Sustaining Change
2021/2022 Call for Papers
Our current Call for Papers is now closed. Thank you to all authors for your submissions!
Issue 8 will be released later this year. Please find the original text of the call below.
Spark is pleased to invite postgraduate scholars of all disciplines enrolled at any institution to submit papers for inclusion in our upcoming journal Issue 8 on the theme of Sustaining Change.
Between the ongoing activism of the ‘Fridays For Future’ movement and COP26, the importance of promoting a more sustainable future on the basis of radical climate action has rarely been clearer. However, sustainable change concerns more than environmental awareness and a more ecologically-friendly lifestyle. The past two years of living through and with a global pandemic have demonstrated both the importance of sustaining healthcare systems and promoting physical and mental health—from dealing with physical vulnerability, anxiety, and managing stress to fostering resilience and a healthier work-life balance. By creating opportunities for a more flexible work life, the pandemic has demonstrated that considering employees’ needs more fully might not only be possible but desirable. On a larger scale, this also invites us to rethink what the ‘new normal’ might entail: how community living can be more sustainable and nurturing, the role culture and the arts play in this respect, and how humans relate to nature and their environments.
Although the negative side of change can endanger species, ways of living, and traditions, changes also hold the potential for economic, political, social, and artistic advancement. Therefore, implementing change frequently means navigating safety and risk, and highlighting the importance of making changes sustainable for present and future generations and communities.
The theme has been purposefully left open, in order to allow for a broad range of interpretations from different disciplinary perspectives. Although the theme is topical to the global status quo, authors can apply it to any aspect of the past, present, or potential futures..
Ways in which the theme could be approached include, but are not limited to, the following areas:
Challenging ideas, theories, concepts, and schools of thought
Rethinking social worlds, communities, people, and gender
Borders, migrations, displacement, and diaspora
Socioeconomics and politics, criminality, and justice
Green recovery, climate emergency, and environmentalism
Creativity, innovation, and technology
Artistic renewals, cultural, and linguistic ruptures and developments
Sustainability in educational trends
Organisational change, HR, employability, and corporate social responsibility
Ecosystems, species, and the relationships between society and the natural world
Environmental regulation, licensing, and policy
Sustainable engineering, water and food provisions
Organismal genetics, disease control, health, and mental health
Authors can discuss the theme in any way they choose and/or explore its interdisciplinary aspects. We also welcome collaborative papers examining the theme from multiple perspectives.
The deadline for abstracts of c200 words has been extended to 14 February 2022. The online submission form is available below. Please specify in your abstract whether you are intending to submit an article (3,000-6,000 words) or a letter to the editor (1,500-2,000 words). If you are interested in submitting a book review, please email the team directly with details of the author and title of the work you are proposing to review. Authors of accepted abstracts will be invited to submit their full paper by April 2022. All submissions will be subject to double blind peer reviews and copyediting. The final versions will be published as part of SPARK Issue 8, to be available online in autumn 2022.
For further information on the process please see our FAQ or contact the team.
