In his ingenious book ‘The Ministry for the Future’, novelist Kim Stanley Robinson popularized the genre ‘climate fiction’ and visualized both the horrors of a world under accelerated climate change but also the creative human potential to deal with it. At universities, ideas of imaginaries and desirable futures gain traction as students protest on the streets and scholars attempt to reimagine academia in the face of urgent global challenges (e.g., see the recent post by Palazzo & Gallea at the Grand Challenges Blog or the article in which Gümüsay & Reinecke call for value-led and future-oriented social science theories). In this context, the infamous ‘performativity of ideas’ helps to recognize that, what we picture in our minds, can indeed become real.
But what do you think? What is your desirable future and how can it be enacted?
With this Special Issue on ‘Utopias’ we seek to provide a forum for ideas that can grow into more desirable futures. Below, you can find a non-exhaustive list of topics that you may want to explore (500-1000 words). You can of course propose your own topic.
we accept submissions on a running basis in 2024
Please follow our submission guidelines that are available here.
Technology: quo vadis?
The future of climate cooperation
Political organization and ‘living well within limits’
Growth, post-growth, degrowth
Science and academia
We categorize blog posts in research highlights, commentaries and Special Issue contributions. Research highlights may include a summary or critical discussion of your own paper that has recently been published or is in the submission process. With commentaries, you can publish critical discussions of other people’s work or opinionated but informed perspectives on topical issues or controversies. This can include responses to previous posts. So far, we have called for contributions to two Special Issues: Utopias and Science & Ideology. Check them out!
As a general rule of thumb, contributions should contribute to conceptually understanding or practically resolving grand challenges in any significant manner. We particularly value content with a critical, reflective and emancipatory spirit that includes perspectives on or from the Global South. The definition of the broad term grand challenges is consciously left open and we invite for critical reflection and discussion thereupon.
Who can submit and what can be submitted?
Submission length, format and language?
Submissions must directly contribute to conceptually understanding or practically resolving Grand Challenges in any significant way. Authors must submit a short bio including their institutional affiliation and accept the Blog’s legal disclaimer and comment’s policy.
Referencing guidelines: Kindly follow Nature referencing style to increase readability (see guidelines here, section references) or provide your references with functional hyperlinks directly in-text. You can select this referencing style in your reference management software (e.g., Zotero).
Submitting content is simple! There are three steps:
See submission form below.
2. Submit your full manuscript.
After submitting the online form, an editor will get in touch with you via email. You can then proceed to submit your full manuscript. Take care that it meets our submission requirements! Together with your full manuscript, please also submit via email to your editor:
3. Publication of the blog post.
Accepted blog posts will be published within 2-6 weeks*If you don’t have an idea for a cover photo, we’ll find one together.Expression of interest - Submit a short proposal or abstract to us and fill in the following form:
∗If you have any open questions, please directly contact an editor via email.
We categorize blog posts in research highlights, commentaries and Special Issue contributions. Research highlights may include a summary or critical discussion of your own paper that has recently been published or is in the submission process. With commentaries, you can publish critical discussions of other people’s work or opinionated but informed perspectives on topical issues or controversies. This can include responses to previous posts. So far, we have called for contributions to two Special Issues: Utopias and Science & Ideology. Check them out!
As a general rule of thumb, contributions should contribute to conceptually understanding or practically resolving grand challenges in any significant manner. We particularly value content with a critical, reflective and emancipatory spirit that includes perspectives on or from the Global South. The definition of the broad term grand challenges is consciously left open and we invite for critical reflection and discussion thereupon.
Who can submit and what can be submitted?
Submission length, format and language?
Submissions must directly contribute to conceptually understanding or practically resolving Grand Challenges in any significant way. Authors must submit a short bio including their institutional affiliation and accept the Blog’s legal disclaimer and comment’s policy.
Referencing guidelines: Kindly follow Nature referencing style to increase readability (see guidelines here, section references) or provide your references with functional hyperlinks directly in-text. You can select this referencing style in your reference management software (e.g., Zotero).
Submitting content is simple! There are three steps:
See submission form below.
2. Submit your full manuscript.
After submitting the online form, an editor will get in touch with you via email. You can then proceed to submit your full manuscript. Take care that it meets our submission requirements! Together with your full manuscript, please also submit via email to your editor:
3. Publication of the blog post.
Accepted blog posts will be published within 2-6 weeks*If you don’t have an idea for a cover photo, we’ll find one together.Expression of interest - Submit a short proposal or abstract to us and fill in the following form:
∗If you have any open questions, please directly contact an editor via email.