Special Issue Open Call – “Coastal Squeeze: Beaches under Socio-Economic and Ecological Pressure”

Catégorie : À la une, Appels à contribution des partenaires

A new open call for papers for the journal TOMO “Coastal Squeeze: Beaches under Socio-Economic and Ecological Pressure” has just been launched. This open call invite social scientists, especially anthropologists, sociologists, and political scientists, to submit articles that analytically go beyond the idea of beaches as isolated territories and expose the logic of contemporary socio-economic and ecological pressures at the local, regional, national, or global levels, taking into account forms of beach grabbing and their disputes.

Context

Beaches are not isolated geographical territories, but rather territories embedded in political and economic circuits that occur at local, regional, national, and international levels. As such, they are contested territories that are at the center of contemporary political and economic disputes. From this perspective, beach studies are of interest to everyone, not only to those living closer to the sea.

Beach grabbing processes are not something new in our society, nor are the disputes that arise from them. However, since the turn of the 21st century, such processes have attracted more public attention due to growing sociopolitical awareness of issues related to climate change, rising sea levels, coastal erosion, and the coastal squeeze.

As beaches become more and more disputed as limited spaces, looking at processes of beach grabbing can also reveal other rising conflicts, and how the solution to these conflicts (problems) are more likely to come from human engineering – even if this engineering brings on other environmental problems, like a dog chasing its own tale.

Thematics

These considerations around commercial and private beach grabbing naturally lead to questions such as:

  • the legitimacy of access to nature as a common good.
  • the processes of enclosure of and retreat from natural spaces.
  • how moralities and contestations of commerce in natural spaces are built?
  • how elites structure systems of privileges?
  • the construction of natural spaces as “paradises”, and the disputes over who should or can access them.
  • the debates around environmental justice, rising sea levels, and coastal erosion

Calendar

  • Up to October 30th, 2024: Submission of abstracts up to 500 words in English through TOMO’s website.
  • Up to December 15th, 2024: Notification by E-mail of approved abstracts and requests for complete manuscripts from authors, following the journal’s guidelines for authors.
  • Up to March 30th, 2025: Submission of complete manuscripts through the journal’s submission system.
  • April, May and June, 2025: Reviews of complete manuscripts.
  • From June 2025 to December 2025: Proofreading and editing of accepted complete manuscripts and article publication.

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