By Paul Patton, editor of Journal of Social and Political Philosophy
Journal of Social and Political Philosophy (JSPP) is an exciting new venture in collaboration with the School of Philosophy at Wuhan University, one of the leading universities in China.
While there are other English language journals published in China or in association with Chinese universities, JSPP is the first such journal in the field of social and political philosophy. The Editorial and Advisory Boards include a number of scholars of Chinese political thought and comparative social and political thought. However, our ambition is to create a broad spectrum journal that extends the scope of social and political philosophy understood as a global enterprise. To that end, we accept articles addressing the classical problems of political and social philosophy as well as the philosophical dimensions of new global social and political challenges. We will publish high quality material regardless of philosophical, ideological or methodological orientation, including analytic, continental, Confucian, critical, Daoist, feminist, genealogical, realist and other approaches (this list is not intended to be exclusive). We publish research articles, critical responses, book reviews, review essays, and symposia on issues and books of particular importance. We welcome submissions and proposals for publication in all these categories.
Located at the crossroads of European, American and East Asian philosophical traditions, JSPP aims to become a flagship journal for the engagement between Eastern and Western social and political thought. We welcome contributions that address contemporary encounters, debates and controversies between Western social and political thought and East Asian approaches, including but not limited to Chinese traditions. We are especially interested in forms of dynamic engagement between East Asian and Western approaches to social and political philosophy. Recent debates over the possibility and nature of Confucian democracy or Confucian public reason provide examples of new fields of normative inquiry that cut across otherwise distinct traditions. We want to promote this kind of cross-cultural conversation between different traditions and approaches to social and political thought. Contributions to the history of social and political thought are also welcome, especially where these bear on issues of contemporary concern.
Before settling on its current orientation, JSPP began as a project to transfer to Wuhan University Studies in Social and Political Thought (SSPT), the journal produced by faculty and graduate students of of the Centre for Social and Political Thought at the University of Sussex. This journal was founded in 1999 and re-launched in 2010 with a prestigious International Advisory Board, several of whom have agreed to continue to serve as advisors for JSPP. The quality and constitution of the current Advisory Board is a testament to the global ambition of JSPP. Our ambition is to make JSPP a worthy successor and one that maintains the high standards and openness to a wide range of critical methodological approaches within social and political thought that was a distinctive feature of SSPT. We look forward to making this a leading international journal in social and political philosophy and welcome comments and suggestions as well as submissions.
We are offering free access to the first issue until 11 April 2022. Navigate to the issue homepage to access articles.
Journal of Social and Political Philosophy provides a forum in which to address the new challenges facing social and political thought in the twenty-first century.
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