understand the specifics of
modernization processes triggered by socialist revolutions. In
theories of convergence, the concept of the Second World helped
distinguish the vector of development and the hierarchy of historical
experience from the Third World to the First. However, the end of
"really existing socialism" and decline in popularity of modernization
theory in recent decades have drastically reduced use of the Second
World concept.
The editors of Ab Imperio suggest that the concept of the Second
World, once freed from its geopolitical connotations, can be
productive today to describe historical and social experience that
does not fit the framework of classical colonial theory or normative
theories of modernity. Maybe by using this category we can also use
research instruments and models developed by new imperial history to
study modern, mass and composite societies of the twentieth century.
Potentially, the Second World can be used as a rhetorical device, a
metaphor, or an analytical category. The editors of Ab Imperio invite
scholars of imperial history to reflect upon the potential of the
category of the Second World.
Our turn to this concept in the context of new imperial history allows
us to raise a number of interesting and important questions. Can the
concept of the Second World be used in working with theoretical models
and newly formed fields (such as Central European or Central Asian
studies) instead of the culturally and geopolitically determined
"Eurasia?" Could the Second World be useful in discussions of
"peripheral" imperial formations, that is, in discussions of imperial
experiences that do not entirely fit in with the experiences of
bourgeois colonial empires? Scholars working in the fields of
continental empires of Europe and Asia often face the problem of
difference in processes that seem structurally similar in colonial
overseas and continental empires. Historians of the Russian Empire
have long debated the applicability of categories developed in studies
of the British or French Empires. Yet, we also need to think about how
the experience of the continental Russian Empire can complicate our
understanding of the past of bourgeois colonial empires. Likewise, can
the Second World change the mainstream ways of thinking about
postcolonial phenomena such as hybridity, multiple identities and
subjectivities, which emerge as constitutive elements of the history
of the Second World itself? By opening this discussion about the
Second World, Ab Imperio seeks to explore the prospects of this
largely forgotten but potentially rich way of thinking about the
post-Soviet historical regions and its place on the map of scholarly knowledge.
Within the framework of this discussion we propose to revisit such
traditional dichotomies as "center vs. periphery," "modern overseas
vs. premodern territorially contiguous empires," "colonizers vs.
colonized," but with special attention to the specifics of the modern
and most recent periods. In regard to the territorially contiguous
empires one can recall the discussion on the "colonial" nature of
Soviet expansion in Central Asia and Central Europe; the contradictory
and ambitious attempt to apply the frame of decolonization to the
post-Soviet period; the specifics of the postsocialist "transition";
theories of "failed state"; and so on. In historical articles for this
year we seek to use the concept of the Second World to review the gaps
between normative categories of analysis and the richness and
diversity of the historical material in the experience of the
post-Soviet space. We are especially interested in the applicability
to the Soviet period of new imperial history with its characteristic
attention to diversity and dynamics. On the other hand, we are
interested in possibilities to enrich our understanding of the
imperial period using analytical categories developed by scholars of
the USSR and socialism.
Besides the main theme of the Second World, Ab Imperio plans to
continue its regular rubrics and fora: "Discussions with Authors"
(series of interviews with scholars who have influenced the
development of new imperial history); "Empire of Archives" (a series
that views archives as centers of the production of knowledge and
power in a culturally divided space); "The Art of History Writing in
Empire and Nation" (translation and publication of classical works);
and "Battles for History" (a series focusing on the current politics
of history and memory).
Tentative contents of the issues in 2011:
No. 1/2011 "The Diversity of Otherness: Studies of the Second World
and New Historical Paradigms"
Historical experience in identifying "norm" and "otherness" beyond
linear hierarchies
* attempts to define the Second World in positive terms (its special
contribution to the world intellectual legacy, the reengineering of
society, uses of nature)
* the Russian intellectual tradition of the second half of the
nineteenth century: projects of the Second World and their critics
* the history of critiques of normative theories of empire and colonialism
* critiques of postcolonial theory
* apology and nostalgia for historical empires: the British Empire as
a forerunner of globalization, the Habsburg Empire as an ideal of
liberal multinational polity
* nostalgia for Yugoslavia, the USSR, and East Germany
* the prefix "neo" in "post" situations: the problem of fluidity of
traditional political contrapositions (e.g., liberalism and
conservatism in the postmodern era and afterward)
* analytical models of the Second World as an attempt to translate
approaches of new imperial history for the study of composite
societies of the twentieth century
* Marxism in the Second World
* formalism and structuralism in the Second World
* contemporary nationalism and the Second World.
No. 2/2011 "The Second World Beyond Geopolitics: Political
Trajectories and Spatial Configurations"
Critiques of geopolitical conceptions
* what is the "Second World," a location or an idea?
* constructions of the "gradient of backwardness" and attempts to
localize the "true West"
* the dual meaning of "chronotop": an instrument of historization of
research as well as a mechanism for ascribing the structural
characteristics of "epoch" to territory and its inhabitants
* how stable are regional historical boundaries?
* does a region have a "historical destiny?"
* ascribing identity to a region (Islamic Republic, Cossack region,
"historical center")
* problematizing the region: how is the production of "Russian
culture" connected to territory/region
* from social engineering to political technologies: the era of simulacra
* compensatory reactions in the era of globalism: the concepts of
"Russia island," "Fifth Empire," "sovereign democracy"
* gender regimes of socialist societies and post-Soviet transformations.
No. 3/2011 "Time of the Second World: Imperial Revolutions and
Counterrevolutions"
The breakup of the USSR: the process of transition from informal to
formal sovereignty
* post-Soviet history of the former republics
* the breakup of the USSR revisited by historians: twenty years later
* the anthropology of postsocialist transformations: lessons for
understanding the disintegration of the USSR?
* USSR: scenarios of power - scenarios of disintegration
* comparative context of the Soviet breakup
* perestroika: revolution as normalization?
* decolonization as an interpretative resource for analyzing the
Soviet breakup: problems and challenges
* world order after the Cold War
* imperial disintegrations and fascism
* the disintegration of empires and the October revolution
* global crisis of the leftist ideology as a result of Second World
disintegration.
No. 4/2011 "The Second World Between Comparative and Global Histories"
Self-representations of "empires" of the Second World as a synthesis
of the First and the Third Worlds: between colonies and metropoles
* the place of the Second World in the schemes of world (global) history
* the Second World as a trope of self-perception and self-description
of "noncanonical" modernity
* the Second World between "multiple modernities" and normative
"Western modernity"
* peripheral and "nonclassical" empires of the modern period
* revisiting comparative approaches to totalitarianism and communism
* rethinking the Second World in the twentieth century: a history of
totalitarianism or a comparative history of colonialism?
* whether the world is one: writing the history of globalization
* history of the environment as a frame for universal history
* relativization of the concept of the First World and normative
modernity in new narratives of comparative and global history.
Posted by: Sergey Glebov
Dear Colleagues,
The editors of Ab Imperio would like to invite contributions to the
journal's issues in 2011. You can access the journal's program at
http://net.abimperio.net/ru/node/1320
Sergey Glebov
"Second World - Second Time? The Concept of the "Second World" at the
Crossroads of Social Sciences and Imperial History"
The concept of the Second World underlies a range of theories that
explain the emergence and spread of Communism and objectify political
divisions during the Cold War. This concept formed part of
modernization theories as an attempt to understand the specifics of
modernization processes triggered by socialist revolutions. In
theories of convergence, the concept of the Second World helped
distinguish the vector of development and the hierarchy of historical
experience from the Third World to the First. However, the end of
"really existing socialism" and decline in popularity of modernization
theory in recent decades have drastically reduced use of the Second
World concept.
The editors of Ab Imperio suggest that the concept of the Second
World, once freed from its geopolitical connotations, can be
productive today to describe historical and social experience that
does not fit the framework of classical colonial theory or normative
theories of modernity. Maybe by using this category we can also use
research instruments and models developed by new imperial history to
study modern, mass and composite societies of the twentieth century.
Potentially, the Second World can be used as a rhetorical device, a
metaphor, or an analytical category. The editors of Ab Imperio invite
scholars of imperial history to reflect upon the potential of the
category of the Second World.
Our turn to this concept in the context of new imperial history allows
us to raise a number of interesting and important questions. Can the
concept of the Second World be used in working with theoretical models
and newly formed fields (such as Central European or Central Asian
studies) instead of the culturally and geopolitically determined
"Eurasia?" Could the Second World be useful in discussions of
"peripheral" imperial formations, that is, in discussions of imperial
experiences that do not entirely fit in with the experiences of
bourgeois colonial empires? Scholars working in the fields of
continental empires of Europe and Asia often face the problem of
difference in processes that seem structurally similar in colonial
overseas and continental empires. Historians of the Russian Empire
have long debated the applicability of categories developed in studies
of the British or French Empires. Yet, we also need to think about how
the experience of the continental Russian Empire can complicate our
understanding of the past of bourgeois colonial empires. Likewise, can
the Second World change the mainstream ways of thinking about
postcolonial phenomena such as hybridity, multiple identities and
subjectivities, which emerge as constitutive elements of the history
of the Second World itself? By opening this discussion about the
Second World, Ab Imperio seeks to explore the prospects of this
largely forgotten but potentially rich way of thinking about the
post-Soviet historical regions and its place on the map of scholarly knowledge.
Within the framework of this discussion we propose to revisit such
traditional dichotomies as "center vs. periphery," "modern overseas
vs. premodern territorially contiguous empires," "colonizers vs.
colonized," but with special attention to the specifics of the modern
and most recent periods. In regard to the territorially contiguous
empires one can recall the discussion on the "colonial" nature of
Soviet expansion in Central Asia and Central Europe; the contradictory
and ambitious attempt to apply the frame of decolonization to the
post-Soviet period; the specifics of the postsocialist "transition";
theories of "failed state"; and so on. In historical articles for this
year we seek to use the concept of the Second World to review the gaps
between normative categories of analysis and the richness and
diversity of the historical material in the experience of the
post-Soviet space. We are especially interested in the applicability
to the Soviet period of new imperial history with its characteristic
attention to diversity and dynamics. On the other hand, we are
interested in possibilities to enrich our understanding of the
imperial period using analytical categories developed by scholars of
the USSR and socialism.
Besides the main theme of the Second World, Ab Imperio plans to
continue its regular rubrics and fora: "Discussions with Authors"
(series of interviews with scholars who have influenced the
development of new imperial history); "Empire of Archives" (a series
that views archives as centers of the production of knowledge and
power in a culturally divided space); "The Art of History Writing in
Empire and Nation" (translation and publication of classical works);
and "Battles for History" (a series focusing on the current politics
of history and memory).
Tentative contents of the issues in 2011:
No. 1/2011 "The Diversity of Otherness: Studies of the Second World
and New Historical Paradigms"
Historical experience in identifying "norm" and "otherness" beyond
linear hierarchies
* attempts to define the Second World in positive terms (its special
contribution to the world intellectual legacy, the reengineering of
society, uses of nature)
* the Russian intellectual tradition of the second half of the
nineteenth century: projects of the Second World and their critics
* the history of critiques of normative theories of empire and colonialism
* critiques of postcolonial theory
* apology and nostalgia for historical empires: the British Empire as
a forerunner of globalization, the Habsburg Empire as an ideal of
liberal multinational polity
* nostalgia for Yugoslavia, the USSR, and East Germany
* the prefix "neo" in "post" situations: the problem of fluidity of
traditional political contrapositions (e.g., liberalism and
conservatism in the postmodern era and afterward)
* analytical models of the Second World as an attempt to translate
approaches of new imperial history for the study of composite
societies of the twentieth century
* Marxism in the Second World
* formalism and structuralism in the Second World
* contemporary nationalism and the Second World.
No. 2/2011 "The Second World Beyond Geopolitics: Political
Trajectories and Spatial Configurations"
Critiques of geopolitical conceptions
* what is the "Second World," a location or an idea?
* constructions of the "gradient of backwardness" and attempts to
localize the "true West"
* the dual meaning of "chronotop": an instrument of historization of
research as well as a mechanism for ascribing the structural
characteristics of "epoch" to territory and its inhabitants
* how stable are regional historical boundaries?
* does a region have a "historical destiny?"
* ascribing identity to a region (Islamic Republic, Cossack region,
"historical center")
* problematizing the region: how is the production of "Russian
culture" connected to territory/region
* from social engineering to political technologies: the era of simulacra
* compensatory reactions in the era of globalism: the concepts of
"Russia island," "Fifth Empire," "sovereign democracy"
* gender regimes of socialist societies and post-Soviet transformations.
No. 3/2011 "Time of the Second World: Imperial Revolutions and
Counterrevolutions"
The breakup of the USSR: the process of transition from informal to
formal sovereignty
* post-Soviet history of the former republics
* the breakup of the USSR revisited by historians: twenty years later
* the anthropology of postsocialist transformations: lessons for
understanding the disintegration of the USSR?
* USSR: scenarios of power - scenarios of disintegration
* comparative context of the Soviet breakup
* perestroika: revolution as normalization?
* decolonization as an interpretative resource for analyzing the
Soviet breakup: problems and challenges
* world order after the Cold War
* imperial disintegrations and fascism
* the disintegration of empires and the October revolution
* global crisis of the leftist ideology as a result of Second World
disintegration.
No. 4/2011 "The Second World Between Comparative and Global Histories"
Self-representations of "empires" of the Second World as a synthesis
of the First and the Third Worlds: between colonies and metropoles
* the place of the Second World in the schemes of world (global) history
* the Second World as a trope of self-perception and self-description
of "noncanonical" modernity
* the Second World between "multiple modernities" and normative
"Western modernity"
* peripheral and "nonclassical" empires of the modern period
* revisiting comparative approaches to totalitarianism and communism
* rethinking the Second World in the twentieth century: a history of
totalitarianism or a comparative history of colonialism?
* whether the world is one: writing the history of globalization
* history of the environment as a frame for universal history
* relativization of the concept of the First World and normative
modernity in new narratives of comparative and global history.
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