The eleventh issue of the Italian journal «Snodi. Pubblici e privati nella storia contemporanea» will be devoted to technologies in daily life.

Through this expression we aim to promote a reflection on the circulation and consumption of the scientific and technological objects that in the last two centuries profoundly changed the physical, social and mental spaces - both the public and the private ones - as well as the habits, needs, desires and tastes for millions of men and women, in every part of the globe.

We are open to a variety of approaches on the topic, from global history to specific case studies; the issue encourages reflections on the ways and occasions in which artifacts, instruments and devices that were generated by the technological and scientific progress rooted themselves in politics, work, entertainment and private life, becoming a key element of the definition of new cultural paradigms, identities, memories, practices and social relations for groups and individuals.

We are interested in the technological object - the means of transportation as well as the communication/registration device, the domestic appliance as well as the surgical prosthesis or the scientific instrument - first and foremost in its cultural meaning: as a factor of change and assertion of new cognitive and aesthetic standards and social habits; as the object of identitarian, emotional or economical investments (by the users as well as by the producers) and as the place in which the subjectivity meets the market; as a breeding ground of the imagination (in literature, movies and art); and as potential means of definition of new political, social, ethnic, generational and gender boundaries. Contributors are invited to send: 

• For the section Writing: a half page abstract for an article in either Italian or English of roughly 20 pages (40.000 characters spaces included).
• For the section Sources of the self/Sources of the us: a half page abstract for an article in either Italian or English of roughly 10 pages (20.000 characters spaces included, and including the sources when relevant), which analyse the methodological problems of the sources utilised in the study of this theme, exploring their peculiarity, construction and re-elaboration in an already conducted enquiry.

Proposals should be sent to snodi.pubbliciprivati@gmail.com, with a short biographical note and a short list of the author’s principal publications.

The authors of articles in English, when English is not their first language, should have their text already proofread by a mother tongue reader before sending it. The articles for the section Writing are subject to peer review.

Dates:

• Deadline: 30 June 2012
• Proposals will be selected by 15 July 2012
• The issue will be published in spring 2013

Editorial board :

• Giulia Albanese
• Margherita Angelini
• Enrica Asquer
• Claudia Baldoli
• Tommaso Baris
• Alessandro Casellato
• Alessio Gagliardi
• Simon Levis Sullam
• Erika Lorenzon
• Federico Mazzini
• Alessio Petrizzo
• Giovanni Sbordone
• Simona Troilo
• Gilda Zazzara.