Call for Papers
Special Issue 2026
Old Borders and New Distinctions
Social scientists have long been accustomed to viewing modern societies as worlds of diverse and intersecting distinctions. This perspective traces back to Georg Simmel's concept of the intersection of social circles: in modern societies, the individual becomes a member of many groups, yet no single one claims him or her entirely. In recent years, however, something has been shifting, and we wish to draw attention to two opposing tendencies.
On the one hand, the multiplicity of distinctions is no longer constant — one can speak of the continuous, relentless production of ever new distinctions alongside the abandonment of old ones. What mattered yesterday ceases to matter today. What matters in one region or community has no bearing whatsoever in another. The very speed at which modes of social identification change gives rise to growing tensions: hierarchies, markers of moral standing, and the characteristics of human bonds are not merely shifting — they are being renewed at an ever-accelerating pace.
The opposing tendency concerns the fact that all of this unfolds within the political frameworks of states that are increasingly and vigorously reclaiming positions that had seemed lost forever. While the pace, intensity, and character of this "return of the state" vary across countries, the reversal itself — away from processes of state degradation and decisive weakening — is beyond doubt. With the state have returned state borders — or, rather, they have once again acquired solidity, and in some cases near-total impermeability. Within those borders reside citizens who form their political and cultural communities.
From the dawn of the modern era, when sovereign states first began to claim a dominant role, down to the present day — at times retreating before civil society, at others regaining the upper hand — states have sought to consolidate and enhance their authority in establishing the primary distinctions. All other groups, corporations, churches, or "systems," as Thomas Hobbes once called them, are either recognized by the state as legitimate or deprived of legality. It is little wonder, then, that the emergence of ever-new distinctions in our time goes unnoticed by states, or that when they do notice them, they prove unable to acknowledge their significance?
All these new and proliferating ways of distinguishing oneself from others, of recognizing one's own, of attaching significance to the most minute differences, and of setting aside whatever is proclaimed paramount in official culture — these tendencies provoke not so much political disloyalty as they call into question the mobilizing potential upon which states have grown accustomed to relying.
In any case, while the political trend toward the strengthening of sovereign states — maintaining familiar patterns of loyalty production and civic solidarity, the mobilizing capacity of the state, and so forth — is relatively easy to identify, the opposing tendency appears, at first glance, nearly elusive. And yet its significance should not be underestimated. It is precisely for this reason that we invite our fellow sociologists to share their research findings, observations, and hypotheses, focusing primarily on what might be characterized as the newest tendencies in social life.
In this connection, we pose the following questions:
First, we invite authors to identify fundamentally new social phenomena — those that have emerged in culture, religion, aesthetics, science, politics, and other domains over the past several years and that have not been previously observed.
Second, we propose to reconsider the status of sociology under these new conditions. Sociology has long since relinquished its position as the privileged observer of social life. It does, however, retain the capacity to produce what Jonathan H. Turner called sensitizing schemes (sensitizing concepts, in H. Blumer's terms). Does this exhaust the status of sociology? Or are new prospects opening up before it — prospects it has not hitherto possessed, connected, among other things, with the emergence of previously unexamined phenomena? Can we speak of the formation of a new social ontology, or of the need for new methodological approaches?
Third, we wish to inquire into the potential inherent in this very multiplicity of distinctions. Its conflict-generating potential is evident, resonating with the logic of distinguishing between "friend and foe." But does it also contain a potential for new forms of solidarity? In what does this potential consist, through what mechanisms does it operate, and is it capable of acquiring a political dimension? We invite authors to investigate such cases and mechanisms, without limiting themselves to a mere acknowledgment of the conflictual nature of the world of new distinctions.
Schedule
- August 1, 2026— Deadline for abstract submissions (500 words).
- August 20, 2026— Notification of invitation to submit full papers.
- October 1, 2026— Deadline for full paper submissions.
- October 20, 2026— Notification of acceptance.
- November 1, 2026— Deadline for revised papers.
- December 31, 2026— Publication of the special issue.
Submissions
Contributions should be sent via email to the following editors:
- Professor Alexander Filippov, Editor-in-Chief:afilippov@hse.ru
- Marina Pugacheva, Deputy Editor-in-Chief:puma7@yandex.ru
- Anna Turchik, Co-editor of the special issue:sociologica@hse.ru
Paper guidelines
Papers should not exceed 10,000 words and must be written in English. For detailed author guidelines, please refer to the journal's website:
