The Independent Social Research Foundation (IRSF) is hereby calling for submissions of suggested topics for one or more face-to-face workshops generating a series of papers ultimately to become a special issue or forum (a collection of articles within an issue) in the Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour (JTSB).
Developing and refining ideas is often helped when researchers can work together face-to-face; workshops can accelerate intellectual progress and form intellectual communities. The ISRF is therefore offering funding for workshops that it expects will lead to the publication of a series of papers. JTSB is lending its support as well, committing to the publication of workshopped papers in a special issue or forum (subject to a successful peer-review outcome).
As the special issue or forum will appear in JTSB, the papers should be appropriate for that journal. The aims and scope of JTSB can be found here. JTSB publishes conceptual rather than empirical analyses of theoretical or methodological issues relating to social behaviour. In addition to considering the importance and innovativeness of the proposed topic, the editors will favor proposals that include contributors who are diverse across gender, race, nationality, discipline, rank, and institutional membership, including those institutionally unaffiliated.
The prize will be awarded in a two-step process. First, applicants are invited to submit a preliminary proposal consisting of a title along with at most 1,000 words on the topic, its importance, and potential contributors. The curriculum vita of the organizer(s) should also be included. Initial proposals, to be made via the ISRF’s application portal, should be submitted by 5pm BST, 5th June 2023.
A joint committee of the ISRF and JTSB will consider these preliminary proposals and invite a small subset to submit a full proposal. The full proposal will include between five to eight contributors, along with their curriculum vitas and abstracts of their proposed papers. Full proposals, again to be made via the ISRF’s application portal, should be submitted by 5pm BST, 29th September 2023. Further details will be provided to the shortlisted projects.
Final award decisions will be made by 31st October 2023. The special issue or forum is expected to run in JTSB in 2025.
The ISRF is interested in original research ideas that take new approaches and suggest new solutions, to real world social problems. The full statement of the ISRF’s criteria and goals may be viewed here.
JTSB was founded in 1971 by Rom Harré and Paul Secord to advance their alternative to the positivistic approach that was permeating much of social psychology at the time. Particularly featured were Rom Harré’s discursive psychology; James Gibson’s ecological psychology; social Serge Moscovici’s social representations theory; Anthony Giddens’s structuration theory; and Roy Bhaskar’s critical realism. Since that time, JTSB has grown to be one of the major vehicles for non-positivist publications across many disciplines.