The Russian Sociological Review, an international peer-reviewed academic journal published by the National Research University — Higher School of Economics, invites contributions from philosophy, social sciences and cognate fields for the special issue entitled Borders: Merging, Emerging, Emergent. In this issue, we would like to discuss various meanings of the concept “border” and to go beyond a narrow understanding of borders as a political or geographical phenomenon. Therefore, we aim to provide a forum for those who study borders on different levels and in its variety.

The concept itself seems to draw attention in many disciplines. As spatial phenomena, borders are always drawn in spaces, while social scientists, philosophers and other academics often have different meanings of space. Recent reconsiderations of space in terms of networks, flows and events, bring even more complexity to the concept. There is a permanent demand for both theoretical and empirical studies of borders on various levels. We expect contributions that will look at the relevant phenomena from contemporary or historical perspectives, study narratives about borders, reconstructions of the empirical configurations of borders and other objects (such as bodies), exploring how borders emerge and reshape existing spaces, etc. Overall, the issue will contribute to the emerging interdisciplinary field of border studies and encourage cross-disciplinary dialogue.

Deadline for contributions (title and abstract): September 10, 2014.

See full call for papers for details.