Call for papers Special issue on Public Policies

Faced with a systemic crisis of capitalism, whose effects in the European periphery are of an increasingly intense and seemingly unstoppable nature, the discussion about the role of public policy is of renewed relevance. States use it for setting public agendas with different purposes aimed at social well-being – e.g., economic development, improving social areas such as health and education, encouraging culture and the arts, reducing social inequalities and ensuring citizens’ access to public goods – the analysis and discussion of public policy cannot be conducted away from the minefield of political and ideological choices. While the discourses of the political actors may coincide, in rhetorical terms, in praise of political and public agendas linked to the safeguarding of general welfare and the improvement of living conditions, this is a field where political confrontation is particularly acute. That is, political action is guided by interests and commitments that are reflected in different directions for setting public agendas and the role of the state, private sector initiative and civil society.

Faced with a crisis response which in Portugal is based on neoliberal principles which, reflecting the atrophy of the State in social terms, enhance the growing presence of private and third sector organizations in the planning and implementation of public policies, it is pertinent that this socio-political context is analysed without losing sight of other, ongoing, responses, especially in areas such as Latin America. It is important to understand and confront those that are being adopted in peripheral European countries.

We would like to receive want articles based on different disciplinary, theoretical and methodological approaches, which encourage readers to expand their critical capacity and comparative knowledge about public policy, particularly related to:

(I) Public policies, political solutions and theoretical perspectives

(Ii) Between public and private: State, partners and the construction of public policies

(Iii) Public policies, the creation of well-being and reduction of inequalities: interactions and dilemmas.

Deadline:

Articles should arrive no later than 31 December 2012, addressed to Ângela Matos, at cics@ics.uminho.pt.

Instructions for authors:

All articles will undergo a preliminary selection process conducted by the Editorial Board to ensure their relevance to the thematic scope of this special issue. Selected articles will then be submitted to the blind refereeing of two experts.

All texts must comply with the following criteria:

1. They must provide their author(s) name(s), their institutional affiliation(s) and e-mail(s).

2. Texts, excluding abstracts, must not exceed 35,000 characters, including spaces.

3. Each article must be accompanied by three abstracts (in Portuguese, English and French) all of which must be no longer than 750 characters (including spaces). The abstract in Portuguese will be part of the main file (article); the other abstracts must be sent in a separate file.

4. All files, in Word format, must be sent by email.

5. All quotations must be translated.

6. All originals must:

a) contain the final, print ready version of the text, duly revised

b) include a title

c) specify 4 or 5 keywords, following the abstract, and in the three previously specified languages.

7. In text composition and formatting, authors should comply with the following guidelines:

a) Use no more than two heading levels; Introduction and Conclusion are not numbered; use Arabic number for the body of the text;

b) Quotations of 4 lines or less should be placed within inverted commas; longer quotations should be presented as indented paragraph(s), without quotation marks;

c) Words/phrases in other languages should in italics;

d) Non-textual elements must be presented in tables, charts or figures, with individual Arabic numbering;

e) Footnotes will be numbered, without brackets;

f) References will comply with the following example: (Rodrigues, 1993: 103); (Costa & Almeida, 1991: 80-84); (Greenwood, 1997a); (Greenwood, 1997b);

g) References at the end of the article should be presented as follows:

- SURNAME, Name (year), Title of the book, place of publication, publisher.

- SURNAME, Name (year), “Title of the article”, Title of the journal, volume (number), number of first and last pages.

- SURNAME, Name (year), “Title of the article/ chapter”, in Name and Surname of the editor(s) (eds.), Title of the book, place of publication, publisher, number of first and last pages.

- Internet Document: SURNAME, Name (year), Title of the document [Online], available at: address [accessed: date].

- Internet sites and personal or institutional pages: Name [Online], available at: address [accessed: date].

- Articles in online journals: SURNAME, Name (year), “Title of the article”, Title of the Journal, volume (number), number of first and last pages [Online], available at: address [accessed: date].

By admin in News on 12/10/2012