Call for papers

The reception of manuscripts is open permanently.

The reception of dossier proposals is temporarily closed.

Next special issues (see CfP below):

1. Towards a Contemporary Theory of Populism. Debates and Reformulations 20 Years After On Populist Reason by Ernesto Laclau (Deadline Nov 15, 2024). (See CFP below)
2. Current validity of the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes (Deadline May 15, 2025). (See CFP below)
3. Materialism and culture. Itineraries, tensions and ambivalences of Marxism (Deadline November 15, 2025). (See CFP below)
4. Privileges and unequal societies. (Deadline May 15, 2026). (See CFP below)

5. Technologies of Subjectivation in/of the Neoliberal City.

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Special Issue Las Torres de Lucca (Call for papers)
Towards a Contemporary Theory of Populism. Debates and Reformulations 20 Years After On Populist Reason by Ernesto Laclau
Guest Editors: Cristian Acosta Olaya (Escuela IDAES-UNSAM/CONICET, Argentina), Grigoris Markou (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki), Sebastián Ronderos (Fundação Getulio Vargas, Brazil), Antonis Galanopoulos (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki)

Summary and objectives:
Despite being scorned in the public arena and constantly marginalized within both political theory and philosophy, populism remains today a central category to understand contemporary political events. Over the past two decades, the term has re-emerged as a pervasive concept in political debates across the world, with scholars from different theoretical traditions and distinctive methodological standpoints striving to analyze its core features and untangle its relationship with other prominent discourses and phenomena.

One key force behind that debate is undeniably the work of Ernesto Laclau, whose reflections on populism have transformed thoroughly the understanding of this concept. In particular, 2025 marks the 20th anniversary of his most renowned work, On Populist Reason (Verso). In this book, Laclau advances a comprehensive and rigorous theory of populism, combining a suggestive theoretical analysis with empirical references from different socio-political contexts. Shifting its focus from content to form, Laclau’s work not only tried to circumvent the normative bias of most mainstream approaches but also allowed approaching populism as a political logic inherent to the hegemonic and contingent configuration of political identities at large.

The publication of On Populist Reason swiftly attracted the attention of various thinkers hailing from diverse academic backgrounds and theoretical perspectives. Nevertheless, Laclau’s perspective also gave rise to a number of elaborations and criticisms at both the theoretical and the empirical levels. Amongst others, questions regarding Laclau’s work were raised regarding hegemony, the preeminence of antagonism, the overlooking of populist institutionalization, the role of the leader, the affective dimension of populism, the rhetorical and psychosocial dynamics involved in the formation of collective identities and the influence of psychoanalysis in his theory.

Without pretending to summarize or rehearse these debates, the present Dossier seeks to reinvigorate them, expanding a series of contemporary theoretical orientations in populism studies that have evolved through the discussion stimulated by Laclau’s book during the two decades since its publication. Along with Laclau’s broader body of work, we see On Populist Reason as an introductory point from which diverse critical perspectives converge to discuss, rethink and advance upon his reflections.

Therefore, papers from Political Theory, Philosophy and Sociology, as well as from other disciplines related to Social, Political and Humanitarian Sciences are welcome. In addition, unpublished translations into Spanish of relevant texts, as well as review of recent books related to the topic of the dossier, are accepted.

As a general guide for the authors, we provide an indicative, but certainly not exhaustive, list of recommended topics:

-Tensions between the Ontological and the Ontic in the study of populism. Double hermeneutics and normative bias.
-Configuration of political identities. The distinction between “the popular” and “the populist”.
-Populism beyond the rupture. Order and institutionalization.
-Psychoanalysis and populism. Affects, psychosocial dynamics and the negative horizon.
-Populism and nationalism. Empirical and theoretical reflections.
-National State, republicanism and trans-national populism.
-Feminism and populism. The gender factor.
-Constructing the people. Leadership and political representation
-Populism and anti-populism in Latin America and Europe.
-Hegemony or post-hegemony. Political articulation and pluralism.
-Populism, hegemony and politics. Synonymy or contamination.

Submission deadline: November 15, 2024,
Publication: July 2025.
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Special Issue Las Torres de Lucca (Call for papers)
Title: Current validity of the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes

Guest editors: María Liliana Lukac de Stier (UCA – Argentina) and Andrés Di Leo Razuk (UBA/UNLaM – Argentina).

Summary and objectives:
There is no doubt that any valuable recovery of a classical thinker is mainly motivated by a problem pertaining to the historical moment in which it is being carried out. In the specific case of Thomas Hobbes, since the critical recovery of his work carried out at the beginning of the 20th century by thinkers such as Strauss or Schmitt, the texts of the British philosopher have not stopped being consulted to think about topics of various kinds. At the same time, the richness of Hobbes's thinking is observed not only in the different interpretations that have been developed about his philosophy, but also in the fact that they often even become antagonistic. Thus, we find within Hobbesian hermeneutics liberal, totalitarian, statist, anarchist, theistic, atheistic, conservative, or progressive positions, just to mention some influential currents and, within each of them, the internal divisions that are appreciated show the fertility and versatility of Hobbes's writings even more, providing useful theoretical tools to reflect on different problems.
This dossier attempts to be part of that intellectual maneuver, proposing to link Hobbes’s doctrine with current and concrete problems that challenge us today and that only in recent years have begun to form part of Hobbesian studies. The intention, then, is to bring together in this special issue different treatments that still emerge in isolation. It is worth clarifying that, even though current themes are privileged, submissions to this dossier are required to apply all the academic rigor so as not to mischaracterize the work of a classic philosopher such as Hobbes.
The current problems described below, treated in the light of Hobbesian thought, will be included in this dossier.
The aim is to demonstrate how the 17th century philosopher can be highly relevant today and provide creative ideas for the resolution of extremely urgent ethical-political conflicts:
- Feminisms
- Drug trafficking
- Terrorism
- Artificial intelligence
- Dissolution of the State and sovereignty
- Crowd/Multitude as a political category
- Neopunitivism and criminal law
- Anarchisms
- Consumption and addictions
- Privatization of wars
- New political enemies

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Special Issue Las Torres de Lucca (Call for papers dossier 2026b)
Title: Materialism and culture. Itineraries, tensions and ambivalences of Marxism
Guest editors: Anxo Garrido (UCM), Germán Cano (UCM), Manuel Romero (UCM)

Abstract:
Our present does not cease to raise again and again the question of what Antonio Gramsci had defined as the fundamental problem of historical materialism: in what way, under what presuppositions and by virtue of what determinations the material structure of society and the affective and symbolic elements of the world of culture are related to each other. After Marx formulated the well-known topical metaphor distinguishing between the "base and the superstructure" as integral parts of society, attempts to settle its meaning have given rise to numerous contrasting positions among the fundamental authors of twentieth-century social theory. In this myriad of positions, analyses of the processes of mediation, subjectification and social objectification concerning the role of the arts and the media in the different stages of capitalism stand out.

The transformations of the current economic system, and the exponential growth of information and communication networks in a global market and culture, give the problem of the determinations of base and superstructure a new centrality. For this reason, the issue defined here proposes a revision and updating of the problematic with a double purpose. On the one hand, to rescue and update the thinking of some of the theoretical currents that emerged as a result of this encounter between historical materialism and the analysis of cultural processes, the critical theory elaborated by the Frankfurt School and/or the work developed at the Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies in Birmingham, as well as that of its cardinal figures: Georg Lukács, Walter Benjamin and Raymond Williams, among others. On the other hand, the aim would be to analyse this problematic in the light of our historical present, either through the diagnosis of the thinkers who have continued and expanded these traditions: Fredric Jameson, Wendy Brown, Mark Fisher or Nancy Fraser; or by suggesting new connections, mediations and points of view within the theoretical framework of materialism and theories of culture.

To this end, we invite researchers in the social sciences and humanities to explore these issues:

- The status of culture, aesthetics or ideology in the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.
- Encounters and misunderstandings between the critique of political economy and theories of the processes of subjectivation.
- The theory of hegemony in Antonio Gramsci and its developments
- Theories of mediation
- Reification and the problem of class consciousness
- The cultural transformations of capitalism

Manuscript reception deadline: November 15, 2025.
Issue publication date: July 2026.

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Special Issue Las Torres de Lucca (Call for papers dossier 2027a)
Title: Privileges and unequal societies

Guest editor: Juan Carlos Velasco (Instituto de Filosofía, CSIC)

Abstract:

After being for decades a marginalized subject for the human and social sciences, the increase in social and economic inequality, both at local and national as well as European and global level, has become in recent years the focus of heated debates that go beyond the confines of the scientific community. Indignation has grown in broad sectors of the population in the same proportion as tolerance against the different manifestations of injustice, particularly in the form of extreme economic inequality and blatant social and gender discrimination, has diminished. Of course, this is also related to the global systemic crisis that exploded in 2008 and has since wreaked havoc on the world economy and on the daily lives of so many people. The global polycrisis has not only affected the economic sphere and widened inequality gaps, but has also managed to profoundly alter some well-established consensuses in democratic public spheres related to social justice. In the last decade, in particular, debates on the analysis of inequalities considered legitimate and, likewise, of spurious privileges, have gained prominence.

This proposal is aimed at gathering contributions that, from the various subdisciplines of practical philosophy, investigate the causes of inequality and detect the different faces that privileges adopt in contemporary societies - understood in a double sense: as exemption from a general obligation and as an exclusive or special advantage enjoyed by someone thanks to a concession from a superior or due to certain circumstances, as stated in the RAE - and to explore their harmful effects from the perspective of a normative oriented critical theory of society. Thus, as a starting point, the notion of privilege is assumed to directly contravene the universalist logic of rights. However, it will also be studied, as a hypothesis, whether there are other forms of privileges outside the legal and institutional formulas and, if so, what impact they have.

While debates on inequality have been intense, there has been surprisingly little theoretical engagement with the concept of privilege, the critique of privilege, and the political struggles associated with it. This monographic issue will therefore address in depth a crucial question: what does this controversial concept contribute? On that basis, a whole range of problems and issues can be considered, and various aspects of the privilege debate will be highlighted along the following research questions:

1. History of ideas: How can the term be located and traced in theoretical debates? Where exactly does it come from? What concepts is it related to? Is there an intrinsic relationship between inequality and privilege? And between merit and privilege? Does it need to be complemented with other perspectives? And what role does it play in critical theories, such as intersectionality, feminist or anti-racist theories? And how does it link with the critique of capitalism?

2. Dissenting voices: There is a great deal of outrage from conservatives, libertarians, and neoliberals at the critique of privilege from one part of the left spectrum. How does this critique of privilege work? Can these positions and the used vocabulary be described as a defense of privilege? What is the historical and the contemporary theoretical-political genesis of this type of critique? And how does it relate to other terms of struggle such as "identity politics" and "political correctness"?

3. From the epistemic point of view: Can different forms of inequality be explained through the lens of privilege? How can we distinguish between "privileged", "subaltern" and "discriminated"? From what political or scientific position can this distinction be made? In this respect, hegemony theory, feminist and post- or decolonial traditions offer fruitful insights; however, there are hardly any general and systematic approaches to these central questions.

4. Empirical: What insights can be drawn from social struggles in order to critique privilege? What forms of critique of privilege are practiced in social movements, for example, and how can these forms be translated into theory? What forms of inequality are not subsumable under the notion of privilege?

5. Normativity and practical consequences: what exactly should follow from the critique of privilege? Should the privileged renounce privilege, or should the unprivileged be "empowered"? Or is this opposition itself problematic, even if or precisely because it seems to be implicit in the paradigm and semantics of privilege?

The theoretical and normative approaches to these questions could possibly be organized in four thematic areas:
- Meritocracy and privilege.
- Nationality, international mobility and privileges.
- Socioeconomic inequality and borders.
- Environment crisis and inequality.

Manuscript reception deadline: may 15, 2026.

Issue publication date: January 2027.

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Special Issue Las Torres de Lucca (Call for papers)
Title: Technologies of Subjectivation in/of the Neoliberal City.

Guest editors: Jorge León Casero (University of Zaragoza, Spain) and Felipe Schwember Augier (University of Development, Santiago, Chile).

Summary and Objectives:

Beyond formalized political institutions, urban space has always functioned as a technological and socio-symbolic infrastructure, both shaped by and capable of fostering certain processes of subjectivation among its users and inhabitants. Given its status as a privileged environment where diverse political subjectivities and identities are generated and expressed, the digitalization of infrastructure and urban space serves as a privileged area for examining social, economic, and aesthetic processes. These processes emerge from various, often antagonistic yet collaborative, dynamics that lie at the heart of contemporary urban techno-politics and cosmo-technics.

In this context, digitalization is more than just a technology for data management or the production of immaterial work/value. It represents a holistic reconfiguration of the environment, spatial arrangements, and cyborg devices (simultaneously natural and artificial) that shape both the city and its citizens, acting as key agents in the production of subjectivities simply by inhabiting them.

In a world increasingly shaped by social and spatial mobility, where populations are in constant self-reorganization, this volume creates a multidisciplinary space for exploring and expanding on key debates around technology and urban space. Specifically, the objectives of this collective volume are as follows:

  1. Identify and explain how key technologies shape the infrastructure and urban space of today’s postmetropolises, with an emphasis on their impact on the behavior and subjectivity of their inhabitants.
  2. Analyze the use and appropriation of these technologies by capitalist production relations, highlighting the urban models and socio-spatial devices they promote.
  3. Specify transformations prompted by digital technologies in general, and artificial intelligence in particular, in configuring both city and citizenship, as well as the legal and political reconfigurations they produce.
  4. Make visible the power relations and systems of governance resulting from urban spatial reconfigurations influenced by digital technologies, with particular attention to class, gender, ethnicity, culture, age, and professional skill-related disparities and/or discriminations.
  5. Examine the role of new technologies in shaping urban space within the Anthropocene, particularly regarding the promotion of ecosystem sustainability and resilience in cities and their interactions.
  6. Propose new theoretical and practical approaches for developing alternative models of political subjectivation that empower citizens by enabling them to appropriate current socio-spatial techno-political structures in urban construction and management.

 

Articles should be submitted via the platform of Las Torres de Lucca, with a note to the editor indicating that they are for the dossier Technologies of Subjectivation in/of the Neoliberal City.

 

Manuscript reception deadline: November 15, 2026.

Issue publication date: July 2027.