New feminism, worlds of feminism... book out

NEW FEMINISM: Worlds of Feminism, Queer and Networking Conditions / Eds. Marina Gržinić, Rosa Reitsamer

English, 41 contributions by 60 theoreticians, artists, activists;

474 pages, black and white images;
ISBN 978-3-85409-472-2
Published by Löcker Verlag, Vienna, 2007
www.loecker.at

Contibutors:
Jamika Ajalon, Pamela Allara, Helga Amesberger, Rutvica Andrijasevic, Elke Auer, Evelyn Torton Beck, Maria Jose Belbel, Eva Blimlinger, Rosi Braidotti, Judith Butler, Yvonne P. Doderer, Eva Egermann, Sonja Eismann, Antke Engel, Olivera Erić, Nataša Govedić, Marina Gržinić, Encarnacion Gutierrez Rodriguez, Brigitte Halbmayr, H.arta group, Reni Hofmüller, Marty Huber, Rada Iveković, Biljana Kašić, Maria Klonaris and Katerina Thomadaki, Klub Zwei, Đurđa Knežević, Xiao Liyun, maiz, Katharina Miko, Suzana Milevska, Katharina Morawek, Zorica Mršević, Tanja Ostojić, Ana Peraica, Marta Popivoda, Rosa Reitsamer, Birgit Rommelspacher, Lisa Rosenblatt, Emily Roysdon, JD Samson, Karin Sardadvar, Johanna Schaffer, Basak Senova, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Esther Straganz, Zeynep Tul Akbal Süalp, Shirley Anne Tate, Trinh T. Minh-ha, James Pei-Mun Tsang, Nataša Velikonja, Azucena Vieites, Virginia Villaplana, Ana Vujanović.

New Feminism: Worlds of Feminism, Queer and Networking Conditions
"New Feminism is politics!"

This anthology presents and constructs a configuration of acting and fighting for New Feminism by feminists, lesbians and queers. What we are interested in is not only opening up this configuration to unknown histories, but also presenting new actors, agents and forces who do not talk only about unknown histories, but first and foremost re-articulate the very foundation of what the feminist movement is. In order to give new power to the movement, it was necessary not only to open up the history and present of feminism by introducing a certain break (implied by the word "new"), but also to enlarge the agendas of its emancipatory politics.

The point of departure of what should be conceptualized as New Feminism is the discussion on the most internal changes of feminism today, asking what are the conditions within global capitalism that inform and reshape its concepts, paradigms and statements in relation to labor, migration, capital and democracy. Claiming that a territory wider than just first world capitalism exists, and also that the geographical opening practiced by global capitalism is not enough, we ask for an urgent introduction into feminist theory and practice of questions, topics and agendas that react against wo/men trafficking, the forces of migration and bare lives, and reflect on possible new mode(l)s of their representation and articulation. New Feminism is a term that tries, firstly, to break the simple continuity in the feminist movement and, secondly, to re-engage new agencies and topics within the movement.

When we decided to work on this book, it was obvious that the history and present of feminism - in order to give a new future to the movement - must break with the one and only history of the movement developed in the First Capitalist World. New Feminism therefore presents itself through the constitution of a new conceptual genealogy of feminism with the conceptually radical and straightforwardly stubborn intent to develop a platform that includes marginalized but relevant histories, practices and theories that form and activate new political subjects.

If we are to establish a new genealogy, it has to be done outside the known pattern of translation from unknown territories to the well-known international arena, from unknown spaces into a known vocabulary. We decided to get rid of such a process, asking precisely those who already engage in their own spaces to formulate and reflect on this engagement, and to speak out. Even more, we asked them not to describe the state of things inside to those outside, giving just a "picture" of the territory, but rather to propose a politically engaged break with the one and only history and present of feminism. We asked them to question the already established mainstream history, vocabulary and signifying processes of feminism. The idea is to bring to the surface a process of erasure and to give to this new configuration a list, a "declaration" of very important signatures and positions, which should no longer be perceived as a geographical extravaganza, but instead as a clear re-politicization of the movement of feminism.

With this book we want to further encourage and enlarge a possible new social relationship of transnational networking that searches not only for a new representational politics, but also opens a new possibility for feminism as political act! In the world of global capitalism, where all we can do is to individualize a proper life, to think about a relationship in the form of a new network means politics. New Feminism is politics.

Marina Gržinić and Rosa Reitsamer

Read full text by Brigitte Rommelspacher