Call for papers: special issue on critical realism and human-nature relations

Leigh Price (University of Inland Norway, leigh.price@inn.no), Andreas Vavvos (University of Crete, Greece & University of Saint Andrews, UK), and Jan Zumoberhaus (University of Fribourg, Switzerland).

Submission Deadline: 28 February 2025

The Journal of Critical Realism is calling for papers for a special issue on critical realism and human-nature relations, to be prepared for publication in 2026 under the guest-editorship of Leigh Price, Andreas Vavvos, and Jan Zumoberhaus.

This special issue seeks to examine the potential of critical realism to deepen our understanding of human-nature relations and enhance our col­lective capacity to address the environmental crisis. It aims to contribute to the critical realist-inspired body of work that seeks to move beyond simple dualisms (nature vs. society, material vs. dis­cursive) to build more integrated, non-anthropocentric, realist, and ethically informed approaches to environmental and ecological questions. It also seeks to continue the cross-fertilization pro­cesses between critical realism and other metatheoretical approaches relevant to the question of the complexity of human-nature relations, such as posthumanism, new materialism, integral theory, systems/complexity theory, postcolonial and indigenous approaches, certain strands of Marxist environmentalism, and studies on environmental justice and techno-political regimes – deeply implicated in extractive economies – that reinforce global inequalities.

We invite scholars, artists, and activists to contribute to a special issue on critical realism and human-nature relations. We welcome papers from environmental philosophy and ethics, anthropology, sociology, geography, political ecology, science and technology studies, environmental education, and related fields. In particular, we seek contributions that move beyond hegemonic approaches to sustainability, resilience, and conservation. We aim to explore the emancipatory potential of critical realism for understanding and transforming the causal dynamics that shape socio-ecological systems and human-nature relations.

Possible themes include (but are not limited to):

·      Analyses that foster dialogue between critical realism and other (meta)theories - such as social constructivism, posthumanism, new materialism, feminism, and historical materialism in response to the ecological crisis.

·      Further elaboration of critical realist interdisciplinarity, dialectical critical realism and metaReality to better understand ecological degradation and its amelioration.

·      Analysis of critical realist morality - grounded in ontological realism and epistemological relativism - and its contribution to achieving an axiology that potentially leads to sustainability.

·      Exploration of the heuristic potential of key critical realist concepts (e.g., epistemic fallacy, eudaimonia, Archer’s analytic dualism, identity-in-difference, morphogenesis/stasis, constellational containment) for ecological theory and ecosystem thinking.

·      Development of critical realism in conversation with ecological thinkers, environmental movements, and ecological artists.

·      Exploration of the synergies between critical realism and decolonial methodologies/indigenous perspectives on human-nature relations.

Deadline for submissions and other information:

·      Submission of full papers should be made to the Journal of Critical Realism by 28 February 2026.

·      Abstracts (350 words max.) can be sent to Leigh Price at leigh.price@inn.no before submission of the full paper for an initial assessment of relevance.

·      All papers will be subject to double anonymous peer review.

·      Submission guidelines and further information on JCR can be found at the journal’s web page: https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/yjcr20.