What can we, as a publisher, do to help re-imagine society in an era of climate change, pandemic, hunger, poverty, questions of racial, ethnic and gender justice and other pressing global societal challenges?
This was the question we asked ourselves at Bristol University Press before deciding to set up a new Open Access journal: Global Social Challenges Journal. We wanted to facilitate thinking about positive new trajectories within an inter- and trans-disciplinary forum which could allow different disciplines and fields to interact with one another to address the complexities of global social challenges – something difficult to achieve in more focused, discipline-based journals.
We proposed the idea of the journal to colleagues at the University of Bristol and they were supportive of our goals, which very closely align with their own values and mission. Some financial support was agreed to establish the journal and we set up an advisory board of academics from across the University to help shape the aims and scope, vision and editorial structure.
Creating the team
We set about bringing together an excellent, globally widespread, group of Editors-in-Chief, who reflect the breadth and scope of the journal:
- Shenggen Fan, China Agricultural University, China
- Julie Thompson Klein, Wayne State University, USA and Transdisciplinarity Lab ETH-Zurich, Switzerland
- Siddharth Mallavarapu, Shiv Nadar University, India
- Bronwen Morgan, UNSW, Sydney, Australia
- Sue Scott, Newcastle University, UK
- David Simon, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK
Together with a fantastic set of Associate Editors we finalised further aspects of the journal including the key themes it would focus on.
The global social challenges
These themes are linked to – but not limited by – the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. We aim to address them and other issues in the context of their interplay with systemic divisions resulting from class, racialisation, gender and sexuality.
The global social challenges are:
- Cities and communities
- Climate change, energy and sustainability
- Conflict, security and peace
- Democracy, power and governance
- Education and learning
- Equity, diversity and inclusion
- The future of work, finance and the economy
- Health and wellbeing
- Hunger, food, water and shelter
- Interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches
- Justice, law and human rights
- Life stages and intergenerationality
- Migration, mobilities and movement
- Poverty, inequality and social justice
- Society, culture and arts
- Technology, data and society
Launch
We published our launch collection in June 2022. The Editors-in-Chief approached a global network of scholars and asked them to ‘think big’, to reimagine and innovate, push and transgress boundaries.
We were delighted that this resulted in a collection of eight papers, covering challenges as diverse as migration, climate change, food security, peace, conflict and global governance, underpinned by a deep exploration of more equitable global research practice. It features two South-South collaborations and a Policy and Practice paper from Agnes Kalibata, President of the Association for a Green Revolution in Africa.
The first year
The journal has had a very successful first year with:
- 20,815 total article views
- 451 social media mentions
- 20 news and blog mentions
- A readership across over 150 countries
Gurminder Bhambra’s For a reparatory social science, which makes a powerful argument for our social research disciplines to commit to undoing ingrained historical inadequacies, and work towards a project of repair and transformation, has been read 5,966 times and mentioned in seven news articles and two blogs, and has an Altmetric score to date of 94.
The future
We continue to welcome submissions for original research articles reflecting the themes of the journal, including conceptual and methodological pieces which further debate and suggest new research ideas. We also welcome submissions for Special Collections which bring together a set of original articles that reframe or develop knowledge on a topic relevant to the journal’s aims and scope.
In addition to standard research articles, Global Social Challenges Journal also invites other forms of shorter and more innovative contributions, which aim to engage practically and intellectually with the journal’s interests to ensure wider debate, engagement and readership- beyond the academy. We encourage authors to submit such pieces in the spirit of ‘interventions’: that is, lively and timely interjections into a dynamic field to give the journal’s readers a more textured sense of the events, impacts and debates that inspire, shape and sometimes challenge the journal’s ore research contributions.
Global Social Challenges Journal aims to encourage inclusivity and diversity in publishing. We welcome contributions from researchers and practitioners at all career stages from all parts of the world and particularly encourage those in less established positions and/or more disadvantaged contexts make submissions. In order to support our desire to be as accessible as possible we are aiming to move the journal from an APC model to Diamond Open Access ,which would mean no fees to publish or read – watch this space!
*Very sadly, Julie Thompson Klein died in January 2023. We then invited Marcel Bursztyn to join the group as we move towards our second year of publication. Marcel is Professor at the Centre for Sustainable Development at the University of Brasilia, and a pioneer of inter- and transdisciplinarity in the Global South.
The Global Social Challenges Journal is available on Bristol University Press Digital here.
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The views and opinions expressed on this blog site are solely those of the original blog post authors and other contributors. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of the Bristol University Press and/or any/all contributors to this site.
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