Call for Papers: Community, Work & Family Special Issue
Big Questions in Work-Family: Charting the Future of Research, Policy, and Practice
Overview: Ellen Galinsky, Krista Lynn Minnotte, and Tammy Allen, representatives of the Work and Family Researchers Network, are editing a special issue of the journal Community, Work & Family dedicated to the theme “Big Questions in Work-Family.” This special issue is inspired by the 2024 conference theme, which launched an agenda to spotlight the most pressing and still to-be-addressed global questions at the intersection of work and family.
Background: The evolving landscape of work and family dynamics presents critical challenges and opportunities. In this special issue, we aim to explore the most cutting-edge research questions and big ideas related to changes in work, family life, and the work-family interface. We invite submissions that contribute to answering the following overarching questions:
- Changes in Work: How is the meaning of work evolving across different life stages, demographics, and job types? How is work organized in contemporary societies, and what does the future hold for diverse populations of workers?
- Changes in Family Life: How are family structures and experiences shifting globally? What are the implications of trends such as declining fertility rates, rising loneliness, and other emergent phenomena for individuals, families, communities, and societies?
- Changes in the Work-Life Interface: What theories, concepts, and methodologies are best suited to explain the new and emerging intersections between work and family life?
- Life Course Perspectives: How do changes in work and family impact various stages of life—from childhood, to children entering adulthood, to adults navigating work-family transitions, to older populations navigating aging?
- Solutions and Promising Practices: What are the most promising solutions in policy and practice that address work-family issues in both the Global South and Global North? What are the best opportunities to promote equity and social justice through work-family interventions?
We seek contributions from a broad range of disciplines, including psychology, sociology, economics, public health, management, child development, and beyond. Submissions can include empirical research, theoretical contributions, thought-pieces about big ideas, policy analysis, or reviews of promising work-family practices. We especially encourage papers that adopt global perspectives, innovative methodologies, and interdisciplinary approaches to addressing these big questions and move us toward solutions.
The goal of this special issue is to chart a research agenda that will guide future work-family scholarship, policy, and practice. We hope this issue will also foster dialogue and collaboration between scholars, policymakers, practitioners, and other stakeholders engaged in addressing work-family issues worldwide.
Anticipated Content: We invite three types of articles.
Regular article. Standard articles can be empirical or theoretical and should be between 8000-10000 words inclusive of tables, references, figure captions, footnotes, and endnotes.
Voices article. For this special issue, we seek Voices articles that offer “big ideas” that can drive work-family research and practice forward. They should be between 2000-4000 words inclusive of tables, references, figure captions, footnotes, and endnotes.
Policy notes. We seek articles that offer “big ideas” for policy. They should be between 3,000-4000 words inclusive of tables, references, figure captions, footnotes, and endnotes.
When submitting, you will be able to indicate that your paper should be considered for the special issue Big Questions in Work-Family: Charting the Future of Research, Policy, and Practice. Detailed submission guidelines and author instructions 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 January 1, 2025.
- The deadline for submissions is January 31, 2025.
- We anticipate completing the initial review of manuscripts by April 15, 2025.
- Revised manuscripts must be resubmitted by June 15, 2025.
- We anticipate completing the second review of manuscripts by September 1, 2025.
- All manuscripts must be ready for publication by October 15, 2025.
- The special issue will be published online in December 2025 and in print in January 2026. Articles will be made available online once they are accepted and processed.
Inquiries:
Questions about the special issue can be directed to the special issue editors:
Ellen Galinsky (egalinsky@familiesandwork.org)
Krista Lynn Minnotte (krista.minnotte@und.edu)
Tammy Allen (tallen@usf.edu)
General inquiries about submissions and the journal can be made to CWF journal Editor Mara Yerkes (M.A.Yerkes@uu.nl).