In recent years, political crises have proliferated across the globe, manifesting in forms as varied as democratic backsliding, constitutional breakdowns, mass protest cycles, governance failures, and conflicts over sovereignty and representation. These developments expose the limits of conventional analytical frameworks, which often treat crises as self-evident events derived from objective indicators of disruption. Such approaches are increasingly insufficient to account for the contingent, constructed, and temporally complex nature of contemporary political transformations.
This call starts from the premise that political crises are not merely objective breakdowns, but historically situated and socially mediated processes. A crisis emerges not simply from structural deterioration, but from the convergence of perceived threat, urgency, and uncertainty, as well as from the interpretive struggles through which these elements are defined and politicized. In this sense, crises are as much produced as they are experienced: they are shaped by discourse, institutional capacities, and the ability of actors to impose particular readings of disruption.
At the same time, it is crucial to resist the tendency to equate crisis with moments of total systemic rupture. Not all crises generate fully fluid conjunctures or open-ended trajectories. While some destabilize institutional orders and create conditions of radical indeterminacy, others remain partially contained, managed within existing frameworks, or stabilized through institutional and interpretive mechanisms. Distinguishing between degrees and types of crisis, rather than assuming uniform breakdown, is therefore a central theoretical and methodological challenge.
This call for papers invites scholars from across the social sciences and humanities to engage critically with these issues and to contribute to a renewed research agenda on political crises. We particularly seek contributions that advance conceptual clarity, develop innovative methodological tools, or offer theoretically informed empirical analyses that capture variation in the dynamics, temporality, and construction of crises across different contexts.
Suggested Themes (but not limited to):
- Reconceptualizing political crisis: beyond objectivist and event-centered approaches
- Methodological innovations (qualitative, quantitative, computational, or mixed methods) for analyzing crisis as process, perception, and construction
- Comparative and transnational approaches to crisis formation and diffusion
- Multi-sectoral mobilizations and fluid conjonctures: actor reconfigurations, strategic uncertainty, and cross-sectoral dynamics in political crises
- Temporalities of crisis: acceleration, indeterminacy, rupture, and path reconfiguration
- Intersectional and gendered perspectives on political crises
- Discursive and performative dimensions of crisis construction
- Crisis, institutions, and the limits of governance capacity
- Digital environments and the transformation of crisis dynamics
- Epistemological challenges of studying crises in real time
- Decolonial, postcolonial, and Global South perspectives on crisis and instability
- Intersections between economic, ecological, and political crises
We welcome empirical and theoretical contributions, as well as methodological reflections and critical interventions. Submissions may focus on specific cases or adopt broader comparative or global perspectives.
Submission Guidelines:
- Abstracts of 300–500 words should clearly outline the research question, theoretical framework, methodology, and main argument.
- Please include a short biographical note (100 words).
- Full papers should not exceed 8,000 words (including references).
- All submissions must be in English.
Important Dates:
- Abstract submission deadline: July 15, 2026
- Notification of acceptance: July 31, 2026
- Full paper submission: November 30, 2026
Submission Process:
Please send abstracts and inquiries to: salenda@unab.cl