Submission deadline: April 30, 2021.
In 2020, Conjuntura Austral completes ten years of work, dedicated primarily to improving publications dealing with the Global South agenda in the field of IR. The journal has contributed to the circulation of data, arguments, and views on Latin America, Africa and Asia, and has sought to break the hegemony of English-speaking scholars in the field of IR publications, which remain dominated by the Global North both in terms of agendas and arguments.
Despite these efforts, we still face persistent inequality in editorial policies. From more than 300 articles published in Conjuntura Austral, 60% were written by male authors as compared to 25% by female authors. This disparity is not exclusive to our journal, on the contrary, such data illustrates the precarious space occupied by women in academic publications, whether in Brazil or worldwide. We therefore call attention to the result of recent research carried out by members of the Brazilian Association of International Relations (ABRI), revealing a set of gender inequalities impacting women’s careers. In terms of the productivity dimension, the study points out that «66% of women against 79% of men have had more than three articles published by journals indexed in Brazil’s Qualis-Capes system» (BACCARINI; MINILLO; ALVES, 2019, p. 380-381). Among the reasons for such asymmetry, the article highlights the patriarchal culture which imposes an overload of work for women regarding the so-called «care economy», especially during motherhood.
It is worth noting that gender disparities are a global problem including academic citations, as demonstrated by research conducted by Maliniak, Powers and Walter (2013) which argues that articles signed only by women are systematically less cited in the field of IR, and is possibly related to a sexist culture where «(1) women tend to cite themselves less than men, and (2) men (who make up a disproportionate share of IR scholars) tend to cite men more than women»(MALINIAK; POWERS; WALTER, 2013, p.889). In other words, even when a woman surpasses the barriers against her entry into an academic career, once she arrives, additional prejudices constrain her future tenure and progress. These include the fact that her research will be less heard, shared, and recognized than those of her male colleagues. These inequalities are also reinforced by intersectional dynamics including the issues of race, class, nationality, and institutional affiliations.
Regarding editorial policies, the institutional capacity of journals regarding gender mainstreaming continue to fall short. As a first step, this call for papers seeks to confront this state of affairs and redress existing inequalities by making space for women’s voices wherever possible. Although we do not depart from an essentialist perspective regarding a «specific type» of women’s perspective, or any fixed and restricted categorization about the identity debate, this call recognizes the need to increase the democratic status of our scientific debate. As Leonardo Boff stated, if «our mind thinks where our feet step», then the feet of women who step in the global South think it from particular experiences, which are possibly different from those of male authors.
From this perspective, we accept the editors’ initiative to organize a special issue dedicated entirely to women’s research. We invite women from the Global South (Asia, Africa and Latin America) to submit their contributions (in Portuguese, Spanish or English) for the journal’s third issue of 2021, to be released in July. This is an international call addressed to all those who reflect on or use the term «Global South» in their research, either theoretically or methodologically. The objective is to gather a set of papers that deal with agendas related to the Global South, including different theoretical perspectives and object framings. With this, we aim to foster a debate over an expression that has been the target of multiple applications: as a geographical place, a concept, an analytical category, a symbol, and even as a methodological choice. In sum, we hope to assemble a set of articles written exclusively by women to strengthen reflections on the Global South from a plural and critical perspective. The deadline for submissions is April 30, 2021. The guidelines and rules of publication can be found on the «Conjuntura Austral» click here.
Veronica Korber Gonçalves (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul – UFRGS)
Lara Martim Rodrigues Selis (Federal University of Uberlândia – UFU)
A Conjuntura Austral: journal of the Global South recebe contribuições em fluxo contínuo, na forma de Análises de Conjuntura, Artigos de Pesquisa e Resenhas Bibliográficas, escritos em português, inglês ou espanhol. Ela publica produções originais cuja temática se situe na grande área das Relações Internacionais, com ênfase em temas pertinentes aos países do Sul Global, tendo como área geográfica de abrangência a África, a Ásia e a América Latina, na perspectiva dos grandes temas das relações internacionais, especialmente as agendas de segurança, diplomacia e desenvolvimento. Nesse sentido, submissões que não sejam centradas em fenômenos internacionais ou transfronteiriços, definidos como pertencentes à agenda de estudos internacionais, e que não tenham relações diretas com as dinâmicas pertinentes aos países do Sul Global, são consideradas como fora do escopo da publicação.
O objetivo principal da Conjuntura Austral é publicar as mais recentes, inovadoras e relevantes contribuições no campo das Relações Internacionais, tendo como público alvo pesquisadores, especialistas e pós-graduandos da área de Relações Internacionais. A Conjuntura Austral mantém um padrão de alta qualidade, sendo a relevância e a qualidade científica dos trabalhos os critérios primordiais para avaliar contribuições. A Conjuntura Austral: journal of the Global South ressalta que as opiniões expressas nos artigos são de responsabilidade de seus(suas) respectivos(as) autores(as).