Transnational Social Networks (TSN 2012)
Deadline for submission of proposals
15th January 2012
For the focused topic on “Transnational Social Networks” of the journal “Transnational
Social Review – A Social Work Journal” (TSR) the guest editors (Andreas Herz and Claudia
Olivier) invite submissions of proposal abstracts.
I. Research Interest of the Focused Topic
Research in transnationalism has proliferated in the last twenty years. Transnational studies focus on the border-crossing activities of individuals, migrant groups, corporations and social movements. A central innovation of the concept “transnationalism” depends on a perspective which refers to cross-border relationships and networks (Mau 2010). Relational ideas underly transnational studies from the beginning (Glick Schiller, Basch & Blanc Szanton 1995; Vertovec 2009), because the investigation of social networks helps to understand the crosscutting transfer of ideas, transnational support as well as the formation of opinions and lifestyles beyond nation states. The social network perspective also enables an analysis of how the embeddedness in transnational social relations represents both, constraints and opportunities for social action in reconstructing relational power and dependency conditions. Transnational social networks are organized in different ways, which range from informal contacts to formalized frameworks. They can be studied with methodological approaches ranging from qualitative and ethnographical studies, mixed-methods, to quantitative approaches by using various methods, e.g.social network analysis (SNA). To illustrate the relevance of transnational social networks in social work theoretical or empirical contributions are invited for the third issue on “Transnational Social Networks” of the journal TSR. Contributions should focus on social relations or social structures of individuals’, communities’ or organizations’ interaction that cross nation-state boundaries and are located in more than one national context.
Abstracts are invited for original articles with the following foci:
* Social support
* Social capital
* Interlocking directorates
* Epistemic communities
* Knowledge circulation
* Learning-, educational- and development-processes
* Diffusion, interlinks and power relations
“Transnational Social Networks” can be brought up in the following contexts:
* Migration and mobility
* Family and households
* Development cooperation,
* Science
* Entrepreneurship
* Media
* Labor
II. Concept and Objective of the Journal TSR
“Transnational Social Review – A Social Work Journal” is a peer reviewed journal and offers an international forum to discuss social work and related disciplines and professions from a transnational perspective. It responds to the challenges resulting from the increasing impact of transnational social, political, economic, and cultural processes and structures upon social work. The journal aims at the transnational opening and development of social work and related fields. Its main objective is to open perspectives for making the concept of transnationalism part of the knowledge structure and practice, in order to extend and transform the legitimation, concepts, research, and methods which to date are primarily nationally-focused.
III. Frequency and Structure of the Journal TSR
TSR appears twice a year by an international team of editors and board members at Barbara Budrich Publishers in Germany. The journal pursues an interdisciplinary approach and fits the criteria of the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI). All articles undergo rigorous peer reviews, based on initial editor screening and anonymous reviews by two or more referees to ensure the high quality of the journal. TSR is available online as well as in print. Its main publishing language is English but the online version offers the option to include versions of the contributions in the language in which they are originally written.
Each issue consists of a cluster of articles on a focused topic as well as general articles and book reviews. The online version additionally includes an open-access section of brief, up-todate reports on research, teaching, social policies, practices and everyday-life concerning the transnational worlds of social work. The first issue was published in Fall 2011 under the topic “The Transnational Organization of Care”. The second issue deals with “Researching Transnationalism in Social Work” and will appear in Spring 2012. The third issue will focus on “Transnational Social Networks” and will be published in Fall 2012.
IV. Requirements for Submissions
The guest editors welcome the submission of contributions. A proposal, in the form of an
abstract, should be no more than 500 words in length and should address the following:
background of the proposed paper; outline of content; and main discussion points.
For those proposals accepted, the deadline for submission of full articles is 31st March 2012.
The following table contains all deadlines and the time schedule of the focused topic on
“Transnational Social Networks”:
15th January 2012 Submission of proposal abstracts
31st March 2012 Submission of full articles
March and April 2012 Peer Review
Mai and June 2012 Revision of articles, if necessary
15th June 2012 Final submission of publishable articles
October 2012 Publication
Articles are to be up to 8,000 words in length. The authors are responsible for submitting
proof-read and formatted articles. For the manuscript preparation please use the style sheet and the formatting guideline, which are available here: www.tss.uni-mainz.de/103.php
V. Contact
Inquiries and all proposals should be sent to the guest editors of the third focused topic on
“Transnational Social Networks”:
Andreas Herz Claudia Olivier
University of Hildesheim Foundation Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz
Institute of Social- and Organizational Institute of Education
Paedagogy 55099 Mainz, Germany
31141 Hildesheim, Germany Phone: +49-(0)6131 39-20794
Phone: +49-(0)5121 883-569 Mail: olivier@uni-mainz.de
Mail: andreas.herz@uni-hildesheim.de
Homepage of the Journal TSR: www.budrich-journals.de/index.php/tsr
VI. References
Glick Schiller, N., Basch, L., & Blanc Szanton, C. (1995). From immigrant to transmigrant:
theorizing transnational migration. Anthropology Quarterly, 68, S. 48-63.
Mau, S. (2010). Social Transnationalism. Life worlds Beyond The Nation State. London/ New York: Routledge.
Vertovec, S. (2009). Transnationalism. London: Routledge.