CEF – Fondazione IIF-Italian Institute for the Future

Call for Paper – The Futures of Europe in a fast-changing Global System

As for the past two years, also in 2023 the Center for European Futures launches a special issue of Futuri journal entirely devoted to the futures of Europe and of the international system. The aim of the issue is publishing theoretical, conceptual, methodological and empirical contributions that, through the perspective of Futures Studies, aspire to analyse the future scenarios of Europe and of the World. In this direction, we recommend studies that make use of methods within the field of Futures Studies and social forecasting – and/or that emphasise the long-term consequences, megatrend effects or multiple scenarios of the topics addressed.

The issue is thematically open: essays from different and (possibly) interdisciplinary approaches are solicited within different and heterogeneous fields: institutions and politics at the national, international and comparative level; economics (including political economy and labour policies) and society (including gender issues); cultures and languages; territorial cohesion, inequalities and/or demographic scenarios; new developments in specific fields such as ecology and the digital sphere, or the new arms race.

Theoretical and empirical analyses specifically addressing the possible future developments of European integration process – and the European Union more broadly – are welcome. Also in this last case, analyses can encompass virtually all aspects of EU integration and its institutional complex: common foreign and security policy, the internal market and/or international trade, environmental policies, interventions such as the NextGenerationEU and its policy implications, political parties and Europe, institutions and integration between systems, and gender issues within and outside institutions.

Deadline and publication schedule

25 February: Submission of abstracts*
3 March: Notification of selected abstracts
30 April: Submission of articles
31 May: Feedback from peer-review process
30 June: Submission of articles revised in the light of referees’ suggestions
July 2022: Publication of the special issue

Instructions for authors

For any information, including content, on Futures Studies, authors interested in publishing in the issue should contact the series editor at the following e-mail address: a.cozzolino@europeanfutures-iif.it.

Abstracts, of between 200 and 350 words, must contain the main indications on the topics to be addressed, theoretical and possibly methodological perspectives. They must also be accompanied by a short biography of the authors.

Articles can be in Italian or English. The evaluation of contributions in this issue will be subject to a participatory double-blind referencing mode: authors agree to evaluate at least one contribution from another author. Articles must be between 25,000 and 35,000 characters (including spaces and bibliography). The bibliography, cited with the American author-data system within the text, will be written following the examples below:

Arnaldi S., Poli R. (a cura di), La previsione sociale – Introduzione allo studio dei futuri, Carocci, Roma, 2012.
Beckert J., Imagined futures: Fictional expectations in the economy, “Theory and Society”, vol. 42 n. 3, 2013.
Campa R., Un decalogo per la tecnoetica, “Futuri”, 11 maggio 2020: http://www.futurimagazine.it/dossier/un-decalogo-per-la-tecnoetica/
Fucile G., E rimarrà solo un apriscatole. Cultura del consumo e apocalissi letterarie, in Paura R., Verso F. (a cura di), Antropocene. L’umanità come forza geologica, Future Fiction, Roma, 2018.

Within the text, quotations will be made using the following: «». Footnotes should be limited to the essential and in any case should not be used for bibliographical references. Please include also a short abstract (750-1000 charachters).

FUTURI is a six-monthly journal on futures studies published by the Italian Institute for the Future. It is recognised as a scientific journal in Italian academic system for “Area 14” (Political and Social Sciences).

30/01/2023/by Roberto Paura

CEF, Ricerche

Healing culture, reclaiming commons, fostering care: a proposal for EU cultural policies

Since 2020, the pandemic and closure of cultural venues across the EU have made the precariousness of the sector even more evident. In response, the commons have been arenas of transformation and communities of resistance for social relations and culture, “as a way to create empathy, give voice to the voiceless, overcome social distance and the emptiness of public spaces”.

“Healing culture, reclaiming commons, fostering care” presents the cultural policy proposal born from a participatory research within the community of l’Asilo (www.exasilofilangieri.it), conducted between May 2020 and May 2021 by a research team composed of academics from different disciplines, artists and activists, in connection with social movements.

The reflection starts from an experience of commoning to suggest bottom-up actions and recommendations for the European Union to give voice to commoners and workers themselves in cultural policies, promote inclusive decision-making and guarantee support for groups made even more fragile by Covid-19. The theory is enriched by examples of grassroots empowerment such as La Tela, a collaborative digital artwork, and the artist residencies in Roccaporena, as a project of social cohesion and innovation to build an empathic connection between artists and inhabitants in the internal areas.

Such proposals question us and act as a bridge towards a sustainable cultural production, capable of fostering principles of cohesion, equality and solidarity.

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03/06/2021/by CFE

Call for paper, CEF

Open call for the Center for European Futures Research Paper Series

Since its creation just over a year ago, the Center for European Futures (CEF) has been working to establish itself as a dynamic and ongoing forum for engaged discussion and debate over the future(s) of Europe and of the European Union, as well as to promote the application of Future Studies to European and International affairs. Based on this aim, the CEF is delighted to announce the launch of an open and permanent call for research/working papers, to be published within its Research Paper series.

The call is open both to early career and senior scholars. We welcome all topics potentially falling into the field of the Social Sciences (including philosophy of science), that:

Directly or indirectly concern the European space, thus involving politics, society, institutions, culture and the commons, political economy, gender studies, and the arts among others.
Reflect on the future(s) of specific topics and issues (e.g., the futures of European integration, environment, the futures of the commons).
Propose ‘exercises of future(s)’, namely exercises in imagining and re-imagining more or less specific aspects of the possible futures of Europe, the EU, and European societies.

In terms of length and style, the Research Papers are ideally rigorous pieces of research and analysis written in a clear, reader-friendly and concise way in order to help sharing ideas. The length of the papers is around 6000 to 8000 words, comprising notes and bibliography. All papers are peer-reviewed by the members of the editorial board of the Center for European Futures and/or of the journal Futuri.

The papers will be published with the ISBN of the Italian Institute for the Future Press, and selected ones will be re-published as chapters in the Yearbook of the Center for European Futures (published once a year).

If you are interested in proposing a research paper, please send an email with your name and institutional affiliation (if any), short bio (no CV needed), a working title and a 500-word abstract to: info@europeanfutures-iif.com

06/04/2021/by IIF