Intimate relationships have undergone significant transformations globally, with relationship ideals and forms becoming increasingly diverse across commitment types, duration, and organization. This special issue aims to advance knowledge production by promoting observational rather than normative approaches to intimacies, encouraging data-driven scholarship that moves beyond polarized public debates about relationships.

The issue revitalizes Luhmann's systems theory approach to intimate relationships and love as communication media in modern societies. It invites scholars to apply systems-theoretical concepts to examine contemporary transformations of intimate life across different sociocultural contexts, bridging gaps between geographically or culturally isolated scholarly conversations.

Contributions may adopt two perspectives: analyzing intimate systems through systems theory concepts and examining how other social systems (law, politics, media, education) observe and shape intimacies. The special issue welcomes diverse empirical work grounded in theoretical frameworks, particularly from varied sociocultural environments.

Appel publié par Kybernetes. Voir l'appel sur le site de l'éditeur. Fiche de l'appel sur kerostig.

Potential topics

• Social systems theory
• Sociology of intimacy
• Sexualities
• Gender
• Social semantics
• Applications of Luhmann's systems theory to intimate relationships
• Semantic and social evolution of intimate relationships
• Programs and semantic repertoires for intimacy across historical and cultural contexts
• Intimacy reproduction through self-reference and communicative improbability
• Platforms, markets, and mobilities reconfiguring intimate communication
• Expectations stabilization under volatility and dealing with disappointment
• Legal categories and their observation of intimate possibilities
• Media and platform logics observing relationship norms
• Moral and political discourses on specific intimacies
• Political mobilization of intimacy and family values
• Queer intimacies and inclusion/exclusion effects

Timeline

• April 15, 2026: Deadline for abstracts
• April 30, 2026: Authors will be notified of acceptance and invited to submit a full paper
• October 15, 2026: Deadline for submission of full papers

Freeden Blume Oeur, Tufts University

Fiona Greenland, University of Virginia

This special issue addresses propaganda as a contemporary social problem requiring updated sociological research. While propaganda shaped public opinion during the imperial era through the Cold War, modern contexts present new challenges: AI-generated content blurs reality, traditional and digital media proliferate messaging, and state and non-state actors compete to control information. The issue seeks research examining how propaganda operates today, the technologies and techniques it employs, and the power structures it reinforces or challenges.

The special issue welcomes empirical, historical, and theoretical contributions from all sociological subfields and methodologies examining propaganda globally. Research should explore the actors behind propaganda, those targeted by it, resistance efforts, and how propaganda intersects with broader social phenomena like authoritarianism, censorship, and polarization. The aim is to establish social scientific research directions on propaganda for the coming decades.

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

Potential topics

• How modern propaganda operates and its social consequences
• How propaganda campaigns reveal power dynamics and their relationship to systems of oppression and violence
• The machinery of modern propaganda: symbols, slogans, advertisements, techniques, and technologies (traditional and emerging)
• Actors creating propaganda and their targets
• Propaganda's role in major conflicts and crises including wars and climate change
• Resistance and counteraction to propaganda
• How people understand and use propaganda in everyday life
• Connections between propaganda and related sociological topics such as censorship, schooling, radicalization, authoritarianism, polarization, religion, power and persuasion, memory and commemoration, misinformation and disinformation
• Spread of propaganda campaigns within and across communities and borders
• Methods for detecting and avoiding propaganda's potential harms

Timeline

• March 16, 2026: Abstract Submission Deadline
• October 30, 2026: Full Manuscript Submission Deadline