Special Issue: “Rethinking neighborness”

Guest editor: Olga Brednikova, Center for Independent Social Research

 

In the changing world, neighbor relations acquire new meanings, functions, forms, and spectrums. Mobility, automation, and technology that makes people interaction more indirect, influence the way the rules of neighborness are shaped. In the current issue dedicated to this topic, we look at diverse forms and formats of neighborness in contemporary cities. We are interested to determine how the practices and the culture of neighboring are changing over the course of time; how neighbor relations are transforming and how sustainable the forms of neighbor interactions are in the framework of changing structural conditions and contexts. The main objective of the issue is to bring the study of neghborness to new limits – beyond familiar approaches of urban sociology, concepts of solidarity and communication, all of which consider it a sustainable community, connected by a network of relationships. Instead, we would like to offer new methodological, thematical, and disciplinary perspectives towards analyzing neighborness.

 

Call for papers that research neighbor relations in a contemporary metropolis:

  • Various forms of neighborness (online/offline, old vs new neighborness, co-livings, etc.);
  • New actors and intermediaries of neighborness (insurance companies, real estate agents);
  • Different regimes and distances of neighborness;
  • Neighbor solidarity or the refusal of such;
  • Issues of agency and privacy in neighbor relations;
  • Historical transformations of neighbor relations;
  • Exporting familiar practices of neighborness to different cultural contexts.

 

We invite authors to submit their research papers (articles, essays, literature reviews, field notes) in Russian or English through the journal website (http://www.soclabo.org).  The deadline is February 15, 2020. Please, while submitting, write “For the Issue “Rethinking Neighborness”.” Should you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact editor in charge Oksana Parfenova (oparfenova@soclab.org) or guest editor Olga Brednikova (bred8@yandex.ru).