Rebecca Warren, Northumbria University

Anne Steinhoff, University of Essex

Jeremy Morales, University of Bristol

Susan O'Leary, University of London

Ileana Steccolini, University of Essex

This special issue examines accountability as a mechanism for enabling social change and democratic participation across multiple levels of organization. Rather than reinforcing conventional accountability frameworks, the editors seek to reimagine how accountability practices can support collective, citizen-led initiatives and challenge existing power structures through dialogic, decolonial, feminist, and environmental approaches.

The call welcomes diverse submission formats beyond traditional research articles, including methodological reflections on participatory research, practice notes developed with activists and practitioners, and experimental visual presentations. Contributions should engage with transformative accountability as a situated, relational process that attends to lived experiences and examines transformation from local community practices to large-scale systemic change.

Appel publié par Financial Accountability and Management. Voir l'appel sur le site de l'éditeur. Fiche de l'appel sur kerostig.

Potential topics

• Conceptualising transformative accountability: beyond compliance with traditional practices and the critique of alternatives - what makes accountability transformative?
• Accountability beyond a principal-agent focus: mutual, collective and relational forms, where stakeholders have assumed accountability and created shared stewardship
• Engaging in citizens-led accountability, including, for example community organising and social movements such as campaigns, coalitions and assemblies as sites of transformative accountability
• Prefiguration and the struggle for transformation: How do alternative accountability practices engage in prefigurative practices and politics?
• Relational accountability as transformative: How do dialogic and participatory practices foster transformative accountability?
• Methodologies for engaged, messy research: including approaches to an ethics of care, positionality, co-production in research and navigating risk and harm in such research
• Explorations of how disclosures are interpreted, mobilised or re-appropriated by communities and movements
• Different levels and scales of transformation, from the individual to the systematic or structural and the mechanisms that enable transformative accountability at different levels
• Decolonial, feminist and environmental perspectives that challenge coloniality and neoliberal logics in accountability
• Pedagogies of transformative accountability and transformative learning
• Consequences and limits: when transformative accountability backfires or become performative
• Academic engagement: How can researchers move beyond critique to co-creation of transformative accountability practices? Explorations of the ways that we as academics can engage in impactful and transformative forms of accountability

Timeline

• July 30, 2027: Submission Deadline

Ricardo Costa-Climent, University of Valencia

Steve D'Alessandro, Edith Cowan University

By centring mechanisms (identity, norms, trust/fairness, agency, and risk–value trade-offs), this special issue aims to explain when and why new ways of doing business achieve social impact through consumer behaviour, and how organisations can design enduring, equitable, and scalable change.

Appel publié par Journal of Consumer Behaviour. Voir l'appel sur le site de l'éditeur. Fiche de l'appel sur kerostig.

Potential topics

• Identity mechanisms in business innovation
• Norms and their role in social change
• Trust and fairness in organizational design
• Agency in consumer behavior and social impact
• Risk-value trade-offs in business models
• Consumer behavior and social impact achievement
• Design of enduring and equitable organizational change
• Scalable business models for social change

Timeline

• February 15, 2026: Submission window opens
• September 15, 2026: Submission deadline

Antonella Cammarota, International University of Monaco

Jessica Vredenburg, Auckland University of Technology

Benjamin Rosenthal, Getulio Vargas Foundation

Brand activism has evolved into a mainstream corporate practice where companies and executives publicly engage with controversial socio-political issues. While existing literature has explored authenticity, ideology, and corporate strategies in brand activism, there remains a significant gap regarding its broader social and transformative impacts. The phenomenon has expanded across diverse contexts including non-profits, universities, CEOs, and consumers, and is studied in B2B markets, the luxury sector, and globally.

Recent developments suggest that brand activism is undergoing significant transformation. Since late 2024, many major corporations have withdrawn from diversity and inclusion commitments, scaled back activist visibility on social media, and reduced socio-political content. This shift, driven by rising populism, geopolitical conflicts, and societal polarisation, highlights a critical disconnect between existing theoretical frameworks and evolving real-world practices that scholars struggle to capture adequately.

Appel publié par Journal of Marketing Management. Lire l'appel complet sur le site de l'éditeur. Fiche de l'appel sur kerostig.

Potential topics

• Changes in Brand Activism Strategies – Is brand activism taking a new form? Are we witnessing the rise of less visible, more strategic, or quieter modes of activism? How do activist brands act in the current landscape?
• Emerging Brand Activist Contexts – How, and to what extent, does brand activism manifest across different political, cultural, and geographical contexts? Particular attention is invited to the Global South and emerging markets, where civil liberties, media pluralism, or legal protections for civil rights may be limited or contested.
• Institutional Actors as Activist Agents – What happens when universities, public institutions, public figures, or cultural organisations engage in activist practices? How do these actors influence public discourse, shape political debate, or redefine the boundaries of market responsibility?
• The Transformative Effect of Brand Activism – Can marketing-driven activism lead to lasting social change, or is it ultimately limited to symbolic gestures and market-oriented performance goals?
• International and Transnational Dimensions of Activism – How does activism unfold across national borders, global supply chains, and international institutions? What new conditions arise when brand activism is framed as a systemic, transnational commitment?
• Backlash, Culture War, and Polarisation – How brand activism is affected when social and institutional risks emerge, corporate activism provokes ideological resistance, public fatigue, or consumer boycotts? How has the context of rising populism affected the conditions for brand activism?
• Consumer Activism and Spaces of Expression – Has consumer activism changed? If so, how do activist consumers influence brand strategies, communication, and positioning? How do new forms of digital and/or offline spaces affect how consumer activists express their demands, critiques, or support? Are there changes in the relationships between brands and consumer activists?
• Authenticity and Consumer Activism - How can we critically differentiate between authentic brand activism and opportunistic appropriation of activist discourse? Have consumers' understandings of authentic brand activism changed amid current shifts in the sociocultural context?
• Artificial Intelligence and Activist Contents – How is artificial intelligence transforming the creation, personalisation, and dissemination of activist messages? What ethical, moral, and authenticity-related concerns arise when activism is mediated by machine-created content?
• Shifting Channels of Activist Communication – To what extent has sociopolitical pressure prompted a shift in activist communication from open, accessible platforms - such as social media - to more niche, closed (not public) or offline spaces? What are the implications of this relocation of activism visibility and audience engagement regarding brand activism practices and social impact?
• Activism and the Depoliticisation of Society – What are the potential connections between brand activism and the depoliticisation of society? Does brand activism foster genuine political engagement and collective mobilisation, or does it risk causing activism fatigue, depoliticising conflict and reinforcing dominant ideologies? How can we critically assess the boundaries between symbolic engagement and meaningful transformation?
• Measuring Systemic Impact – How can we assess the broader societal effects of brand activism beyond corporate performance indicators or consumer responses? What critical or participatory methodologies are needed to evaluate systemic change?

Timeline

• September 30, 2026: Manuscript deadline