Over the last twenty years, numerous essays (theoretical and empirical) have been published on the sociology of Europe and of cosmopolitanism. In contrast, research on possible ties between the two has been more rare. If cosmopolitan sociology can be considered as an attempt to understand how individuals, social groups and institutions deal with the challenges of ever more transnational social processes, then the European issue can be fully inserted within such an approach. On the two distinct planes of socialisation of individuals and of their governance, Europe represents in miniature a field of observation of the ways in which citizens and institutions are dealing with situations that require conceptual frameworks and analyses of social reality that go beyond the traditional sociology of Nation-States. It might therefore be opportune to attempt to understand such transnational dynamics by examining how internal and external, political and symbolic borders uniting groups (from micro- to macro-scales) become nowadays paradoxically ever more open and ever more closed. In Gerard Delanty’s view, « the cosmopolitanism imagination occurs when and wherever new relations between self, other and world develop in moments of openness ».

Argument

Over the last twenty years, numerous essays (theoretical and empirical) have been published on the sociology of Europe and of cosmopolitanism. In contrast, research on possible ties between the two has been more rare.

If cosmopolitan sociology can be considered as an attempt to understand how individuals, social groups and institutions deal with the challenges of ever more transnational social processes, then the European issue can be fully inserted within such an approach. On the two distinct planes of socialisation of individuals and of their governance, Europe represents in miniature a field of observation of the ways in which citizens and institutions are dealing with situations that require conceptual frameworks and analyses of social reality that go beyond the traditional sociology of Nation-States. It might therefore be opportune to attempt to understand such transnational dynamics by examining how internal and external, political and symbolic borders uniting groups (from micro- to macro-scales) become nowadays paradoxically ever more open and ever more closed. In Gerard Delanty’s view, «the cosmopolitanism imagination occurs when and wherever new relations between self, other and world develop in moments of openness».

This Special Issue aims to show that the cosmopolitan perspective embraces such dynamics. Europe can be defined as cosmopolitan when it is observed that: a) European citizens interact with and relate to one another (despite their origins or their nationality within or outside Europe) in such a way that neither ego nor alter are assimilated to something resembling a totalising unity (unicum); b) national states act not only in defence of their cultural and ethnic borders, but enhance the individual as such, without neglecting explicit reference to culture and local/national senses of belonging and the concomitant social ties proper to the nation-state; c) Europe acts as a political supra-national entity with greater responsibilities (compared to individual nations), and is called to act in terms of a global player. A priority of Europe, as is well known, is that of safeguarding part of the European spiritual heritage – human rights, pluralism, tolerance, laicité, social welfare policies, the welfare of citizens, and so on.

Starting from these considerations, in this Special Issue, theoretical and empirical essays analysing one of the following three dimensions will be presented: Firstly, observing and comprehending how citizens live out simultaneously cosmopolitanism and ‘banal’ nationalism (e.g. considering themselves both national and supranational citizens), acting for instance, in conformity with a cosmopolitan logic that does not, however, exclude reference to the nation-state but rather, incorporates it in a complementary manner with that of belonging to Europe. Secondly, in shifting the focus onto nation-states it is opportune to grasp whether and to what extent they absolve their remit of guaranteeing freedom, justice, tolerance and ‘education’ in terms of cosmopolitan praxis, observing for example, whether and to what extent they continue to act in terms of defending (culturally,politically, and in other ways) their national borders. Thirdly, by increasing the scale of observation, the extent and the ways in which Europe defends and promotes a cosmopolitan position through legislation and actions in the world can be ascertained.

Submission guidelines 

Peer Review Policy: Partecipazione e Conflitto adheres to a standard double-blind peer review process. Each article submitted will be evaluated by Editors and Editorial Board. If congruent with the object of the call for papers, it will be reviewed by at least two anonymous scholars. 3

Articles, written in English, will be submitted to a peer review process according to the following schedule:

- Submission of long abstracts (about 1,000 words):

August 30, 2014

- Selection of long abstracts: September 15, 2014

- Submission of articles: February 15, 2014

- Provision of peer review feedback: June 15, 2015

- Submission of revised papers: September 15, 2015

- Publication of the issue: November 15, 2015

Articles should be no longer than 10,000 words, including notes and references. A maximum of 10 articles will be published.

Please refer to the editorial guidelines available at http://siba-ese.unisalento.it/index.php/paco/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions

PACO MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION GUIDELINES:

These instructions may sound very bureaucratic but they are designed to make the Journal run efficiently and to facilitate the publication of your article. Moreover, it is rational for you to follow the instructions carefully as it will mean less work for you in the end if your paper is eventually accepted.

Upon acceptance, editors may require additional copy editing.

Participazione e Conflitto publishes double blind peer reviewed papers

http://siba-ese.unisalento.it/index.php/paco

The scientific committee for this special issue is composed of the two guest editors.

Scientific committee

• Vincenzo Cicchelli, Gemass, Paris Sorbonne/CNRS
• Massimo Pendenza, University of Salerno