Abstracts Submission

Trans people are central to the moral panics promoted by global anti-gender and far-right movements. Opposition to so-called "gender ideology" involves challenges to trans civil rights—to legal gender recognition, gender-affirming healthcare, access to sports and “single-sex” spaces. Research demonstrates the transnational nature of the contemporary far-right (Abrahamsen et al., 2024) and reveals the centrality of "anti-gender" ideology to these mobilisations (Paternotte & Kuhar, 2018). Yet, while the global politics of gender has been analysed from feminist and queer theoretical perspectives, transfeminism remains a nascent approach within political science (Galpin et al., 2023).

We gather contributions that apply a transfeminist lens to studying international politics. Emerging from third-wave intersectional feminism, transfeminism centres trans people, challenging the presumed alignment of maleness/masculinity and femaleness/femininity (Serano, 2013). It also addresses transmisogyny, involving harassment towards people expressing femininity considered to deviate from their assigned sex. Transfeminism is also decolonial, highlighting transphobia’s roots in the consolidation of colonial state power (Gill-Peterson, 2024). Transfeminism crucially demonstrates how transphobia is rooted in wider racialized and patriarchal structures of power and anti-democratic tendencies—the current crackdown on DEI under the Trump administration highlights how opposition to trans rights is situated within wider far-right authoritarian projects.

We invite articles that apply transfeminism to global politics in a broad sense. This includes theoretical pieces that bring transfeminism into conversation with political theory, particularly in the study of the global right, nationalism, democratic erosion, and mechanisms of resistance. We also seek empirical studies from diverse contexts, including the UK and Europe, North America, Asia, Latin America, North Africa, the Middle East, and Central and Subsaharan Africa. We seek studies highlighting the particularities of local/regional/national contexts and those that identify transnational connections. Diverse methodologies are welcome, including surveys, content, discourse, and narrative analysis, focus groups and interviews, and arts-based and feminist methodologies.

References:

Abrahamsen, R. et al. (2024). World of the right: Radical conservatism and global order. Cambridge University Press.

Galpin, C., Gwenffrewi, G., & Stokoe, A. (2023). Transfeminist perspectives: Beyond cisnormative understandings of the digital public sphere. European Journal of Women's Studies, 30(4), 502-515. 

Gill-Peterson, J. (2024). A short history of trans misogyny. Verso.

Paternotte, D., & Kuhar, R. (2018). Disentangling and locating the “global right”: Anti-gender campaigns in Europe. Politics and Governance, 6(3), 6–19. 

Serano, J. (2013). Excluded: Making feminist and queer movements more inclusive. Seal Press.

Authors interested in submitting a paper for this issue are asked to consult the journal's instructions for authors and submit their abstracts (maximum of 250 words, with a tentative title) through the abstracts system (here). When submitting their abstracts, authors are also asked to confirm that they are aware that Politics and Governance is an open access journal with a publishing fee if the article is accepted for publication after peer-review (corresponding authors affiliated with our institutional members do not incur this fee).

Readers across the globe will be able to access, share, and download this issue entirely for free. Corresponding authors affiliated with any of our institutional members (over 90 institutions worldwide) publish free of charge. Otherwise, an article processing fee will be charged to the authors to cover editorial costs. We defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and encourage them to check with their institutions if funds are available to cover open access publication costs. Further information about the journal's open access charges can be found here.

Party youth wings play a crucial role in contemporary democracies. They are not only recruitment pools for future politicians but also important platforms for youth participation in representative systems. While academic interest in these organisations has grown—particularly in relation to members’ motivations, and political attitudes—a significant research gap remains. There is still limited insight into their internal structures their relationships with mother parties, and their effectiveness in representing youth interests. Without a deeper understanding of these dimensions, and a stronger integration into the broader literature on party organisation, it remains difficult to assess how effectively youth wings fulfill their functions or whether they can contribute to the revitalisation of party democracy in the long run.

This thematic issue bridges the literature on party organisation with research on youth representation and party youth wings. It explores the following questions:

1. How are party youth wings structured—internally and in relation to their mother parties?

• To what extent are these youth wings formally and informally organised? 
• How do legal and institutional contexts shape their development?
• What (communication) strategies do they employ to recruit and mobilise youth?

2. How do party youth wings exert influence within their parties and in the broader political system?

• What role do they play in candidate selection and political recruitment? 
• To what extent do they represent the interests of young people (and voters)? 
• What is their capacity to revitalise the party democracy in the long term?

Empirically, this issue presents a diverse set of case studies of party youth wings from different party families—including the far right—in different European countries. These cases vary in age, organisational complexity, membership bases, and party system context. Taken together, they offer a rich comparative perspective and establish a foundation for future cross-country analyses. We especially invite contributions focusing on countries in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as in Southern Europe.

Authors interested in submitting a paper for this issue are asked to consult the journal's instructions for authors and submit their abstracts (maximum of 250 words, with a tentative title) through the abstracts system (here). When submitting their abstracts, authors are also asked to confirm that they are aware that Politics and Governance is an open access journal with a publishing fee if the article is accepted for publication after peer-review (corresponding authors affiliated with our institutional members do not incur this fee).

Readers across the globe will be able to access, share, and download this issue entirely for free. Corresponding authors affiliated with any of our institutional members (over 90 institutions worldwide) publish free of charge. Otherwise, an article processing fee will be charged to the authors to cover editorial costs. We defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and encourage them to check with their institutions if funds are available to cover open access publication costs. Further information about the journal's open access charges can be found here.