Call for paper - n. 2/2025

In recent years, social, civic, and political participation has deeply transformed under the thrust of structural, cultural, and technological changes sweeping through local and global contexts. The emergence of new technologies, the spread of flexible or episodic forms of engagement, and the weakening of traditional identity ties are redefining the meanings, practices, and impacts of participation in local contexts.
Within this framework, participation appears less and less a stable expression of sociopolitical belonging, and more and more a situated, contingent, and fluid experience. Current modes of engagement – which in-clude, for example, episodic (e.g., Macduff, 2005; Pozzi et al., 2019) and digital (e.g., Tommasi et al., 2025) volunteering, online activism (e.g., Greijdanus et al., 2020), civic hacking (e.g., Schrock, 2016), or ad hoc participation (e.g., Reuter et al., 2014) – fit within a complex psychosocial scenario in which new needs, representations, and meanings of community togetherness are intertwined with spatial and relational dynamics. Nonetheless, modern forms of participation still seem to have the potential to provide opportunities for individual and community development in terms of community-building processes, social capital, and responsibility-taking processes (Hedtke & Zimenkova, 2013; Procentese et al., 2019).
This call aims to gather theoretical and empirical research contributions, as well as intervention experiences, that critically and multidimensionally explore ongoing transformations in civic, voluntary, and political participation, with a focus on:

• The psychosocial and spatial antecedents of new participatory forms: which are the characteristics (material, symbolic, relational ones) fostering or hindering their emergence?
•  The representations and meanings attributed to participation by citizens, groups, and communities, and their impact on identity and sense of belonging building;
• The ways of engagement that develop within and outside formal organizations (e.g., episodic volunteering, informal activism);
• The individual, organizational, and community implications of new participatory practices: how does the social added value of new forms of civic participation and engagement shape up? Which forms of empowerment or exclusion can result from them? What are the effects on social ties, community cohesion, and collective efficacy?
• The role of local areas and communities as generative or limiting contexts for participation: how do spatial, social, and symbolic factors influence participatory trajectories?

Studies and research that bring into dialogue the analysis of changes in forms of participation, outlining their emerging dynamics with a situated and territorial framing of contemporary participatory practices are welcome.

Deadline for abstracts submission: [June 30th, 2025]
Abstract length: 500 words max
How to submit: fortuna.procentese@unina.it

All the contributions will undergo a double-blind peer review evaluation process, as requested by the Journal. Everyone being interested in proposing a contribution can submit the manuscript through the platform https://journals.francoangeli.it/index.php/psc/login by July 30th, 2025, mentioning the call for papers it refers to in the cover letter. Contributions in English are welcome.
Authors guidelines: https://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/NR/psc-norme.pdf