CALL FOR PAPERS
The journal Sociology of Care announces a call for submissions for a special thematic issue:
“THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIAL WORK: HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT AND CONTEMPORARY APPROACHES”
Issue Editor: Cand. Sci. (History) Tatyana Valeryevna Zaltsman (PSTGU)
For a long time, social work existed in a mode of “theoretical invisibility”: while being a powerful practice of intervention, it rarely became an object of sustained epistemological reflection. Today, as the discipline simultaneously institutionalizes and experiences a crisis of identity, it is especially important to turn to the genealogy of its theoretical language.
This special issue invites authors to reflect on how the idea of care became scientific knowledge. We are interested not so much in a chronology of events as in the history of concepts, categories, and theoretical frameworks that have shaped—and continue to shape—the boundaries of the profession.
Submissions are invited in the following areas:
- History of ideas (origins and development of concepts, intellectual history, translation and knowledge transfer)
- Critical theories: power, inequality, emancipation
- Practical epistemology: how is knowledge about care produced?
- Digital challenges
- Boundaries, identity, and the future of the social work profession
Special format
In addition to research articles, we welcome interviews with experts in the theory and practice of social work, as well as manifesto-essays that problematize contemporary social policy.
Submission guidelines
Manuscripts must be prepared in accordance with the Author Guidelines of the journal Sociology of Care and include the note “Theory of Social Work”.
All submissions will undergo external peer review to ensure quality and relevance to the theme of the special issue.
Submission deadline: October 1, 2026.
Please send manuscripts to: el.vyugovskaya@gmail.com