The series is open to accepting new book proposals for new edited and authored book in both long and short form.
Books in the series will cover a broad spectrum of social movements and forward-looking issues. Likely topics include but are not limited to:
- Climate activism and future scenarios (e.g. studies of how environmental movements influence climate policy trajectories)
- Digital-age protests and the future of democracy (activism in social media, hacker movements, AI ethics protests)
- Youth and intergenerational movements (how young activists frame the future of work, education, or human rights)
- Feminist and LGBTQ+ movements envisioning future genders and family forms
- Indigenous movements and alternative futures (e.g. buen vivir, decolonial futures)
- Labour and precarious work movements in the context of automation
- Social movements responding to global crises (pandemics, migration, inequality) with future-oriented solutions
We also welcome theoretical works that push the boundaries of social movement theory (for instance, integrating foresight concepts or rethinking ‘utopia’, ‘solidarity’ and ‘hope’ in collective action).
See our guidance on how to write a proposal
Understanding the publishing process
From proposal to publication, learn about the publishing process with Emerald with our helpful infographic. Download and keep your step-by-step guide (PDF).
To submit your proposal or discuss your idea further, please contact the series editor or Emerald Commissioning Editor:
Series Editors
Camilo Tamayo Gomez; [email protected]
Kaan Ağartan; [email protected]
Emerald Commissioning Editor
Katy Mathers; [email protected]
Calls for submissions
Emerald Studies in Social Movement Futures is a pioneering book series examining social movements through the lens of the future. It explores how social movements anticipate, prefigure, and govern futures in times of rapid change, and fills a critical niche at the intersection of social movement scholarship and future studies.
Aims and scope
The go-to venue for research on ‘the future of social movements and the social movements of the future’.
An alliance between the International Sociological Association (ISA) Research Committee on Social Movements, Collective Action and Social Change (RC48) and Emerald Publishing, Emerald Studies in Social Movement Futures is a pioneering book series examining social movements through the lens of the future.
Responding to a growing scholarly and public interest in how today’s collective actions shape tomorrow’s society and social movements scholarship, this series takes a new direction centered on the tomorrow, exploring how social movements anticipate, prefigure, and govern futures in times of rapid change. The series aims to foster innovative, forward-looking scholarship that bridges theory and practice, and brings global perspectives, especially from the Global South, to the forefront.
The series will publish research on a wide array of social movements (environmental, feminist, labour, digital, racial justice, peace, and more), with an emphasis on how these movements and collective actions performed in the present and imagine and influence social futures. Key themes include: new future democracies (e.g. radical democracies, post-capitalist democracies, AI democracies); reimagining key social movements and sociological concepts (e.g. recognition, solidarity, necropolitics, memory); climate justice movements and their anticipatory governance strategies; digital activism in the era of AI and algorithmic change; prefigurative politics and ‘building the future in the present’ (e.g. in autonomous zones, cooperatives); youth movements (such as Fridays for Future) that explicitly invoke future generations; and social movements in emerging domains (e.g. data rights, post-pandemic social orders).
By focusing on ‘cartographies of the future’, the series will map how activists envision possible futures and the pathways to achieve them. It will capture how social movements and collective actions today are shaping new horizons of social change, thus filling a critical niche at the intersection of social movement scholarship and future studies.
This title is aligned with our fairer society goal
We are passionate about working with researchers globally to deliver a fairer, more inclusive society. This perhaps has never been more important than in today’s divided world.
