Bristol University Digital Press has two open calls. The convernors seek contributions to the special collection Revolutionary Constitutionalism: Constitutionalism from below and for the next world system and abstracts for a call for Approaches to Global Social Challenges by Early Career Researchers in the Global South and Diasporas.
Abstract submission deadline: 20 December 2024
Guest edited by Carys Hughes (University of East London, U.K.) and Ben Manski (George Mason University, U.S.).
This Special Collection will advance an emergent field of scholarly research, which is coalescing around the concept of “revolutionary constitutionalism”, understood as the participatory practices of a social movement in deliberating, articulating, and constituting a new social order. This field of inquiry is in part a response to our current conjuncture and the failures of existing systems to address the multiple, intensifying and interconnected crises we face. Where the global social movement of the turn of the millennium declared ‘another world is possible’, scholarship on revolutionary constitutionalism examines both the sources as well as the emerging institutional contours and systemic designs of this other possible world.
Constitutions and constitution-making processes have often been understood as a province of technocrats and elites, removed from real-world struggles of the great multitudes of the world’s peoples. The articles in this collection will counter this persistent bias, drawing on scholarly studies of popular constitutionalism, revolutionary constitutionalism, the sociology of constitutions, prefigurative legalities, radical governance, systemic movements, and next system design to show the power and the relevance of constitutional politics in wider struggles for democracy, justice and ecological sustainability.
Submissions should address at least some aspects of the following questions:
- What can be learned from movements from below that seek to systematically reorder the relationships between human beings, communities, institutions, the state, ecosystems, and the world system?
- What are their constitutional designs for the next world system or its subsystems?
- How do they develop them, articulate them, mobilise for them, establish them, enact them, practice them, and/or defend them?
We seek contributions from community-based scholar activists, as well as those in the academy.
We are particularly seeking contributions from writers based in and writing from perspectives of the Global South, though we also welcome contributions from scholars of all regions, who are grappling with these questions.
This Special Collection is a project of a new International Research Collaborative on Revolutionary Constitutionalism, supported by Next System Studies at George Mason University.
Submission instructions and deadlines
Interested authors should send a 250-word abstract to Special Collection Editors Dr Carys Hughes (
Approaches to Global Social Challenges by Early Career Researchers in the Global South and Diasporas: An open call for abstracts
Global Social Challenges Journal is a not-for-profit, open access journal with a mission to address urgent global social issues through interdisciplinary research. We invite Early Career Researchers (who we define as either prior to or within three years of completing PhD studies) from the Global South and diasporas to propose either full length articles (up to 8500 words excluding references) or ’interventions’ addressing any contemporary global social challenge. ‘Interventions’ are our shorter (3500 word) format, offering lively and timely interjections on a particular global challenge. They are written in highly accessible language, engaging practically and intellectually beyond a narrowly conceived academy, and often include a call for action. They fall into three categories: policy and practice, provocations and debates. Learn more about interventions.
We publish on sixteen main challenges, but we encourage scholars to propose fresh formulations if they wish. The challenges are:
- Cities and communities
- Climate change, energy and sustainability
- Conflict, security and peace
- Democracy, power and governance
- Education and Learning
- Equity, diversity and inclusion
- The future of work, finance and the economy
- Health and wellbeing
- Hunger, food, water and shelter
- Interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches
- Justice, law and human rights
- Life stages and intergenerationality
- Migration, mobilities and movement
- Poverty, inequality and social justice
- Society, culture and arts
- Technology, data and society
We will be looking for a clear sense of the global social challenge, its location within a broader scholarly literature, and an attempt to engage plausible ways ahead to address the challenge meaningfully.
We are particularly receptive to submissions from a new generation of Early Career Researchers located in the global South (or in diasporas) to address a specific global social challenge from their distinct vantage point. The intent is to stimulate further reflection on how social scientists identify contemporary global social challenges as well as process them. We remain particularly curious to learn more about how context (historical, cultural, political and economic) may have a direct bearing on what we deem significant, and on how we perceive and attempt to resolve these challenges. The journal is based in the social sciences, while engaging with research from all disciplines: we will not privilege any specific disciplinary persuasion, but encourage interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary perspectives.
We invite Early Career Researchers to submit a short (250 word max) abstract outlining the scope and argument of their proposed paper, and some supplementary information about the submission. Download the supplementary information form. The abstract and the accompanying form should be emailed to the Managing Editor, Sarah Bird, at
The Editors in Chief will nominate a member of the editorial team to provide ongoing mentoring to the author as they write up their paper.
Please note that all papers will then be subject to double anonymous peer review, and will only be accepted for publication if they meet the quality standards of the journal. No Article Processing Charges are payable. This is an open call for abstracts with no fixed timetable.
From 2025, Global Social Challenges Journal will institute two awards for the best annual research article and intervention from an Early Career Researcher in the Global South and diasporas – all papers submitted will be considered for this award.