Bringing the Ecological and the Social Together in the Green Transition

A Multilevel Analysis

Call for Papers for Special Issue of Regulation & Governance

Guest Editors: Ekaterina Domorenok, Paolo Graziano, Matteo Mandelli and Katharina
Zimmermann

The world is currently witnessing enormous ecological risks, and people’s

awareness is growing – as the emergence of new social movements fighting for
more ecological protection in the world (such as the Fridays for Future social
movement) has proven. However, the costs and risks of stronger environmental
protection and decarbonization policies have also become increasingly evident,
determining frustration in vulnerable components of European societies: for
example, in France the Gilets Jaunes, opposing the introduction of carbon tax ,
underlined the ‘classist’ component of the proposal since – in their view – it would
have constituted an extra-cost to low-income citizens living in the countryside (or
far from the center, i.e., Paris) who were using their car for working purposes and
could not choose to use public transportation due to its unavailability. This is an
example of how ecological and energy transition processes challenge the
consolidated welfare regimes, requiring to substantially rethink social protection
and employment policies in terms of both policy instruments and paradigms. The
so-called eco-social policies, which can be broadly defined as policies aimed at
addressing social and ecological goals in coherent, complementary and consistent
manner, strive to solve conflicts and trade-offs between the two domains that
need to develop in synergy.

The Special Issue addresses the theoretically, analytically and politically salient
issues of how the social and environmental policies combine in a multilevel
context of the European Union’s ambitious decarbonization agenda.

As editors of the special issue, we are particularly interested in the eco-social

politics and policies, focusing specifically on the interplay of institutional and
noninstitutional factors that determine transformative dynamics at the different
territorial levels. Although academic research on eco-social transitions has been
bourgeoning over the last decade, little is known about their underlying political
and governance processes.

Accordingly, by virtue of the various contributions, we aim to advance the

research on eco-social transitions by responding to the following, broad research
questions

1. How can the multifaceted eco-social linkage be theoretically and

conceptually framed with regards to policies and politics?
 2. Who are the main political, institutional and social actors who support
and oppose the emerging regulation of eco-social policies?

3. What are the main characteristics and explanatory variables of the evolving
EU eco-social policies’ regulation and governance?

4. Since the eco-social linkage entails multiple trade-offs, which policy mixes
and governance modes have specific countries tried to integrate and
balance social and environmental goals in strategic policy sectors such as
regional and urban development, transport, industrial de-carbonization,
energy and food policies?

If accepted by the journal and the guest editors to be part of the Special Issue,
papers will undergo a double-blinded review process based on the journal's
criteria. Please note that the length of the manuscript, including references and
footnotes, should be approximately between 6,000 to 11,000 words,
encompassing the abstract, references, endnotes, tables, and appendices.

The deadline for submissions of abstracts is November 1 st, 2023. Abstracts (max
150 words) should be sent to via email to Paolo Graziano
(paolo.graziano@unipd.it).

Conditional acceptance to the SI will be send to the authors by November 15 th

2023.

The latest deadline for the submission of the papers to the guest editors is March
1st, 2024. Earlier submissions to the guest editors and to the Journal
submission website are welcome.

Author guidelines for submissions to Regulation & Governance can be found here:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/page/journal/17485991/homepage/
forauthors.html.