CFP: LUXURY

LUXURY: Call for Papers

LUXURY: History Culture Consumption will be the first truly interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed, academic journal devoted to luxury, and will satisfy the demand for scholarly, unbiased and penetrating thinking on the subject. The journal will consider luxury in broad socio-cultural contexts, exploring and interrogating both our historical and contemporary understanding of the term.
Within the context of the contemporary global economic recession our consumption of luxury is being questioned and indeed transformed, notions of ‘affordable luxury’, ‘sustainable luxury’ and even ‘luxury for less’ suggest a new discourse, which this journal will provide a challenging and exciting forum for. And yet the demand for luxury goods and services on a global scale is at an unprecedented level, to that end LUXURY will examine all aspects of luxury; its historical formation and understanding, its contemporary global political and economic function, alongside an exploration of how the concept of luxury remains an impetus for design, popular culture, literature and fine art.
The journal will embrace serious, thought provoking investigations spanning the Medieval concept of luxus and luxuria, implying excess, to contemporary concepts of ‘minimal luxury’, implying restraint, and not unlike the Renaissance wunderkammer will display a diverse array of texts that will articulate a new understanding of the term. Topics will range in chronology from Classical Greece and Rome, through the Medieval, early Modern and 18thcentury manifestations of luxury, to the contemporary luxury landscape, and will interrogate what luxury means within a broad range of contexts including, the luxury goods industries (automotive, culinary, tourism, accessories and so on), alongside the growing body of critical material arising from the study of brand management, marketing, advertising and those investigating the spaces of consumption. The networks of luxury, its production, sale, transformation, reproduction and dissemination will also be a vital topic that will be addressed both historically and in its contemporary manifestations. Similarly the relationship between luxury and class, gender and desire will be a consideration underpinning many of the arguments raised by the featured articles.

LUXURY welcomes proposals from scholars, writers, practitioners and historians working directly within the remit of luxury as well as those from disciplines such as geography, anthropology, sociology, gender studies, literary theory, cultural anthropology, economics and design studies for example. Contributions from those working in areas previously regarded as remote from considerations of luxury, but who recognise the importance of the subject to contemporary society, and who wish to join an international forum of thinkers eager to explore this increasingly contested subject will be especially welcome.

Articles should be between 5,000 and 7,000 words in length.
Initially, please submit an abstract of between 300-500 words, accompanied by a C.V. to Dr. Jonathan Faiers (j.faiers@soton.ac.uk). If you would like your article to be included in the first volume of LUXURY then abstracts should be submitted no later than 15 May 2013. Full manuscripts would need to be submitted no later than 30 June 2013.