Notebooks: The Journal for Studies on Power

Notebooks: The Journal for Studies on Power is an academic, peer-reviewed, multi-disciplinary publication intended to serve as a dialogue-generating conduit for research on power. Power is a complex phenomenon and can be defined in multiple ways. For the purposes of this journal, power implies submission either by consent or by coercion. This means that, apart from being exercised through violence, power can be exercised through hegemony produced by “common sense”. However, power still implies exploitation. Exploitation, via the exercise of hegemonic power, occurs in many domains: global politics, institutional administration, the state, legal systems, social dynamics, family, the workplace, education, economic mechanisms and socioeconomic relations, language, media, communications, and more.

Notebooks is interested in why and how power is exercised, preserved, and contested. The journal documents processes whereby certain ideas and types of knowledge achieve dominance and are variously expressed via not only coercion but also consent. Notebooks, being a quintessentially inter-/transdisciplinary enterprise, encourages different methodological approaches and welcomes studies from all disciplines, to include but not limited to: sociology, economics, political studies, psychology, biology, history, anthropology, philosophy, linguistics, international relations, criminology, municipal law, and international law.

Notebooks opposes the fragmentation and overspecialization of knowledge. Its aim is to serve as a forum for critical dialogue between the humanities, social sciences, law, and even the natural sciences. In line with global studies, there is no prescribed specific unit of analysis, and this includes individuals, formal and informal groups, institutions, societies, and various combinations of these units. The journal also encourages contributions from outside academia.

The journal welcomes the following types of submissions:
- Research articles (approximately 7000-9000 words, excluding references).
- Philological articles that directly recall Gramsci’s and Gramscian thinking and its critics (approximately 7000-9000 words). These represent an important contribution to the international debate on the supposedly appropriate use and application of Gramscian categories and will trigger a significant and rare dialogue among the international “users” of Gramsci and Italian (or Italian language-proficient) groups of philological scholars.
- Debates, commentaries, comments/replies, interviews, etc. on current issues or previously published articles (approximately 2000-3000 words).
- Review articles (approximately 3000 words).
- Book reviews.

For editorial queries and proposals, please contact the Notebooks Editorial Office.

For book review queries, please contact the book review editor, Francesco Pontarelli.

Notebooks is published in cooperation with the GramsciLab and the Istituto Gramsci della Sardegna.