Abstract
Every new editor begins in debt to her predecessors, and my debts to Jane Bennett are substantial. Since 2013, Jane has translated the ethical and poetic sensibilities that have long distinguished her scholarship into thoughtfully composed issues that are attuned to contemporary democratic problems. Jane’s success also credits the hard work of an outstanding editorial team: Aletta Norval (consulting editor), David Owen (review editor), Derek Denman, Stephanie Erev, Chris Forster-Smith, Katherine Goktepe, Zach Reyna, and Chad Shomura (assistant editors). Together, they have tended an ongoing conversation about political life, as it is and as it should be, building on the examples of editors Robert Lamb, Walter Odajnyk, Benjamin Barber, William Connolly, Tracy Strong, Stephen White, and Mary Dietz, and the writers and reviewers who have worked behind the scenes at Political Theory and appeared in its pages.
I am fortunate to start this venture in great company. Already, consulting editors Jill Frank and Lori Marso and review editor Melvin Rogers have shared their time and wisdom. Finding resources for democratic theory in Ancient Greek philosophers and dramatists, Jill’s publications deftly interweave politics, aesthetics, and law; her forthcoming book is Poetic Justice: Rereading Plato’s Republic. Lori has published widely in feminist theory and the politics of film. In addition to Politics with Beauvoir: Freedom in the Encounter, she is the author, editor, or co-editor of six books. Melvin is best known as a scholar of American political thought—he is the author of The Undiscovered Dewey: Religion, Morality, and the Ethos of Democracy and articles on race and democracy—yet his erudition reaches across and beyond the field of political theory. Assistant editors Brittany Leach and Andrew Gates, both graduate students at UVA, have quickly mastered the art of balancing generosity, critique, and efficiency. Finally, I am grateful to have the ongoing input and support of the executive editorial committee: Paul Apostolidis, Roxanne Euben, Rainer Forst, Achille Mbembe, Nivedita Menon, Anne Norton, and Neil Roberts.
It may be that every political moment feels uniquely perilous to the women and men who live through it, and that every generation of political theorists asks anew what work their scholarship can do. Still, the scale of the troubles confronting us—rising inequality, climate change, forced migration, war—and the degree of suffering they have already imposed demand a response. What role could Political Theory possibly play? On the one hand, we need, as much as ever, those features of the journal that have sustained its reputation as a site for reflection on political problems and concepts: its ecumenicalism; its emphasis on original, well-crafted answers to big questions; and its pacing, which allows the kind of slow thinking that seems increasingly out of reach in our day-to-day lives. On the other hand, we need also to look outward, to solicit questions and ideas about collective life that are formulated by thinkers whose concerns may not be represented in the field of political theory as conventionally defined. There is a tension between these twinned aims of stewardship and redefinition. In that tension, there are also opportunities.
Founded as “a journal of political philosophy that is broad in scope and international in coverage,” Political Theory is distinguished by its openness with regard to intellectual orientation and its aspiration to reach beyond the confines of the US academy. It has invited contributions by critical theorists, historians of political thought, and analytical political philosophers, as well as thinkers who resist or trouble those categories. Fulfilling the journal’s founding mission entails maintaining that openness while also asking who is not submitting work or publishing in Political Theory. To what extent is the journal’s reach “international,” and where have the limits of “political philosophy” been drawn? What elisions haunt the tables of contents? Looking ahead, I would like to consider the entanglements of race, gender, aesthetics, economy, and power across different historical and geographical contexts. One element of that project, as Toni Morrison urges, is to conceive ways “to enhance canon readings without enshrining them.” Another is to look beyond the borders that constitute both “the West” and political theory and examine the kinds of political thought that have achieved canonical status elsewhere or in other scholarly fields. There are many more.
In short, my hope is that Political Theory will foster political thinking in the broadest sense. For more than forty years, the journal has provided a space where scholars concerned with analyzing, criticizing, and transforming the terms of political life have met to argue and to learn. I seek your assistance in cultivating Political Theory’s strengths and encouraging the involvement of new generations of thinkers. What work could be more important now?