Call for Papers: Inaugural Issue

The Philosophy of the City Research Group will celebrate its 10th anniversary in 2023. It was founded as a forum to bring together scholars from different philosophical traditions—as well as those working on inter- or trans-disciplinary topics—who take the city as a topic of enquiry.

The last ten years have seen the establishment of an annual conference series and summer colloquia, in addition to a variety of special issues and edited volumes, all of which have furnished new conceptual foundations, methodological approaches, and practical case studies. The Philosophy of the City Journal is established as a means to build on this work offering a venue for original research into the philosophy of the city.

Cities have long been the place where philosophy takes place, yet have not often been the object of philosophical analysis. This is a norm that needs to change. As the world continues to urbanise, cities increasingly function as loci for the social, political, and ecological challenges of the 21st century. There is a need to apply the tools and approaches of philosophical enquiry to both the city in general and different cities in particular.

The philosophy of the city should be understood as a set of problems without a canon: problems about (but by no means restricted to) the ontology of cities, urban aesthetics, inclusivity, public space, justice, and political expression. In seeking to help answer these problems, philosophers of the city contribute analyses of urbanism, city life, urban planning, urban design, infrastructures, and others. These analyses themselves contribute to our proper understanding and evaluation of cities in their myriad of forms.

We invite philosophical contributions from scholars from all relevant disciplines. In addition to philosophy, these disciplines include but are not restricted to: urban design and planning, geography, political science, sociology, science and technology studies, design history and theory, and architecture history and theory. All philosophical contributions will undergo full double-blind peer review.

In addition, we also welcome book reviews, as well as interdisciplinary, experimental, multimedia, and other submissions in non-traditional formats, as long as they fall within the ambit of the journal. These contributions will not undergo full review, but will undergo review by the editorial board.

To be guaranteed for consideration for the inaugural issue, we ask that potential contributors submit their papers before the 31st of March, 2023. Papers received after that date may be considered for later issues. When submitting a paper, potential contributors should register a user profile and enter their submissions via the link in the menu bar above.