Special Issue, Call for Abstracts: Spontaneous Orders and New Forms of the Social: Between the Mundane and Institutions

 Spontaneous Orders and New Forms of the Social:Between the Mundane and Institutions

The Russian Sociological Review (sociologica.hse.ru/en), an international peer-reviewed academic journal published by the National Research University — Higher School of Economics (www.hse.ru), invites contributions from philosophy, social sciences and cognate fields for the special issue entitled Spontaneous Orders and New Forms of the Social: Between the Mundane and Institutions.

For several decades, the notion of globalization has been essential for many social scholars. As evidence, one can refer to the influential plenary talks of the ISA presidents. For example, in 1990, the topic of the ISA congress “One Sociology for One World: Unity and Diversity” was introduced by Margaret Archer in a straightforward and unequivocal manner. In her presidential address, she declared that “‘Sociology for One World’ implies: firstly, a single Discipline; secondly, a single World; and thirdly, that the former does something for the latter” (http://www.isa-sociology.org/uploads/files/presidential_address_m_archer.pdf). Consequently, it was important that the presidents of ISA kept saying that contemporary society was global, and that social facts should have been considered within the global society. In his 2002 presidential address in Brisbane, Alberto Martinelly said that “globalization requires a basic redefinition of major concepts of the sociological tradition. We all know that sociology has developed as a discipline together with the modern world and that the unit of analysis of most macrosociological research has been the national society” (http://www.isa-sociology.org/uploads/files/presidential_address_a_martinelli.pdf). He believed that the study of global flows was more important than what was taking place within “contested boundaries”.

In Durban in 2006, Piotr Sztompka continued to insist that globalization is of a high priority when he stated that “globalization turns out not to be an abstract condition of society somewhere out there, but the very real experience internal to and permeating everyday life of the people. To see globalization, one does not need to read aggregated statistics about financial flows, global division of labor, intensity of telecommunications, numbers of travelers, tourists, and refugees. It is enough just to look around” (http://www.isa-sociology.org/uploads/files/presidential_address_p_sztompka.pdf). Additionally, in Gothenburg in 2010, Michel Wieviorka who was more interested in the global “as a way of thinking, a way of approaching problems which relate to sociology”, pointed out the significance of global phenomena and global connections, e.g., financial ones (http://www.isa-sociology.org/uploads/files/presidential_address_m_wieviorka_english%281%29.pdf).

Undoubtedly, we agree that today’s global phenomena such as flows and networks cover the world and horizontal connections continue to be omnipresent like any other new global social institution. Yet nowadays, radical changes are taking place that will become more sophisticated on the global scale, and will question and reduce the importance of what has been used to be a symptom of globalization. This is exemplified through the new reinforcement of the State, the reducing power of the international law institutions and the authority of the international organizations, the emergence of new forms of spontaneous order everywhere, and the growing avalanche of information on various episodes of social interaction.

Globalization is questioned with respect to the process of the blurring of political borders of states and other territories. Where social events take place, states gain their role as a main social unity anew. Still, they are permeated by global flows. The interaction of the global and the local takes a new shape. Furthermore, new forms of social interaction emerge, and it is not possible to definitely classify them as global or local. Neither traditional institutional nor newer network- and flow-inspired languages of description can be used to make sense of them. These interactions—often spontaneous, slightly formed, and embedded in the routine practices—may emerge and then quickly dissolve. However, they may become the origin of the yet-unknown future.

New forms of social order may reveal themselves in various configurations of order and disorder, in unprecedented or partially transformed situations, or in episodes of social life in time and space. The novelty may be traced in unexpected events or in issues of communication, in the distribution of sources and in the shifting of centers of activities, or in the composition of new types of inert communication. Spontaneous orders relate to the shop floor of the social where new forms of interaction emerge and are tested. The times and situations, when the dominant tendencies are not yet defined, and the future is still open, are the most favorable to these orders.

In 2017, here, in Russia, we are particularly sensitive to the emergence of the new in locations where no one expects it. Russia experienced two revolutions a hundred years ago. As a result of one of these revolutions, the monarchy disappeared, while the second led to the disintegration of the Russian empire and its way of life. This happened during the Great War which ended the existence of Old Europe, and had important consequences for the rest of the world. The Jubilee is a good occasion to reflect not only on the Revolution itself but also on the way the stability in both the national and global institutional order is suddenly transformed. In the situations of a forthcoming crisis and the change in the main social forms, 

we are interested in what the new loci of spontaneous order look like while the global mechanism of enforcement or legitimization remains weak or absent.

We welcome those papers that contribute original material to the theoretical and empirical studies of these phenomena. In particular, we are interested in those conceptual papers devoted to the questioning and the search for the ways of observation, descriptions, and explanations of the new forms of interaction and order, crises and revolutions, and other forms of the renewal of social life.

Schedule 

May 20, 2017 — 500 words abstracts deadline 

June 1, 2017 — Invitation to submit full papers 

September 15, 2017 — 6000 words full papers deadline 

October 1, 2017 — Notification of acceptance 

November 1, 2017 — Revised papers deadline 

December, 2017 — Publication

Contributions should be sent via e-mail to the editor-in-chief Professor Alexander Filippov (afilippov@hse.ru) and Dr Nail Farkhatdinov (sociologica@hse.ru).

If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact Dr Nail Farkhatdinov (nailfarkhatdinov@hse.ru).

Papers should be no more than 12,000 words and written in English. See website of the Review for the detailed guidelines for authors (sociologica.hse.ru/en/authors).