Call for Papers: Special Issue of RRPE on Economic Democracy

Manuscript submission deadline: 1 December 2009

Economic democracy is a theme that has run through radical and progressive theory and practice. Broadly, it stands for an expansion of democratic practice beyond the political realm, into the economic aspects of our lives. It has been applied at the microeconomic level in pursuit of workers’ self-management and related cooperative structures. It also suggests the need for planning, where democracy would be fundamental to decision making about an economy’s objectives and means of achieving them. It has been used as a term to expand the role of organized labor in management, and to link unions more fundamentally to national political processes. Today it also has application to household decision making, and to aspirations for global forms of redistribution.

All of the themes mentioned above are relevant to this special issue, and there are no doubt others of importance that we have overlooked. In the past few decades, the term economic democracy has appeared in book titles, and as an aspiration of political movements. The RRPE’s Editorial Board thinks that it is time to reinvestigate issues that fall under this theme, and a special issue is put forward as a partial means to that end. We see this discussion as critical to renewing radical thought and re-energizing the left in the United States, and in other nations and localities.

We invite papers on all aspects of economic democracy, at levels from the household to the global economy, and on topics related to inclusion, participation in decisions that affect one’s life, self-fulfillment, and realization of aspirations to be a more engaged citizen. Race, gender, ecology, and other fields of inquiry are appropriate, if linked to expanding our practice of democracy or barriers to doing so.

It is a common belief that capitalism sets strict limits on how much democratic practice is possible in society. Is this the case? If so, how would various forms of socialist society remove this barrier?

All aspects of economic activity are relevant to this topic, as we seek to encourage broad rethinking of what it means to use democratic practice in material provisioning. Various forms of democratic practice are also at issue, including direct participation and representative democracy; geographic forms that suit local, national, and global practice; and democratic practice across households, private for-profit and nonprofit firms, the cooperative sector, and the public sector itself.
Please send four copies by 1 December 2009 to:

Hazel Dayton Gunn, Managing Editor
Review of Radical Political Economics
Department of City and Regional Planning
106 W. Sibley Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853, U.S.A.
phone: 315-789-1414
email: hg18@cornell.edu

Submissions must follow the instructions to contributors listed in each issue of the Review, or available from the Managing Editor. All submissions are subject to the usual review procedures and they should not be under review with any other publication. We strongly encourage authors to send a brief title and abstract as soon as possible, so we can coordinate timely publication of the issue.