Call for papers | Social investigation, past and present

Social investigation, at its best, has shown its vitality not only as a form of essay writing capable of illuminating aspects of reality, overlooked by the more conformist and stilted culture, but also as a practice rooted in the less compliant fields of education and social work – a school of politics, a crucible for critical awareness of the present, and a more demanding kind of know-how.

The tradition of social investigation has left a legacy of texts that are still worth rereading today. It has been invoked as an antidote to the self-referential closure of practitioners both in cultural fields and in educational and care professions. When intertwined with different forms of action, it has engaged with the methods of action research, which have played a significant role and have had various interpreters in the pedagogical and educational tradition. It has embodied a minority ethical stance in a country still susceptible to the allure of a type of intellectual who takes pride in avoiding engagement with numbers, laws, and technicalities. A stance that remains urgent in the face of a public sphere increasingly vulnerable to manipulation; to educational rhetoric based on emotional adherence and suggestion, no less insidious than petty ministerial authoritarianism; to a university pedagogy that still lingers on consolatory abstractions and self-confirming research.

The Primopiano of issue 20 of “Educazione aperta” brings together contributions on social investigation from different perspectives:

- as a practice that can shape collective work in schools, services, and organizations committed to social change. Proposals are welcome on educational and research pathways that adopt approaches close to social investigation or the use of specific tools (such as interviews) in educational, school, or socially engaged contexts.

- As a relevant tradition from the perspective of political-cultural history, literature, and education, within which authors, journals, essays, and books have emerged that are still worth studying and rereading today.

- As a common ground among different disciplinary hubs (sociology, pedagogy, ethnography, oral history, and beyond) and as a resource for their public projection, including literature, the arts, and communication – especially journalism still capable of presenting itself as democratic pedagogy in its best sense.

- As a formal device able to channel the energies activated by co-research processes: it requires concrete and verifiable outcomes and prevents participatory knowledge-building from remaining at the level of mere statements of principle or strategies of cultural and academic positioning.

Authors are invited to submit an abstract by 30 November 2025 to the address redazione.educazioneaperta@gmail.com.

The results of the abstract selection will be communicated by 15 December 2025. Full contributions must be submitted by 12 April 2026 for editorial evaluation and the anonymous peer-review process. Texts must fully comply with the author guidelines and the related template, from the beginning of the process. The issue will be published in summer 2026.

During the preparation period for the issue (October-July 2025-26), proposals related to the theme of the Primopiano are also welcome:

- for the section Voci, echi e dialoghi, not subject to anonymous peer review and primarily intended for the website (reviews, reports on practices, chronicles, and current affairs commentary);

- for the iconographic repertoire of “Educazione aperta”.