Call for papers: Network and Inequalities

Call for Contributions – Special Issue of Recherches sociologiques et anthropologiques.

Social Network Analysis: Circumventing or Confirming Social Inequalities? 

Over the past decade, Western countries and their public policies have shown an increasing willingness to address issues of inequality and discrimination. However, inequalities between different groups persist, and new forms of inequality continue to emerge. The relational perspective views the world through the lens of relationships between entities rather than focusing solely on the entities themselves. Individuals, institutions, societies, businesses, and social groups interact and maintain relationships that evolve over time. The development, orientation, and structuring of these relationships into networks often reveal more than the study of these entities in isolation.

In this call for papers, we propose to gather contributions that apply social network analysis to the study of inequalities, with the aim of examining how this approach can contribute to existing work and potentially offer new perspectives. As Charles Tilly pointed out, sociology must move from analyzing inequalities in contract to examining inequalities in contact. This mechanism applies not only to social class but also to ethnicity, gender, age, and other dimensions, and it contributes to the persistence of inequalities. The overlap of multiple forms of homophily constitutes a promising line of research for sociologists interested in intersectionality within a transactional and dynamic perspective.

Articles should be between 55,000 and 65,000 characters (including spaces). Authors should include an abstract of approximately 1,500 characters (including spaces) with their submission.

Timeline. Articles, in English or French, must be submitted by March 2, 2026 to redactionrsa@uclouvain.be.

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