Vol. 7 No. 2 (2025): The Perils of a Politics of Neutrality

As a caring profession, nursing enjoys a great deal of public trust, positive regard, and maternal affection. This is extremely useful politically and also serves as a technique of discipline, pointing to the politically-charged character of nursing.  This call for papers is intended to explore the politics of nursing, specifically interrogating the risks of remaining silent or neutral in the context of larger political and social upheaval. From nurses being mobilized as victimized heroes in pandemic times to nursing organizations deferring engagement with critiques of capitalism, militarism, cisheteropatriarchy, ableism, and nationalism, with this call we strive to make visible the stakes of politics in nursing and understand the politics of neutrality as itself a politics with implicit and explicit consequences.