Call for Abstracts. Special Issue "Life Choices: Content, Factors, Concepts"

2023-05-15

The journal Monitoring of Public Opinion: Economic and Social Changes announces a call for applications for a Special Issue "Life Choices: Content, Factors, Concepts".

Guest editors of the Issue: Cand. Sci. (Econ.) Svetlana S. Biryukova (VTsIOM, HSE University), Cand. Sci. (Psych.) Alexandra A. Bochaver (HSE University), Maria A. Nagernyak (HSE University, Human Capital Multidisciplinary Research Center), Ekaterina S. Pavenko (HSE University), Cand. Sci. (Econ.) Oxana V. Sinyavskaya (HSE University).

 

In recent years, the Russian economy and society have faced a series of non-market shocks that have significantly changed both the country's economic landscape and the behavior of the population. A high degree of socio-economic uncertainty makes it difficult to make important life decisions in various areas: education, family, work, and even everyday life. At the same time, such decisions can have a significant impact on people's biographies and their life chances in the long term.

Within the Special Issue of the Monitoring of Public Opinion Journal we invite researchers to discuss theoretical, conceptual, and empirical problems related to such topics as life planning, determining choice and the boundaries of rationality in making important life decisions, understanding objective possibilities and limitations of conscious choice in various areas.

The purpose of the Special Issue is to develop a discussion on the topic of opportunities and limitations of choice in various spheres of human life in the modern socio-economic context. We are hoping to see studies regarding these issues from the standpoint of sociology and interdisciplinary approaches that combine sociological, economic, demographic, psychological, and cultural optics.

 

The editors will consider applications regarding the following areas of research:

  • Decision-making mechanisms in key areas of life at different ages. Rational and spontaneous choice;
  • Personal choices in the context of the life path, their role and retrospective assessment;
  • The impact of life-changing decisions in various areas (education, family, professional sphere) on life chances and inequality of opportunity in the long term
  • Intergenerational transfer of effects associated with life choices
  • The boundaries of rationality in family and demographic behavior, its factors and the relationship of life choices in the family sphere with other spheres of life
  • Study of time as a resource and a factor influencing choices in key areas of life. Distribution of time budgets
  • International and intergenerational comparisons of life choices in various life spheres
  • Possibilities and limitations of using various survey methods to study life choices, problems of data availability and reliability.

We accept studies based on quantitative or qualitative methods of sociological, cultural, psycho-sociological, demographic, and economic analysis using official statistics and population surveys. We welcome research using multidisciplinary approach and modern methods of statistical analysis, including modeling of socio-demographic processes nd decision-making. A mandatory requirement for articles is to justify the choice of the theoretical framework of the work, research methodology, and data sources.

Applications for the Special Issue are accepted by email (biryukova_s@wciom.com) until August 1, 2023. Please indicate the following subject when sending the letter: “Application for a Special Issue — Life Choices”. The application must include:

  • Title of the article;
  • Brief information about the authors (position and place of work, contact email);
  • Abstract to the article of 300 to 500 words, containing the main purpose of the study and brief information about the theoretical framework of the work, research hypotheses, information about the methods used in the work and its empirical basis (data).

Applications are accepted in Russian or English.

The deadline for making decisions on applications is September 15, 2023.

The deadline for preparing full-text articles for selected applications is December 15, 2023. Full texts for selected applications are accepted through the Journal website (https://www.monitoringjournal.ru/) and must meet the requirements for manuscripts described in the Author Guidelines section: https://www.monitoringjournal.ru/index.php/monitoring/about/submissions.

The planned publication date of the Special Issue is May—July 2024.