News:

Open Call for Special Issue Contributions

We invite paper contributions to the planned special issue "Will Law Save Democracy? Exploring the Role of Courts and Justice in Times of Rising Authoritarianism" (Guest Editors: Sarah Schulz and Carolina A. Vestena) in the German Political Science Quarterly (PVS/GPSQ). The issue explores how legal institutions and courts respond to authoritarian threats, and how political struggles are shaped by and within legal arenas. We welcome both theoretical and empirical submissions.

Please send abstracts by 1 July 2025 to sarah.schulz@uni-kassel.de and carolina.vestena@uni-kassel.de.

Authors of paper proposals will receive notifications by the 15^th of July 2025 to confirm whether the article proposal has been accepted for the special issue. The internal deadline for final paper submission of full articles is the 30^th of September 2025. Feedback from the guest editors will be provided until the 15^th of October 2025. Full versions of the manuscripts must then be submitted online by the 30^th of November 2025 in accordance with PVS/GPSQ's submission guidelines. The articles will be double-blind reviewed prior to final acceptance.

Click here for the full Call (PDF).

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Open Call for Special Issue Contributions

We are looking for contributions for a planned special issue "Just Practicing a Turn – or Actually Turning the Practice? On the Promise of Practices for Studying Politics on the Ground" (Guest Editors: Jens Bartsch, Frank Gadinger, Maren Hofius, Florian Hubert) to be published in the German Political Science Quarterly (PVS/GPSQ).

The issue seeks contributions taking stock of theoretical and methodological innovations offered by the practice turn, including but not limited to:

• Critical assessment of the novelty and usefulness of the practice turn and other “turn”-metaphors
• Examples of concrete methodological innovations and novel research practices enabled by “practice”-vocabulary
• Discussions of prospects for common ground through a “dialogue of differences” with cognate approaches and disciplines beyond International Relations

Download the full version of the Call for Papers here.

We invite contributions from diverse theoretical perspectives, especially critical, de-/postcolonial and feminist approaches. The special issue especially welcomes contributions from scholars of all career stages based outside of Germany and Europe.

Please send extended abstracts of up to 500 words to bartsch@soz.uni-frankfurt.de and hibert@soz.uni-frankfurt.de by June 25^th 2025.

Confirmations of article proposals for the Special Issue will be communicated by the 10th of July. A workshop to share feedback from the guest editors and other authors is (tentatively) planned for early October.

Final manuscripts of 7000 – 8000 words should be submitted by 30 November 2025, in accordance with the PVS/GPSQ submission guidelines. The articles will be double-blind reviewed prior to final acceptance.