Ideas into movement
Boost TNI's work
50 years. Hundreds of social struggles. Countless ideas turned into movement.
Support us as we celebrate our 50th anniversary in 2024.
The Transnational Institute (TNI) in the Netherlands is issuing an open call for essays, accessible papers, infographics and artistic collaborations for its forthcoming State of Power report launched in late January 2020 to coincide with the World Economic Forum in Davos. The focus for our ninth annual edition is on 'The Corporation'.
TNI’s annual State of Power reports have, since their launch in 2012, become a must-see reference point for citizens, activists and academics concerned with understanding the nature of power in our globalised world in order to inform struggles for justice. With a mixture of compelling infographics and insightful essays, State of Power has examined dimensions of power (economic, political, social), exposed the key players who control power, and highlighted movements of counter-power seeking to transform our world. Recent State of Power reports have been widely praised for their inspiring essays and brilliant art.
The CorporationCorporations today have become the defining actor of capitalism. With more money than most governments, entrenched at every level of political power, treated legally as people and entities with rights, involved in ever more provision of social services, their power seems insurmountable. Their success, in other words their profits, has become the indicator of whether an economy or society is succeeding. Their brands on, in or around our bodies are a reflection as to whether we as individuals are perceived as successful.
On one level, this is no surprise. The giant corporations of today are immensely impressive entities: capable of managing highly complex global supply chains, delivering readily-available products sought after by millions, constantly adapting and responding to social changes, and in every continent succeeding in winning political and often social support for their role. They have become truly hegemonic.
Yet legally this Leviathan has no ethical or social purpose beyond profits, and many corporations are destroying the very planet we live on. It has been described by psychologists as an entity with a pathology of a psychopath.
The corporate form has long roots, dating back to the colonial era when modern day corporations were first established. But it is also a constantly mutating entity too. The old corporations’ rise depended on exploitation of labour and nature and the support of a colonizing power. Under neoliberalism, corporations thrive on their capacity to globalise operations to minimise costs and maximise returns. Now with recent technological shifts some of today’s giant corporations don’t even technically employ most workers; others seek to turn the activities and data of their customers and users into value for themselves; others such as hedge funds exist merely to capitalize on other businesses’, individuals’ and states’ need for cash flow. Corporations have meanwhile have become ever more complex legally as they seek to evade taxes and escape liability for their operations – and frequent human rights violations - creating a culture of impunity and obfuscation. The rising economic power of state-owned corporations is also changing the dynamic and relations between corporations and states. The traditional popular understanding of the corporation as a privately-owned factory producing goods with CEO, managers and workers seems ever less true, at least in the Global North.
Yet the impunity and accumulation of ever more power by more corporations does create its own backlash, with politicians today across the political spectrum forced to respond to popular demands to rein in corporate power. Affected communities, social and labour movements are finding new ways to mobilise and organise to challenge corporate power – seeking to break up corporate monopolies, to revive the public sector, to introduce new national and international laws to hold corporations liable for their operations, to explore new participatory democratic models of business. Will these movements effectively challenge or change the corporation? Will states adopt, and courts enforce, such new laws? How will corporations respond? What can we strategically do to defeat corporate power?
A lot has been written about corporations – including by Transnational Institute - so we are particularly interested in proposals that explore little-understood areas or approach the issues in creative ways that help deepen understanding and improve social movement strategies. We believe it is critical to have a deep, clear and up-to-date analysis of corporations if we are to successfully confront them. We are therefore keen for reflections on corporations from different disciplinary fields in order to create as rounded a picture of the modern corporation as possible. We are also interested in producing some infographics or artwork that help penetrate the power of the corporation and our own power to take back control.
Our ultimate goal is not analysis for its own sake but rather to empower activists and movements to more successfully challenge, confront and overcome corporate power and impunity.
These are some questions – but by no means an exclusive list – that we are interested in exploring:
What is corporate power exactly, and what forms does it take? Which are the the most powerful corporations today and why? How has this changed and why and how is this likely to change in the future?
As well as analysis, TNI would also be interested in specific case-studies that draw out general lessons as well as stories and artwork and films that help us understand the corporation in creative and imaginative ways.
We welcome a wide range of perspectives and analysis on the broad theme, however TNI does appreciate submissions that relate to areas we most closely work on such as corporate impunity, drug reform, trade and investment policies, land, agrarian and environmental justice, resource grabbing, public services, war and pacification, social movements and counter-power (see https://www.tni.org/en/programmes)
TNI has a small number of grants of 250-500 euros – to be prioritized for activists with low-incomes and those working on these topics in the Global South. Please mention in your submission if you wish to apply for this grant which will be awarded if your essay is published in the main report.
Our goal ultimately is to provide accessible analysis that can be read and used by a broad range of activists and social movements that will help movements confront entrenched power and injustice. TNI produces its essays in the format of a long-read, illustrated by international artists. We also try to syndicate the pieces to other online magazines to maximise readership. We are therefore looking for pieces written as journalistic long-reads that make information accessible and that can be pitched to other media.
In 2020, we also plan to accompany the essays with a podcast or two for our State of Power series, providing a new way for our audience to engage with the ideas in the essays.
For both essays and podcasts, the following are important for communication:
• stories
• concrete examples
• metaphors
• journalistic techniques
We also welcome suggestions of photos, videos, artwork, songs and other ways to illustrate essays. You can see examples of this here. We discourage the overuse of academic jargon literature analysis and academic debates that mean little to the public.
While essays are the main focus of the report, TNI is also open to proposals for artistic explorations that examine the same themes that could accompany and complement the essays. The process will be different for these, so please just email stateofpower AT tni.org with any proposals or suggestions.
While TNI is proud of our high standard of scholarship, this call does not require any specific academic qualifications. Contributors to earlier editions of State of Power have included students, professors, journalists, activists and artists - all at different stages of their careers and lives. TNI particularly welcomes submissions by women, young scholars/artists and people based in the Global South.
ProcessThe final report will be made up of a mixture of essays from this open call and a number of pre-commissioned essays, which will also be packaged into a number of podcasts. We have designed a process to feature what we consider the best essays in the main report. The decision on which papers are featured will be decided by an Editorial Panel made up of the Director and the editors of the report. The selection process will follow three stages:
1. In the first stage, researchers will be asked to send in a
a) pitch for your long-read essay
b) a short bio and
c) some links to previous work. It will help your application if your previous work is not just limited to academic texts but includes some more accessible journalistic pieces.
Pitches should include:
• the main argument you are trying to make
• the key points you would include
• stories or examples that illustrate it
The pitch can be based on existing papers or be provisional ideas of what you hope to explore. If you would like to apply for the grant – available to low-income participants – please indicate this at this stage.
2. Those whose pitches are chosen will be asked to submit an essay. The top 3-4 essays will be selected for the report by the Editorial Panel.
3. The selected essays will go through a final round of revisions based on feedback by the Editorial Panel, and subject to final copyedit.
4. Essays that do not make the top eight – and are considered good essays by the Editorial Panel - will be available as downloadable PDFs linked from the main report. Grants unfortunately won’t be available though for these essays that don’t appear in the main report.
Instructions for submissionPitches must be emailed to stateofpower AT tni.org by 17 July 2019. Full draft essays will be due on 22 October. Approved final essays will go through a process of review and editing until the final version is approved on 4 December.
17 July Submission of pitches
23 July Pitches approved for submission of full essay
22 October Submission of full essay
30 October Decision on whether essay to be approved for final report or published as PDF
November Review, second draft, final copyedits
Mid Nov Podcast recording
14-18 January Publication of essays