“Let me tell you something. There’s no nobility in poverty. I’ve been a poor man, and I’ve been a rich man. And I choose rich every time” – Leonardo DeCaprio as Jordan Belfort, The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

49th Parallel is delighted to announce an upcoming special issue devoted to the theme of economic inequality and North American identity. Seven years on from the start of the Great Recession, North America remains racked with problems of poor job opportunities, financial sector profligacy, and the ever growing disparity between the mega-rich and the destitute. Occupy movements, government shutdowns and striking fast food workers signal the continued economic tumult of Obama’s U.S. Meanwhile Canada may have exited the downturn less scathed than others, but its recovery remains fragile in the face of disappointing prospects for growth. Amidst the macro-noise of economic stress, it is perhaps tempting to forget the micro-level ramifications for ordinary North Americans, who experience financial inequality not as abstract data, but as concrete fact. With these issues in mind, the editors ask: how has the recession influenced American and Canadian cultural production? Is financial hardship more visible than before in North America – or more anaesthetized? How does income inequality interact with ethnic, racial, sexual, and gender experience, whether in 2014 or 1773?

This Call for Submissions arises out of the conference ‘Money Talks: Inequality and North American Identity’, held by 49th Parallel at University of Nottingham on Friday 19th June, 2015, but is open to all. Topics for submissions may include, but are not limited to:

◾Economic inequality in literature, film, and popular culture
◾‘Capitalist Realism’ and Neoliberal Hegemony
◾Austerity cultures in a North American context
◾Identity (sexual, national, racial, etc.) and economic experience
◾Economic inequality throughout North American history
◾Financialization and the entrepreneurial subject
◾Populism and economics (Occupy, the Tea Party, etc.)
◾Labor, strikes, and worker’s movements
◾‘Ruin porn’ and representations of urban decay

Articles should be between 6000-8000 words and adhere to Chicago Manual of Style referencing. For full submission guidelines, please see the Submissions page on the 49th Parallel website.The deadline is 1st July 2015. Please submit articles and direct any enquiries to editors@49thparalleljournal.org.