Call for Papers: Beyond Weber
Intersections. East European Journal of Society and Politics (IEEJSP) invites original research papers for its thematic issue Beyond Weber – Social Change between Disenchantment and Rationalisation Processes in Plural Communities (edited by Stefánia Toma, Romanian Institute for Research on National Minorities and Babeș-Bolyai University, Maria Manuela Mendes, Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas at the University of Lisbon and CIES-Iscte, Pedro Jorge Caetano, Interdisciplinary Center of Social Sciences (CICS.NOVA) of the New University of Lisbon and Thomas Kemple, University of British Columbia).
With his relentless efforts in laying down the standards of sociological analysis, both in conceptual and methodological terms, Weber has been one of the authors who has contributed the most to grounding the objectivity of sociological knowledge in the subjectivity of meaning. Indeed, by emphasizing actors’ perspectives, the distinction between fact and value, as well as the difference between behavior and action, Weber has helped to establish the field of interpretive sociology on solid foundations. The Weberian verstehen, that is, recognizing social actors as knowing subjects, seeks to explore their motivations as well as how morals and meanings are embodied in social practices.
However, Weber never ceased to worry about the hegemony of ongoing rationalization processes in modern capitalist societies, and about what he called the disenchantment of the world, where social action guided by clearly articulated values and the coherence of meaning is increasingly losing its credibility. For Weber, the autonomy and agency of the modern individual reside precisely on values emerging from the methodical ordering of ways of life insofar as such values have been constituted as a reservoir of ethically available alternatives counter to the hegemony of instrumental rationality. Max Weber's work offers an enduring understanding of how different cultures and religions continue to generate knowledge and reconstruct the social world from ethical practices.
The aim of this special issue is to bring together empirical and theoretical proposals from different theoretical sensitivities and methodological backgrounds which reflect on alternative ethical rationalities and ways of assessing cultural meaning. This proposal seeks contributors whose work reflects on the relationship between ethics and rationality, chance and memory, racial and ethnic belonging, deservingness and social closure in multiethnic relations, but we are also interested in articles that reflect on methodological aspects in contemporary context, or on the role of public-service in tackling societal challenges. We also seek articles that mirror the multifaceted work of Weber by examining social rationalities and realities in emancipatory and resistance contexts, the dis-and re-enchantment of the world through religious actions, and the possibility of critique in academia.
We invite scholars to submit an abstract of 300-400 words describing the main question(s), argument(s), and finding(s) of the paper, together with the applied methodology (if relevant), and a short bio by 14 November, 2022 directly to the guest editors (stefaniatoma@gmail.com, mamendesster@gmail.com, caepedro@gmail.com, and thomas.kemple@ubc.ca). Authors will receive feedback from the editorial team by the 28th of November. The deadline for submitting the final papers is the 16th of February, 2023. The issue is scheduled for publication in autumn 2023.
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Intersections. East European Journal of Society and Politics (IEEJSP) is a peer-reviewed journal promoting multidisciplinary and comparative thinking on Eastern and Central European societies in a global context. IEEJSP publishes research with international relevance and encourages comparative analysis both within the region and with other parts of the world. Founded by the Centre for Social Sciences of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest, IEEJSP provides an international forum for scholars coming from and/or working on the region. The Journal is indexed by Web of Science, Scopus, CEEOL, ERIH, Google Scholar, and Index Copernicus. It has been ranked Q3 (for 2021) by ScimagoJR.
