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Gender – Zeitschrift für Geschlecht, Kultur und Gesellschaft

The issue of the “good life” has been discussed in philosophy for more than 2000 years and is currently the subject of vivid debate. Recently, it has reached a new level of virulence. In the spring of 2020, the global crisis caused by the spread of COVID-19 and the measures taken to contain it are challenging many people’s concepts of a good life. Possible developments emerge that indicate a relapse into conventional gender patterns, for example in the care of children and others in need of care, as well as with regard to increasing problems such as the escalation of domestic violence or rising difficulties in the access to abortion.

The central question is how a good life is possible for everyone, not only for the privileged, especially after severe crises. A crisis may result in new ideas and redistribution, but also might widen of the gap between rich and poor as well as between genders, as recent history shows. Inter- and post-disciplinary approaches are therefore increasingly taking up the topic. Perspectives of New Materialism are particularly prominent, but the “good life” also plays a role in sociological research on post-growth societies. It is striking that aspects of the general interdependency and connectedness among people are in the focus, i.e. the manifold ways of being in this world together. This perspective brings into play how gender differences are embedded in various power structures. Media and cultural studies also take up these considerations focusing on the artistic and media production of utopian and dystopian future scenarios. Thus, the “good life” is always a question of one’s own happiness and the happiness of others.

This special issue of GENDER on the “good life” in times of crisis is intended to address relevant questions and to put them into a wider, cross-disciplinary context.

Procedure and timetable

Please submit a one- to two-page abstract by 7 June 2020. Non-German speakers are welcome to submit their articles in English. The Editorial Department works with the online editing system OJS. We would therefore like to ask you to register as an author of the journal GENDER at www.budrich-journals.de/index.php/gender and to submit and upload your abstract there. A guideline for the use of OJS is available at www.gender-zeitschrift.de/index.php?id=manuskripte. Once your abstract has been assessed and judged suitable for this issue, you will receive an invitation to submit. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by 21 June 2020. The deadline for submission of the final manuscript is 15 November 2020. Manuscripts must not exceed 50,000 characters (including space characters). All submissions will be reviewed in our double-blind peer review process based on which the final selection of contributions to be published will be made. The editors may give instructions to revise the contribution, which is the rule rather than the exception. In case of a high number of positively peer-reviewed contributions, the Editorial Department reserves the right to make a final selection of articles and to publish some contributions in a later issue.