Mission statement: A new voice for structuralist research
In its heyday in the 1960s, “structuralism” was one of the most influential movements in the human and social sciences. That influence, however, was always contentious and waned as soon as the early 1970s. Since then, structuralism has attracted rather sporadic attention, usually focused on specific figures such as Ferdinand de Saussure, Claude Lévi-Strauss or Roland Barthes. It has also been dismissed as a coherent, productive method and relegated instead to the status of a passing “fad”. Against this background, the aim of Acta Structuralica is to provide a strong venue where research on all aspects of structuralism can aggregate and coalesce into renewed approaches and coherent perspectives on what, we firmly believe, is still a foundational paradigm.
The scope of the journal will be fundamentally interdisciplinary, spanning linguistics and literary theory, of course, but also anthropology, biology, cultural studies, philosophy, psychology, semiotics or indeed mathematics and physics. Its focus will be as much historical (or historiographical) as theoretical, seeking to unfold the full conceptual scope of structuralism by interrogating its often neglected sources, the paths of their development and their contemporary potential and applications.
Regular issues
All contributions submitted to Acta Structuralica and accepted for publication will be published in the current yearly issue. Contributions are sorted strictly in chronological order. Volumes will be broken down into issues, each issue containing a maximum of 10 contributions. Yearly issues will serve as the stable reference for citation:
P. Flack, "Roman Jakobson and the Transition of German Thought to the Structuralist Paradigm", Acta Structuralica 1(1), 2016, pp.1-12, [DOI: 10.19079/acta.2016.1.1].
Special Issues
In addition to the regular publication of materials in the yearly volume, Acta Structuralica will produce several special issues per year. The aim of the special issues is to provide specific focuses on various aspects of structuralism. In the long-term, they are also meant to serve both as a red thread (by providing a corpus of relevant themes) and as a forum (by punctually encouraging research and stimulating dialogue on particular topics).
Special issues will be advertised through specific call for papers or, alternatively, will be constituted entirely of contributions solicited directly by the issue editor. Special issues will not be peer-reviewed, the editorial responsibility being delegated entirely to the issue editor. Setting the calendar of the special issues is the responsibility of the Acta Structuralica editor. Special issues can be suggested to the editor and the editorial board.
Dossiers
Contributors to Acta Structuralica have the possibly to curate materials in thematic "dossiers". A dossier is a page on the Acta Structuralica website linking to relevant articles, documents, images, etc. An example is Alessandro Chidichimo's dossier on the Fonds Karcevski.
A dossier must include articles published in Acta Structuralica, but can also include external materials. The dossier's curator must obtain permission for the reproduction of any external materials.
Materials included in a dossier are not given a second digital reference. However, it is possible to produce a separate print version of a dossier. In this case, materials receive a new print reference, for example:
A. Chidichimo et alia, Le fonds Karcevski, (Dossiers Structuralica), sdvig press, Genève-Lausanne, [in preparation].
Dossiers can be suggested to the journal's editor by contributors. They can also be created directly by the editor or members of the editorial board.