Call for journal articles

New Perspectives in Social Sciences (Nouvelles perspectives en sciences sociales)

International Journal of Complex Systems and Relational Studies (Revue internationale de systémique complexe et d’études relationnelles)

On the theme of "Homogeneity and Differenciation"

Every society of any kind is made of similarity and difference because there is no society without recurrence or dissimilarity, a fact which the social sciences, taken together, have always understood, paradigm by paradigm, and often insisted on one of these dimensions. From the School of Frankfurt to postmodernism, from functionalism to ethnomethodology, the lexicon used emphasizes one or some other aspect of social life and relations: norms, persuasion, media, crowd, globalization, system, mass, technology, alienation, sameness-focus assimilation, anomie, autonomy, deviance, postmodernism, marginality, individualization, personality, conflict, promoting dissimilarity. From anthropology to political science, history to psychology, gender studies to communication science, there is no human science that has not been influenced by this duality which implies division, but also coexistence. The division can be understood because the analytical models that are built on both sides provide access to opposing truths. However, coexistence is necessary precisely because the two approaches are in point of fact partly right. Besides, most specialists are aware of the need to reconcile these two approaches, but attempts at some synthesis are quite few and they do not usually garner overwhelming support. Where are the social sciences today in their questioning of the similar and the dissimilar? How are theoretical frameworks in various disciplines able to overcome the dualism and understand societies as a double process of homogenization and differentiation? Why are models that emphasize only one aspect of this process so attractive?  It is to answer questions of this nature that the journal New Perspectives in Social Sciences is launching a call for articles.

Those interested are invited to write to Simon Laflamme about their project (slaflamme@laurentian.ca) and copy Claude Vautier (claude.vautier@univ-tlse1.fr). Articles must be sent to the same email address, no later than Friday, May 4, 2012,  and those selected, after a successful review, will be published in Volume 8, Issue 1 of the journal.

On the theme of "Linguistics, the science of complexity"

Linguistics is today at the crossroads in that, after dominating the twentieth century, it has now become a science in search of a new identity and a new object. The success it enjoyed also caused its disintegration in the face of its multiplex object of study. This object can no longer be hidden; it must from now be examined in the disorder and complexity that generate it. But how can linguistics negotiate the need for objectification and order as well as the imperatives of disorder and complexity? These are some questions we are inviting the research community to answer by laying against a theoretical and empirical backdrop the foundations of a future-oriented discussion about linguistics in the twenty-first century.

Those interested are invited to write to Ali Reguigui (areguigui@laurentian.ca) about their research interests and copy Claude Vautier (claude.vautier@univ-tlse1.fr). Articles must be sent to the same email address, no later than Friday, October 5, 2012, and those selected, after a successful review, will be published in Volume 9, Issue 1 of the journal.