Call for Book Chapters: "Public discourses on French nationals living outside French national borders. (Mis-)perceptions from host societies"

Vernon Press invites chapter proposals for contributions in the volume on “Public discourses on French nationals living outside French national borders. (Mis-)perceptions from host societies". The volume will be edited by Dr Sylvain Beck (Institut Convergences Migrations, Paris, France) and Dr Benedicte Brahic (Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK).
 

About the volume: 

With the number of French nationals living abroad/outside French national borders increasing steadily every year over the past decade, French emigration is a growing phenomenon with a long, tumultuous past. Interestingly, despite its difficult history and its current growth, this phenomenon has hitherto received limited scholastic attention. 

Meanwhile, as French emigration diversifies and as socio-economic and geopolitical events unfold, French nationals living abroad/outside French national borders come to feature in everyday language and public discourses in an expanding range of ways. Yet their widespread designation as ‘expatriates’ and the muted legitimization of social distinction and privilege in mobility derived from a history of international and racial relations shaped by colonial domination still requires critical examination. 

Taking French emigration as its object of study, this edited volume focuses on public discourses on French nationals living outside French national borders. The aim of this edited volume is to bring together and showcase the range and diversity of public discourses engagements with French nationals living abroad/outside French national borders to further current understandings of their interplay with migration/expatriation categories and challenge existing migration/mobilities paradigms.

About the call for chapter proposals: 

Editors calls for grounded, empirical as well as theoretical contributions which explore perceptions and misperceptions of French nationals in a range of (local) public discourses ‘consumed’ in their chosen setting(s) (country, region, city, neighbourhood). Contributions focusing on former recent or old colonies are welcome, like former Acadia, Louisiana, French -speaking (Algeria, Madagascar, Morocco, Senegal, Mali, Niger) and non-French speaking (Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam), Middle-Eastern regions but also from more recent French emigration frontiers (Australia, Brazil, China, Japan, USA, New-Zealand), European countries (neighbouring countries such as Andorra, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Monaco, Spain, Switzerland and other as well as the UK). 

Supporting an interdisciplinary approach, volume editors welcome contributions from emergent and established scholars and practitioners from a range of disciplines and practice fields. 

This call aims to collect proposals setting out to explore – but are not restricted to - the following questions:

• In what contexts/situations are French nationals living abroad/outside French national borders identified as ‘immigrant’ or ‘expatriates’ by local public discourses ? 
• What subcategories (lifestyle migrants, amenity migration, expatriates in multinational companies or self-initiated expatriates, etc…) feature/are identifiable in public discourses ?
• Are there class, gender and race differences, according to bi-national status, marital status, legal status, age, length of settlement/type of settlement, intergenerational transmission and family history, employment? 
• To what extent and in what situations are political project/framework such cosmopolitanism or colonialism mobilised/referred to?
• To what extent are French living abroad/outside French national borders visible or invisible in public spaces and public discourses ? How, why, and when? 
• To what extent and how are historical and/or contemporary representations in public discourses informed by local contexts, socio-histories, attitudes of French communities?
• Can similarities and differences with other Europeans or Westerners be observed? 
• How are perceptions and public discourses on French living abroad/outside French national borders aligning or/ competing in specific locations, across locations, across different media and genres?
• How are physical locations/geographical realities (capital cities, large cities, towns or rural settings) and/or distance with France national territories/borders shaping perceptions/misperceptions? What is the significance of the local presence/absence/relocation of French institutions/organisations (e.g.: language, cultural, economic and/or diplomatic) in shaping public discourses on French emigration?

In this edited volume, the term ‘public discourses’ is understood in its broadest sense. It refers – but is not limited – to: 

• political discourses and public reports and communications
• media (traditional, digital, commercial, collaborative, social) and fora
• everyday life interactions/ discussions
• administrative and legal documents and practices
• public representation, diplomacy and images of France
• toponymy, naming and renaming of localities/places, place-making
• architectural, cultural, literary, symbolic heritage
• literature, poetry, film and visual artefacts, exhibitions.

Chapter proposal submission

Prospective authors are kindly requested to submit their chapter proposal by December 15, 2024  (including a 300-word abstract, a short biography, and up to 5 keywords). Each proposal should provide a concise abstract outlining the main themes, methods, and objectives of the chapter. 

Please send your chapter proposal to the volume editors, Dr. Sylvain Beck and Dr Bénédicte Brahic (volume editors) at sylvain_beck@yahoo.fr  and b.brahic@mmu.ac.uk 

Final book chapters must be between 5,000-7,000 words.

All submissions must be also original contributions and may not be under consideration for possible publication elsewhere. 

The proposed deadlines are as follows:

• Deadline for abstracts submission: December 15, 2024.
• Acceptance of abstracts: January 30, 2025
• Full chapter submission: June 30, 2025

For more information about this book project, please feel free to contact the volume editors. We look forward to receiving your submission!