Special Issue of Discover Society (Web), May 2017; Guest Editors: Sara deJong and Jacqui Gabb

Proposals by: 1st December 2016

Crisis rhetoric and practice is all around us, whether pertaining to the current migration flows or to the global financial meltdown. This Discover Society issue will address the topic of ‚Relationships and Families across Crises‘ by focussing on the ways in which families and relationships are created, sustained, challenged, and disrupted against the backdrop of social and political crises. It thereby shifts away from approaches that consider relationships (however conceived) as being ‚in crisis‘ and concentrates instead on crisis as a backdrop for relationships. In other words, it collects contributions to the question of how changing material and ideological conditions inaugurated by the different crises impact on families and relationships in Europe and how families and intimate relationships have responded to crises.

Possible topics and questions to address include:

• Which relationships are sanctioned by family reunification policies in migration regimes?

• How have alternative forms of financial exchange, such as bartering, influenced intimate relationships?
• Which new spaces have been opened up or closed for queering relationships by the respective crises?
• Which new political relationships and kinships have formed in response to the crisis?

This Special Issue will be produced in association with a new centre for research excellence, Citizenship and Governance Research at The Open University.

Deadlines and Timeline Publication: 1st December 2016: Submission of abstracts (max. 250 words) to guest editors Jacqui Gabb and Sara de Jong 16th December 2016: Notification of acceptance 13th February 2017: Deadline first version contribution 27th March 2017: Deadline revised version contribution 3rd May 2017: Publication

Expressions of interest
For the Special Issue of Discover Society we especially welcome contributions that combine empirical research and critical theory, and those that emerge from activism and/or community engagement including voices beyond academia. To facilitate our planning, please indicate if you see your contribution as a ’scholarly point of view‘ (without being based on specific research) or more political or practice based.

Guest Editors
Dr Sara deJong, Professor Jacqui Gabb
Research Fellow, Chair of Sociology and Intimacy
Faculty of Social Sciences ,Faculty of Social Sciences
The Open University, The Open University

To register your interest, send us an abstract for your proposed paper (250 words) to: Sara.deJong@open.ac.uk

Guidance for contributors
For the latest issue of Discover Society, see: http://discoversociety.org/
Detailed guidelines for contributors can be found at: http://discoversociety.org/contribute/
The target audience for Discover Society is the informed, interested general reader, rather than a subject specialist – so contributors should avoid writing in the style of journals, and instead write as far as possible in an engaging, accessible way.
The final word limit for contributions is 1500 words. Use single-spaced 12-point Calibri and list any references at the end. Keep references to a minimum.
Each article will be disseminated to the over 10k followers of Discover Society on a regular basis in the month of the issue your article is published, as well as subsequently. It is also tweeted & retweeted by the Social Policy Association and the British Sociological Association and countless others.

Source: Genus@genus.gu.se