CfP "Globalization and Multidisciplinary Approaches to Research in the Humanities, Legal and Socio-Political Studies: Problems and Prospects" (vol. 6, 2026, no. 1)

State of the Art:

In a global context, where economics, politics, technology and the values of the International Community have created a multi-faceted world, what emerges is that knowledge of social phenomena is also approached differently.

On the one hand, if the phenomena above are in a constant state of flux and always offer new food for thought, on the other hand, we can see that a transformation in the way of conducting analysis and scientific research on them is almost a necessary condition for a full understanding of them. Cyclically, the legal and social humanities are faced with this turning point, this moment of reconsideration. This is even more so in an era in which academic research seems to be strictly dependent on the provision of public funds, for which research projects must have an increasingly less abstract and progressively concrete perspective.

In these three areas (Humanities, Legal and Socio-Political Sciences), the methodology and the way of conducting research have traditionally been founded and built on a strict inductive application, based on abstract approaches, on the theoretical interpretation of phenomena and the elaboration of thought according to collected data. In some cases, methodological sub-categories have been produced, being typical of the specific field of study or parameterised to the research topic.

In different ways, the three areas first addressed the discourse of globalisation and then that of methodological renewal or transformation. This has also led to a radical rethinking of the contribution by these areas of study to society and institutions. This has inevitably generated a different relationship in the study of globalisation phenomena. On the one hand, we have had the transition from an intra- to an interdisciplinary approach, where it remains to be understood if the latter must be conceived as 'interdisciplinarity' or the interaction between different disciplinary perspectives, or if it is a 'transdisciplinarity' exercised by jurists, historians and other scholars who transcend the limits of their disciplines. On the other hand, the confrontation with globalisation has also produced convergent and revisionist approaches in their way of conducting research, in which the conception of certain cornerstones of their theories were radically rethought in the light of the incidence of phenomena that could not be linked to a single dimension or perspective. This has given rise to several innovative approaches that put different perspectives on the same level, as in the case of the Internet and artificial intelligence, the incidence of sustainability, renewed environmental protection, the importance of science as a factor around which society can revolve, but also has led to confronting with aspects that were previously typical of some of these areas, such as sovereignty, the concept of power, global governance and migrations.

Considerations have also been generated on the way research methodology is taught, examining not only different approaches to the subject, but also the setting of different research questions, the structuring of the problem, and the consideration and evaluation of the theoretical and practical issues that underpin such a way, to the point of prompting various schools to evaluate the teaching of the methodology of their subject or to develop several vademecum that were also an elaborate form of critique of the approach followed by others.

What can be made evident for all these areas is the search for truth through method, but the way to reach this truth no longer seems to be linked to a pure method based solely on a single academic knowledge. There is also the possibility to evolve through the influence (direct or indirect) of other fields of academic knowledge, even distant from each other but united by the study of the same phenomenon from different perspectives. This also seems to have affected the methodology of conducting research in the academic field in practice, especially for fields such as these, which has led to the inclusion of approaches and methodologies different from those typically found in the field and defined as “non-doctrinal”.

Basic Proposal:

This editorial proposal, edited by Gustavo Gozzi and Luigi Sammartino, intends to reason about the relationship between globalisation and scientific research in the legal sciences, social sciences and humanities, trying to understand how much research methodologies have been influenced by globalisation and whether adaptations of them are considered.

To this end, the various scholars involved will be asked three main questions, according to the methodology specific to their field of knowledge and experience:

• Has globalisation affected the methods of doing research in your field of knowledge?
• How much do you think it has contributed to the development of a multidisciplinary approach?
• Do you think that the multidisciplinary approach can influence the research methodology in your field of knowledge pro futuro? How and to what extent?

Scholars willing to participate in the debate are invited to submit by 15 September 2025 a 1000-word abstract on a proposed perspective on the topic. They must send it by mail to athena@unibo.it (and in cc gustavo.gozzi@unibo.it and luigi.sammartino2@unibo.it). 

Outcomes of the selection process will be delivered by 7 October 2025 at last.

Final papers must be submitted to the Review by February 2026. They will be published in vol. 6 (2026), no. 1 in May-June 2026.