The double-blind peer-reviewed journal publishes original research articles and book reviews in the fields of economics, social sciences, and business studies, which address social and economic issues in Central and Eastern Europe or have relevance for social and economic development in this region.
While it welcomes articles from the international academic community, Society and Economy seeks in particular to provide an international forum for scholars working in the research traditions of this region. The journal welcomes submissions of high-quality and multi-disciplinary articles that address social, demographic, political, economic and industrial trends and challenges. Society and Economy is a gold open access journal since 2019 but limited number of full waiver available.
Impact and ranking (2023)
Scopus CiteScore 1.5 (Q2) | Scimago SJR 0.243 (Q3) |
Journal: Society and Economy (Scimago Q3, H-index: 16, Gold Open Access — no article processing fees)
Concept: In a recent major reference work on non-state actors — understood as organisations in diverse domains of activity, from NGOs to corporations, media organisations, academic organisations, armed/violent non-state actors and social movements — Marton (2024: 21-22) defines non-state actors' political relevance as resulting from complex agency that is a combination of plausibly exercised political agency and highly probably exercised domain-specific agency. Political agency being plausible implies that capacity may not always and necessarily combine with the willingness to act autonomously with political aims. Domain-specific agency describes an organisation's decisions and actions taken while conforming to the imperatives of its own basic area of activity, be it profit-making economic activity, as for a corporate actor; activist or service-provision work, as for some non-governmental organisations; the production of news and broader journalism for media organisations; or the conduct of war and violence for armed/violent non-state actors, inter alia. Building on this definition, the special issue focuses on the current-day agency, impact and influence of non-state actors in the Central/Eastern European region. Contributions from a wide range of disciplines and methodological approaches are welcome. Additionally, historical case studies exploring past instances of significant non-state actor agency are also encouraged, with a view to refining our understanding and application of the above concepts.
Context and relevance: With the entry into office of the Trump administration, some observers raise the notion of a return to state-dominated, transactional international affairs. This would seemingly leave less room for meaningful agency by non-state actors in world politics. Such assumptions ought to be critically investigated not just with a view to understanding any — most likely significant — agency that may persist nonetheless, but because it is questionable if the observation is fundamentally correct. President Trump refused to divest from his private interests, even expanding the latter by his involvement in the launch of a very personal new cryptocurrency. His administration’s close consultation and direct engagement with oligarch-like figures, such as Elon Musk, further renders it pertinent to raise the issue of non-state-actor-to-government relations. So does the visible mobilisation of economic and social interest groups connected to both President Trump's campaign and victory. Beyond the United States, including in the CEE region, politics continues to be shaped at various scales by a myriad of non-state actors — sub-national, national and transnational — as the „significant others” of international relations, from liberal civil society to corporate actors and social movements.
Contact: Special Issue Editor Péter Marton (Associate Professor, Corvinus University) at peter.marton@uni-corvinus.hu
Péter Marton is Editor-in-Chief of The Palgrave Handbook of Non-State Actors in East-West Relations, with co-editors G. Thomasen, A. Rácz and Cs. Békés (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024).
Deadline for the submission of abstracts for selection: March 15, 2025
Deadline for the submission of invited manuscripts, subject to peer review: November 15, 2025