General Call for Proposals
--------------------------------
For a proposed special issue of JAC on Mark C. Taylor and Emerging
Network Culture, edited by David Blakesley and Thomas Rickert
Mark C. Taylor's latest book The Moment of Complexity: Emerging Network
Culture (2001, University of Chicago Press) puts in play a number of
issues relevant to contemporary rhetorical and critical theory, cultural
studies, advanced composition, and the corporate university. Taylor's
claims concerning emergent network culture challenge current postmodern
and cultural theories, while opening new fault-lines in the established
narratives of the humanities in general. Taylor's arguments are
substantial and groundbreaking, making his book a landmark that requires
sustained critical examination.
Essays are sought that present a sustained engagement with Taylor's work
and the trajectory of his arguments. Among the most challenging of
Taylor's claims, and therefore the most in need of careful
consideration, is his stage-setting argument that our extant critical
theories are in fact exhausted. Specifically, Taylor argues that the
critical cultural theory of the past 30 years, as stemming from
Foucault, Derrida, Baudrillard, and others, has become predictable and
routinized. In the face of the exhaustion of contemporary cultural
theory, Taylor argues for the usefulness of ongoing work on systems,
networks, and complexity. Condensing large amounts of research in a
variety of fields, Taylor proposes a general complexity theory hinging
on the concept of the network. From this perspective, subject and
objects, people and world, are caught in networks of relations that are
themselves structured by intricate, co-evolving interrelations. The
subject is no longer a "self" but rather a node; the brain is itself a
global network, immersed in complex webs of informational, affective,
and personal relations. We ask: Is such an orientation inherently
rhetorical? As communication, persuasion, subjectivity, and
interpersonal and –cultural relations are key loci of discussion for
rhetorical and cultural theory, we are interested in the ways Taylor's
arguments may be seen to challenge or reconfigure these theoretical
commonplaces.
Such work has consequences for the inter-animating arguments of
humanists and scientists, which all too often reach an impasse at
culture/nature reductionism. Humanists typically reduce nature to
culture; scientists typically reduce culture to nature. It is a critical
impasse, Taylor believes, because it forestalls continued cooperation
and competition across the divide. Perhaps the most contentious of
Taylor’s positions is his argument on behalf of educational praxis—the
fusion of theory and practice at the moment of complex educational
systems, which are now precariously teetering between traditional
educational and business cultures. However, his proposed solution, the
for-profit Global Education Network (GEN), is provocative in part
because it enacts theoretical principles at odds with current postmodern
and cultural theory, both of which, he contends, rely on an outdated,
Kantian model of higher education and only preserve traditional
structures under the guise of resistance.
What to Submit
-------------------
We are seeking original scholarly work that engages these issues and
others that emerge from Taylor's work. We are especially interested in
interdisciplinary work that has bearing on issues in contemporary
rhetorical theory and advanced composition. Proposals are due November
22, 2002, preferably sent by email as attachments in Word, RTF, or PDF
format. They should include a 250-word description of your topic, a
sample bibliography, and a one-paragraph author's biography. Proposals
will be reviewed promptly, and authors selected for inclusion will be
encouraged to submit completed essays by January 15, 2003, for
subsequent review
Send proposals to:
David Blakesley
Department of English
Purdue University
500 Oval Drive
West Lafayette, IN 47907-2038
Phone: 765.494.3772
Email: blakesle@purdue.edu
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