Call for submissions: Underground

From resistance movements to the earth beneath our feet

For the Spring 2026 issue of Tractor Beam, we look to the underground—both literally and conceptually.

From centuries-old struggles over the commons under feudalism to more recent farmworker movements, the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Zapatistas, cultural movements often start with land and access. They are built by people with their hands in the earth. In that sense, underground isn’t just a metaphor—it’s material. New worlds emerge from below. Underground is where power, opposition, and survival take root.

In agriculture, to turn against the underground is an ecological crisis; till the soil, destroy what is beneath, undermine long-term growth. Rotavators, machines with rotating blades or tines that break up soil, mix in amendments, and aerate beds, are common in some large-scale commercial farms because they temporarily break down soil, making it easier to force new crops in. But the soil degrades. Like ideologies, soil draws its richness, movement, and life not from the surface but deep below, where strength gathers with stability and time.

In an era that often mistakes upheaval for resistance, Tractor Beam is looking for critical perspectives on what’s happening beneath our feet. We’re interested in subterranean narratives that explore radical approaches to farming, land use, and stewardship, and new visions of cultivating radicalism. Could the underground rise to the surface? Are there blueprints buried below?

What grows from soil that resists the plow?