Anarchisms, Social Theory, and Runaway Methodologies of an Authoritarian Academic Establishment Hijacked by Bureaucracies and Productivism Indicators
Guest Editor:
Eduardo Restrepo
Universidad Católica de Temuco, Chile
eduardoa.restrepo@gmail.com
Amid the growing tensions affecting intellectual life in Latin America, anarchism has become an increasingly fertile ethical-political and epistemological horizon for thinking about social critique, imagining alternative ways of conducting research, and challenging the authoritarian logics that structure the academic field. It is not about a mere political set of principles or a militant identity, but a toolbox allowing to radically challenge epistemic authority, institutional hierarchies, and punishment devices informing our academic practices and our ways of knowing.
For this issue of Tabula Rasa, we are calling for articles inquiring into the contribution of anarchism to contemporary social theory, social science research methodologies, and knowledge production practices aiming to get away from academic authoritarian coordinates. We are particularly interested in exploring experiences, reflections, and debates on anarchism-based methodologies, horizontally-based collective forms of work, research methods practicing prefiguration, direct action or epistemic disobedience, as well as anarchism-based theoretical approaches challenging analytical hegemonic frameworks.
Rather than all-encompassing praise or mechanical dismissal, we are looking for contributions that elaborate critically on how anarchism allows imagining and practicing ways of intellectual life and knowledge production guided by autonomy, self-determination, radical equality, and willful cooperation. This is an invitation to reflect on how these ways to make theory and research disrupt the rationale of merit, representation, standardized assessment, centralizing knowledge, and institutional hijacking of critical thinking.
Especially, we are interested in thinking of anarchist avenues for social sciences from Latin America, acknowledging that many of these practices already exist without being necessarily named as anarchist but echoing anarchist principles and disobeying hegemonic forms of being a researcher, of writing, intervening, or teaching.
Some questions that may guide potential contributions include: Which social theory shifts are enabled from an anarchist approach? How are research methodologies informed that stay away from hierarchies, control protocols, authoritarian institutional frameworks, and disciplinary jingoisms? What situated, collective, and autonomous forms of knowledge production experiences are inspired —even if only tacitly— by anarchist principles and its prefigurative policy? How are conventional notions of authorship, expertise, and validation put at odds with anarchist practices in the intellectual field? What is to be gained and what is to be lost when taking an anarchist gamble on intellectual work, increasingly hijacked by anxieties drawn from academic bureaucracy, which are subservient to reproducing the geopolitics of knowledge?
We expect articles that are the outcome of research, theoretical articles, and methodological experiences exploring these issues in Latin American settings and on concrete paths of nonsubmissive research or thinking.
For further information or to submit your final manuscripts complete with an abstract (in English or Spanish), please reach out to: eduardoa.restrepo@gmail.com
Manuscripts will be received up to December 10, 2025.
Submissions may be written in Spanish, Portuguese, or English language, including an abstract not exceeding 150 words. Contributions will undergo double-blind peer review.
Submissions must have not been previously published and comply with Tabula Rasa’s guidelines.
