Human Arenas - Article Types and Submission Process Information

The journal aims to bring to life innovative formats of elaboration of ideas while complying to APA norms. There are, in principle, no particular limitations in the length of the manuscripts or in the number of figures and tables. However, if the submission should exceed 10,000 words (excluding references) or 10 images, the authors are invited to discuss the size with the editors. 

Manuscripts should be prepared with Arial 11 and include captions under the images and references in APA style. Any material (excerpts, images, transcripts, quotations, etc.) should be provided both in English and in the original language. Although the article should be submitted in English, the journal can accommodate abstracts in multiple languages upon request. 

When submitting a paper to the journal, authors will be asked to select an article type ("Research Article"), and then will be asked to indicate a thematic collection or unique article format from the options provided. Additional information about these options can be found below. 

Article Types and Formats

Research Article: This article type reflects a more standard academic writing format. All submitting authors must select Research Article as a first step during the submission process. If your article reflects one of the innovative article formats accepted by the journal (Dialogue, Coffee Break, Arena of Readers), you should indicate this on the following Details page. 

Dialogue: Dialogue articles are envisioned to be a Socratic/Galilean dialogue between two scholars. This could represent two different perspectives in psychology or two different disciplines, for example. Authors interested in submitting Dialogue articles can select this option on the Details page during submission. Please click the box under Collection and select Dialogue from the list of options. 

Coffee Break: Coffee Break articles are envisioned to be small excerpts with a short comment to a single page or quotation from a copyright free historical work. An example would be an excerpt from Wundt with a single page comment from the author. Authors interested in submitting Coffee Break articles can select this option on the Details page during submission. Please click the box under Collection and select Coffee Break from the list of options. 

Arena of Readers: The journal does not accept traditional format book reviews. It does, however, encourage innovative formats such as interviews with the authors, elaboration on new ideas inspired by a book, etc. Authors interested in submitting this kind of article can select this option on the Details page during submission. Please click the box under Collection and select Arena of Readers from the list of options. 

Arenas

All authors submitting traditional articles to the journal should also select a thematic Arena that is most appropriate for their article. 

To select an Arena, on the Details page during the submission process please click the box under Collection. Please select the appropriate Arena from the available list. 

Once your paper has been published, you will find it listed on the Arena's collection page in addition to being published in an issue of the journal. To find all Arena collection pages, please select "Collections and calls for papers" on the right side of the journal's homepage. 

The journal currently offers the following Arenas:

Arena of Autoethnography: Autoethnography involves humans reflecting upon their lived experience. The systematization of the reflection generates a range of research methods based on the researcher as the first tool to interpret cultural texts, experiences, beliefs, and practices. This collection welcomes papers on these subjects.

Arena of Becoming: Being and becoming are opposed only in a very restrictive although dominant philosophical tradition. In this arena, the journal opens to the discussion of the ontology of being and of becoming as complementary. For example, does becoming imply motion, transition, purposefulness, intentionality, while being implies stability?

Arena of Borders: The Arena of Borders examines how and why humans construct, maintain and deconstruct borders in mind and society.

Arena of Changing: Change is an ontological category but in social sciences it is often understood as an incident. What are the ways to detect, interpret and predict change? What forms does it take in human activities?

Arena of Creation: In the Arena of Creation, the journal asks - what are the forms of invention, creation, and innovation? What are their consequences in human life?

Arena of Crisis: This arena discusses the relevance of crisis experiences from different perspectives, exploring the concept as part of human activity rather than an incident.

Arena of Development: The social sciences often overlook developmental aspects of phenomena. In this arena, the forms and trajectories of development as inherent to phenomena are discussed.

Arena of Dramatization: Articles that fit within the Arena of Dramatization discuss the different forms of everyday interactions implying a dimension of dramatization, ritualization, and theatricalization.

Arena of Dwelling:  At some point in history, humans turned into dwellers (of places, ideas, affects, etc.). What are the forms and conditions of dwelling? How is dwelling a transformation (of the umwelt, of the identity, etc.)? How does mobility feed into dwelling, and the other way round?

Arena of Ecology: Ecological thinking is a way of understanding phenomena as a network of interconnections and interdependences. This is common in environmental sciences, but not in social sciences. Articles in this collection present an ecological gaze to human activities.

Arena of Epistemology: Articles in this arena discuss the many forms of knowledge production and theoretical foundations.

Arena of Ethics: Although ethics is normative, many experiences appear in the forms of dilemmas that do not have an ultimate solution. Here both the ethical choices in everyday life as well as in research and the system of values are discussed in a multidisciplinary perspective.

Arena of Health: The definition of health is elusive and historically situated. Health is the arena where expectations, fear, business, welfare, everyday practices and social justice are at stake.

Arena of Ideas: This arena provides a platform for discussing the history of scientific ideas, their conflicts, and their futures.

Arena of Identity: In common usage, identity is a powerful word with multiple meanings, experienced individually but able to destabilize and trigger entire countries. In social sciences, the concept is often used with completely different characteristics, as individual and collective, stable and changing, performative and ontological. This arena examines these ideas.

Arena of Imagination: Imagining is a human peculiarity that seems ubiquitous to many activities. However, its definition and study are still to be fully developed. Publications in this arena examine these still developing questions.

Arena of Making: Many thinkers identify humans as homo faber. Undoubtedly, inventing, building, weaving, modifying, improving, trading, but also demolishing are features of human activity. How does this appear in psychological, social and affective phenomena?

Arena of Methodology: In this arena, the systems of scientific knowledge production are discussed, including the metatheoretical code, the theoretical background, the nature of the phenomena, the research situation, the methods, and the type of data constructed. Methodological innovation and creativity and their relationship with the phenomena of interest are welcome.

Arena of Movement: Human beings are always on the move. Phenomena such as migration, displacement, deportation, discovery, and exploration have been a part of history since the appearance of the homo genus. What forms does movement take in human activity? How is movement experienced intra and interpsychically?

Arena of Myth: Mythopoesis is an ubiquitous human activity. It connects cosmic, social and psychological worlds, and archetypal forms contribute to existential meaning-making. Primeval and modern myths echo in everyday life and frame our experiences. How do we study those phenomena in a multidisciplinary way?

Arena of Origins:  Human beings seems obsessed with the problem of origins. Where do we come from? How are origins able to legitimate human rights? One can see the power of this theme in history, politics and social life. This arena promotes an interdisciplinary and innovative debate about the concept of origins, their personal meaning, and their macro-social role.

Arena of Pandemic: Pandemics are a constant in human history and most likely will continue to be in the near future, due to changes in the global circulation. This arena discusses the manifold aspects of the pandemic experience in human life and in the global ecosystem.

Arena of Regulation: Living together implies the development of internalized and externalized forms of regulation of self and other’s behavior and emotions. Self-regulation is an important developmental task. What historical forms of practices, artefacts, rituals, etc. mediate the internalization of values and the creation and change of regulation mechanisms?

Arena of Schooling: Formal education is a relatively recent and limited form of education. In this arena, the different forms of schooling and their individual and collective processes are discussed.

Arena of Spirituality: The spiritual dimension of human experience seems to be universal. However, it has taken many different forms throughout history. What are the forms of human spiritual experience, both individual and collective, and how are they related to other spheres of human activity?

Arena of Subjectivity People in (post-)modern societies are increasingly being addressed as agentic individuals who are held responsible for personal aspects of their life and beyond. This arena discusses contributions on individualization within contemporary developments in a neoliberal context and its alternative or antagonist models.

Arena of Technologies: Human activities are more and more mediated by technologies, which seem to have become a driving force of their own. In this sense, this arena includes contributions on the study of contemporary technologies, materialities, and artefacts, but also welcomes works on technologies of control, death and biology.

Arena of the Body: The body is the arena and the interface of meaning-making. It can be gendered, historicized, hybridated, semioticized, violated, decorated, etc. This arena discusses non-dualistic and non-reductionistic approaches to the topics of body and embodiment.

Arena of Transdisciplinarity: The dialogue between academic disciplines and non-academic production of knowledge is more and more relevant, especially in the fields of social justice, environmental issues and decolonization. Working outside academia is also a way to overcome the disciplinary boundaries that inhibit knowledge creation. This arena examines these ideas.

Arena of Values: Meaning-making and action are framed by different systems of values. Here, we discuss the way values affect everyday life (more or less explicitly) and the ways they are produced and modified.