Social Inclusion
Open Access Journal ISSN: 2183-2803

Abstracts Submission

The following issues are currently accepting abstract submissions:

Compassionate Futures for Collective Well-Being

Academic Editors: Karin Hannes (KU Leuven) and Natalia Martini (KU Leuven)

  • Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 September 2025
  • Submission of Full Papers: 15-30 January 2026
  • Publication of the Issue: June/December 2026

In an increasingly unequal world, the concept of “compassionate futures” offers a new paradigm to address the pressing challenges of social inclusion. Compassionate futures recognize vulnerability, interdependency, and mutual responsibility as fundamental features of social relations, and emphasize care and empathy as fundamental principles in designing socio-cultural, economic, and political systems where the collective well-being of diverse actors, human and other-than-human, can flourish.

The global challenges of our time—climate crisis, forced migration, and political polarization—highlight the urgent need to move beyond traditional approaches to inclusion. We invite authors to work with the idea of homo curans (the caring person) in re-imagining the future of society, focusing on long-term, holistic, and progressive solutions or responses rather than short-term fixes. Standing in opposition to the prevalent figure of homo economicus, homo curans foregrounds dependency (rather than self-interest and self-sufficiency) as the default human condition. It positions care as an ontological a priori and suggests that care ought to be, and in fact is, an organizing principle of social life.

We encourage contributions that engage in an interdisciplinary dialogue among scholars, practitioners, and policymakers about what it means to create a caring society in the face of persistent inequalities. In addition, we welcome papers that demonstrate where and how humans take up the responsibility to conceptualize compassionate futures from a multispecies perspective, as well as those that focus on what hinders or supports the idea and the project of compassionate futures.

Contributions to this thematic issue should focus on how systems can be reimagined to prioritize care and collective well-being, what it takes to move towards socio-cultural, economic, and/or political systems that emphasize vulnerability, interdependency, and mutual responsibility, how different cultures conceptualize the figure of the “caring person” and compassionate futures, how it can address the environmental crisis in ways that promote climate justice, how those most affected by environmental harm might be centered in the process of developing new narratives on compassionate futures and/or how the very idea of compassionate futures can be nurtured from an inquiry-by-method or an inquiry-by-theory perspective.

We accept theoretical papers presenting frameworks on compassionate futures, prospective policy analyses, cases featuring the use of futures studies and co-creative approaches that promote compassion and care as central principles in re-imagining the future, and reflection papers focusing on global cooperation for fostering compassionate futures. Authors should connect to the general idea of how humans could or should relate to other agents with whom they share the planet or illustrate how the new narratives they developed support collective well-being.

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 Social Inclusion 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.

Submit Abstract

Digital Inclusion During and After Incarceration: A Global Perspective

Academic Editors: Bianca C. Reisdorf (University of North Carolina at Charlotte) and Victoria Knight (DeMontfort University)

  • Submission of Abstracts: 15-30 September 2025
  • Submission of Full Papers: 15-30 April 2026
  • Publication of the Issue: July/December 2026

This thematic issue explores social inclusion related to incarceration, rehabilitation, reentry, and digital technologies. We invite manuscripts from across the globe that interrogate digital inclusion in the context of carceral spaces as well as work focusing on formerly incarcerated people.

Recent studies have pointed out a plethora of barriers to digital inclusion both during and after incarceration. However, as scholarship in the area of digital technologies and incarceration increases, much is still unknown about the programs and practices that aim to increase digital literacy as well as access to digital technologies and support for currently and formerly incarcerated individuals. We envision this thematic issue as a collection of trans-disciplinary studies and thought-pieces from across the world, which examine the barriers to and benefits of digital rehabilitation practices. We are also interested in manuscripts related to human rights, ethical questions, and issues around equity and equality when (formerly) incarcerated people experience the online world.

As jurisdictions face different challenges while trying to achieve similar goals, case studies from various countries and programs will not only enhance the academic literature in the field, but also allow practitioners to learn from programs in other countries and jurisdictions and implement what works in their specific circumstances. As much scholarship has focused on the Global North and Australia, we especially encourage submissions from authors in the Global South. We also particularly encourage submissions in relation to under-researched issues, such as the digital needs/inclusion of marginalized groups, such as neurodiverse people and/or disability, Indigenous communities, or system-impacted youth.

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 Social Inclusion 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.

Submit Abstract

Transnational Organization of Labour, Mobility, and Senior Care in Central and Eastern Europe

Academic Editors: Ewa Palenga-Möllenbeck (Goethe University Frankfurt), Dora Gabriel (HUN-REN Centre for Social Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences Centre of Excellence), Olena Fedyuk (Central European Labour Studies Institute), and Kristine Krause (University of Amsterdam)

  • Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 September 2025 (invited authors only)
  • Submission of Full Papers: 15-30 January 2026
  • Publication of the Issue: June/December 2026

Since the fall of the Iron Curtain, a gendered, transnational labour market for senior care has emerged and expanded rapidly in response to the increasing demand in Western and Southern Europe. This market provides transnational care arrangements in which migrants from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) carry out care work in the West while their families remain behind, thereby creating care gaps in the sending countries (Lutz, in print; Solari, 2018). Consequently, the CEE region is becoming an area of destination and transit for migrants from other countries, including Ukraine, Serbia, and Moldova (Katona & Melegh, 2020).

The significance of care migration for Western and Southern European countries is well documented; however, its effects on the sending countries remain poorly understood. Over the past decade, there has been a shift in the organization of transnational care migration: While care work was previously conducted on an informal basis, it is now increasingly marketized and regularized (Aulenbacher et al., 2024; Farris & Marchetti, 2017). The processes of corporatisation and digitalisation accompanying this are slowly beginning to be studied by researchers; however, existing analyses tend to focus on receiving regions, while neglecting sending and transit regions.

In response to the scarcity of academic and policy discourse on care workers’ mobility to and from CEE, this thematic issue represents a timely initiative to bring together authors to stimulate debate at the intersection of research on intra-EU mobility and migration, and care drain, care gain and care circulation in the region.

The editors welcome contributions that explore issues, empirical research, and methodological approaches including policy responses to transnational migration, recruitment, and retention of care workers; emerging care markets in CEE; the role of transnational actors in long-term care systems in Europe; and research and methodological (ethical) challenges of co-producing knowledge with non-academic partners in relevant areas/countries.

References

Aulenbacher, B., Lutz, H., Palenga-Möllenbeck, E., & Schwiter, K. (Eds.). (2024). Home care for sale: The transnational brokering of senior care in Europe. Sage.

Farris, S. R., & Marchetti, S. (2017). From the commodification to the corporatization of care: European perspectives and debates. Social Politics, 24(2), 109–131.

Katona, N., & Melegh, A. (Eds.). (2020). Towards a scarcity of care? Tensions and contradictions in transnational elderly care systems in Central and Eastern Europe. Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.

Lutz, H. (in print). The backstage of the care economy: Care-drain, transnational parenthood and emotional inequality. Pluto Press.

Solari, C. (2018). On the shoulders of grandmothers: Gender, migration, and post-Soviet nation-state building. Routledge.

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 Social Inclusion 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.

Submit Abstract

×