Call for Papers: Community, Work & Family Special Issue

Work-Family Justice: Meanings and Possibilities

Overview: Heejung Chung, Ameeta Jaga, and Melissa Milkie, representatives of the Work and Family Researchers Network, are editing a special issue of the journal Community, Work & Family open to papers that were presented at the Work and Family Researchers Network conference in June 2022. We seek submissions that offer new evidence and perspectives into the persistent work-life challenges experienced by diverse kinds of workers across the world. The aim of the special issue is to further knowledge on understanding the structures and cultures linked to intersecting inequalities at work and home and pathways for change. As such, this special issue will also extend ideas from the 2020 WFRN conference and its 2021 Community, Work and Family issue on “advancing equality at work and home.”

Background information. As we rethink paid and unpaid work in a changing world, how will it become more sustainably equitable? How will individuals in diverse family forms fare and what will policy and workplace support look like? We are delighted that our June 2022 WFRN conference in NYC, with the theme of “Work-Family Justice: Practices, Partnerships and Possibilities”, was rich with generative sessions, including Presidential and thematic panels featuring leading scholars and practitioners who interrogated the diverse meanings of work-family justice as well as how it can be practically achieved “on the ground.” An important component of this work is attention to assessing how those embedded in more marginalized positions – based in socioeconomic class, racialized identities, gender, colonized nations, and other peripheral statuses – are disadvantaged within the work-life intersection and how structures can become more equitable for all.

The world of work, and its intersection with our family lives, is at a major crossroads. We have witnessed remarkable challenges and changes over the past few years spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic – in the economy, technology, health, education and of course, the key realms of work and family. Crucial questions about an equitable future of work and care remain. As we rethink work, how will we ensure it is equitable? How do we expand plural understandings of work? How will societies forge the best conditions for essential workers? What is the future of remote work and the hybrid office, and how will it relate to equality? How can work be flexible for all kinds of workers? What kinds of care supports will governments and workplaces step up to provide? As work-family scholars and leaders, we are on the front line of observing changes and creating knowledge about what matters at the intersection of these fundamental pillars of people’s lives – work and family.

Because the values of justice and equity at the work-family interface are central to quality of life and civil society, we especially value submissions that offer possibilities for change. We are particularly interested in manuscripts that empirically assess, potentially compare, and even challenge status quo work and family programs and policies to advance support for workers and families in different national and socio-economic contexts.

Anticipated Content: We expect that this special issue will include 6-8 articles plus an introduction by the editors. Our goal is to accept a portfolio of articles that, together, offer diverse and novel perspectives on the meanings and possibilities of “work-family justice” across the world.

Articles should be no longer than 8000 words inclusive of tables, references, figure captions, footnotes, endnotes. When submitting, you will be able to indicate that your paper should be considered for the special issue Work-Family Justice: Meanings and Possibilities. Detailed submission guidelines can be found here: https://www.tandfonline.com/action/authorSubmission?show=instructions&journalCode=ccwf20

Timeframe:

  • The submission site will open for manuscript submissions for the special issue on December 15, 2022.
  • The deadline for submission is January 15, 2023.
  • We anticipate completing the initial review of manuscripts by April 15, 2023, if not earlier.
  • Revised manuscripts must be resubmitted by June 1, 2023.
  • All manuscripts must be ready for publication by August 1, 2023.
  • The special issue will be published in December 2023, but accepted articles will be made available earlier as online publications.

Inquiries:

Questions about the special issue can be directed to the special issue editors

Heejung Chung (h.chung@kent.ac.uk)

Ameeta Jaga (ameeta.jaga@uct.ac.za)

Melissa Milkie (melissa.milkie@utoronto.ca)

General inquiries about submissions and the journal can be made to CWF journal Co-Editors Mara Yerkes (M.A.Yerkes@uu.nl) or Richard J. Petts (rjpetts@bsu.edu).