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Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space

Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space


eISSN: 23996552 | ISSN: 23996544 | Current volume: 42 | Current issue: 1 Frequency: 8 Times/Year
Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space has a new, very different focus. Please refer to the description below before submitting your paper.

Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space is an international journal of critical, heterodox, and interdisciplinary research into the relations between the political and the spatial. It advances debates on the spatialization of politics and the politicization of spatial relations. The journal welcomes original contributions that integrate empirical and theoretical analyses to engage, advance, challenge, and reframe debates about the political.

Visit the other journals from the Environment and Planning suite:

Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space

Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science

Environment and Planning D: Society and Space

Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space


This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space is an international journal of critical, heterodox, and interdisciplinary research into the relations between the political and the spatial. It advances debates on the spatialization of politics and the politicization of spatial relations. The journal welcomes original contributions that integrate empirical and theoretical analyses to engage, advance, challenge, and reframe debates about the political.

Politics and Space values a wide range of critical and radical perspectives and encourages new theorizations, novel methodologies, and decentring ontologies. This is a global journal that supports and welcomes scholarship produced from and about all regions of the world. It encourages scholarship that engages marginalized and oppressed standpoints and critically engages hegemonic forms of power. The journal aims to push the boundaries and potential of research on the political and the spatial by exploring questions including: What is the status of the political in such research? How does thinking politics spatially help us understand pressing contemporary concerns in the world? And how can or should researchers act politically through their scholarship?

The editors welcome empirically-oriented contributions as well as work that is more conceptual. The substantive scope of Politics and Space extends from urban politics to the politics of international institutions; from political economies of development and empire to political geographies of mobilities and identities; from geopolitics to the governance of environmental crises; and from the spatialities of states and sovereign power to the geographies of social justice. Papers should advance knowledge on the intersection of the spatial and the political in any area of the social sciences or humanities.

Managing Editor
Eugene McCann Simon Fraser University, Canada
Editors
Luiza Bialasiewicz University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
Thom Davies University of Nottingham, UK
Rachel Hughes University of Melbourne, Australia
Sarah Hunt University of Victoria, Canada
Editorial Manager
Katie Nudd Freelance Editorial Office, UK
Editorial Board
Ishan Ashutosh Indiana University, USA
Veit Bachmann University of Bonn, Germany
Oliver Belcher Durham University, UK
Lisa Bhungalia Kent State University, USA
Nicholas Blomley Simon Fraser University, Canada
John Paul Catungal University of British Columbia, Canada
Mathew Coleman (Rural and remote psychiatry) University of Western Australia, Australia
Deirdre Conlon University of Leeds, UK
Elena dell'Agnese Università degli Studi di Milano - Bicocca, Italy
Mustafa Dikeç Université Paris-Est, France
Sapana Doshi University of Arizona, USA
Juliet Fall Université de Genève, Switzerland
Rogerio Haesbaert Universidade Federal Fluminense, Brazil
Mona Harb American University of Beirut, Lebanon
Patricia Lopez Dartmouth College, USA
Onofre Martorell Cunill Universitat de les Illes Balears, Spain
Fiona McConnell University of Oxford, UK
Beverley Mullings Queen's University, Canada
Amber Murrey University of Oxford, UK
Godwin Murunga Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa, Senegal
Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni University of South Africa
Patricia Noxolo University of Birmingham, UK
Diana Ojeda Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Colombia
Raul Pacheco-Vega Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO) Sede, Mexico
Laura Pulido University of Oregon, USA
Adam Ramadan University of Birmingham, UK
Maano Ramutsindela University of Cape Town, South Africa
Anna Secor University of Kentucky, USA
Joanne Sharp University of Glasgow, UK
Cristina Temenos University of Manchester, UK
Chih Yuan Woon National University of Singapore, Singapore
Takashi Yamazaki Osaka City University, Japan
Past Editors
Patricia Daley University of Oxford, UK
Alison Mountz Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada
Joe Painter Durham University, UK
  • Clarivate Analytics: Current Contents - Social & Behavioral Sciences
  • Clarivate Analytics: Social Science Citation Index
  • EBSCOhost
  • EconLit
  • GEOBASE
  • ProQuest: CSA Engineering Research Database
  • ProQuest: CSA Technology Research Database
  • ProQuest: International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS)
  • PubMed: MEDLINE (selectively indexed)
  • SCOPUS
  • Manuscript Submission Guidelines: Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space

    Theme Issue & Short Symposia Guidance

    This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics

    Please read the guidelines below then visit the Journal’s submission site https://mc04.manuscriptcentral.com/epc-pion to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.

    Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space will be reviewed.

    There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this Journal. Open Access options are available - see section 3.3 below.

    As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you.

    1. What do we publish?
      1.1 Aims & Scope
      1.2 Article types
      1.3 Writing your paper
    2. Editorial policies
      2.1 Peer review policy
      2.2 Authorship
      2.3 Acknowledgements
      2.4 Funding
      2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
    3. Publishing policies
      3.1 Publication ethics
      3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
      3.3 Open access and author archiving
    4. Preparing your manuscript
      4.1 Formatting
      4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
      4.3 Supplementary material
      4.4 Reference style
      4.5 English language editing services
      4.6 Author Biographies
    5. Submitting your manuscript
      5.1 ORCID
      5.2 Information required for completing your submission
      5.3 Permissions
    6. On acceptance and publication
      6.1 Sage Production
      6.2 Online First publication
      6.3 Access to your published article
      6.4 Promoting your article
    7. Further information

    1. What do we publish?

    1.1 Aims & Scope

    Before submitting your manuscript to Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.

    1.2 Article Types

    Articles submitted to the journal are normally 7000 to 9500 words in length. This word limit includes all text in the article (abstract, title page, keywords, acknowledgements, references, and any appendices - Abstracts should be a maximum of 250 words.) as well as visual aids such as maps, images, or figures. Visual aids are calculated based on their size relative to a journal page, which is 500 words (eg, a half-page figure would count as 250 words). Submissions that exceed this word limit may be returned for reduction prior to review.

    A title page with full contact details (including email addresses) of all authors, author biographies (see section 4.6) and any acknowledgements you would like to make should be uploaded separately from the main document. Identifying information should not be included in your main document or any other uploaded file besides the title page.

    Theme Issue and Short Symposium Proposals

    Politics & Space publishes a limited number of innovative and distinctive theme issues and short symposia each year. Please send proposals to Katie Nudd (katie.nudd@fl.nudd.org.uk). Note that we do not consider proposals that are also being considered by other journals.

    There are two proposal submission deadlines per year for theme issues: June 1st and November 1st (symposia proposals can be submitted any time). The editors will review the proposals and return a response in approximately two weeks. We receive many more proposals that we can publish, so we will normally accept one proposal in each review period.

    Theme issues usually consist of 5-8 regular-sized papers and an introduction. We hope to publish high quality, coherent, and innovative theme issues that clearly fit the journal’s aims and scope. Moreover, we are looking for theme issues where the collections amount to more than the sum of their parts. Ideally, we would like our theme issues to be future reference points in relevant debates. We hope they will make an impact and help people think differently.

    For theme issues, we strongly encourage authors to submit manuscripts of 8,000 words, including references (slightly shorter than our typical manuscripts). (In the rare event that fewer than four papers are eventually accepted, they will be published as ‘regular’ papers.)

    Short symposia usually consist of 3-5 short contributions and an introduction, with a total length being roughly 9,500 – 11,000 words. Symposia proposals can be submitted at any time.

    Proposal Details: Proposals for both theme issues and symposia should be 2-3 pages in length and should include the following in this order:

    • A title (including a clear indication of whether it is a theme issue or short symposium).
    • The names and affiliations of the guest editors and the email address of the corresponding guest editor.
    • A 150-200 word summary abstract describing the theme issue or short symposium as a whole. (This abstract will be sent to referees so they understand the ‘big picture’.)
    • A more detailed overview that explicitly discusses the proposal’s distinctiveness, central contribution, and how the papers or short commentaries contribute to and engage with the chosen theme and with the remit of the journal, specifically its focus on the nexus of politics and the spatial (see our Aims and Scope and also our 2017 editorial for details).
    • An indication of the expected word length.
    • A note that the proposal is not being considered by another journal or book publisher.
    • A list of each of the individual contributions, including:
      • A title
      • The name and brief affiliation (department and institution) of each author.
      • A 150-200 word abstract for each proposed contribution
    • A list of 10 key citations that sum up the theme issue or symposium as a whole.

    Guest editors need not submit their introduction at the submission stage. This will be requested once the review process is complete and the final line-up of papers is known.

     

    Important notes:

    • We value diversity and will question proposals that lack diversity in terms of the gender composition of the authorship, the appropriate range of regional coverage, given the questions addressed by the theme issue or symposium, etc.

    • The editors reserve the right to suggest changes to a proposed theme issue or symposium before making a final decision on its acceptance.
    • We have a general guideline of one lead-authored contribution per contributor, which does not include the editorial introduction.

    Upon acceptance

    If proposals are accepted, one of the Politics & Space editors will be assigned to handle the theme issue or symposium. A deadline for submission will be agreed with the guest editors.

     

    Theme issues: After a proposal for a theme issue is accepted, guest editors assemble contributions, and organize their timely submission. Guest editors are strongly encouraged to review drafts of the papers, prior to submission, and to give feedback to the authors, particularly with an eye to coherence among the contributions. Guest editors must provide the journal with at least 6 referee names per submission prior to the submission of individual papers (with the exception of submissions authored by the editors). These should not simply be names provided by the authors and they should not include names of referees with clear conflicts of interest or who are at the same institutions as the authors. Papers are reviewed individually according to our standard review procedures for original paper submissions. Those that are accepted are published online first, then eventually collected in a print issue of the journal. Given the individual evaluation of the papers, theme issues are sometimes smaller than originally proposed, when all papers do not make it through the process. Theme issues will be scheduled for print publication once the final paper in the collection is accepted and the editors have submitted an introductory essay.

    Short symposia: After a proposal for a symposium is accepted, guest editors assemble contributions, and organize their timely submission (as a single, anonymized document, e.g., by numbering the individual contributions, rather than including authors’ names). This document should include the editors’ introduction. Guest editors are strongly encouraged to review drafts of the contributions, prior to submission, and to give feedback to the authors, particularly with an eye to coherence among the contributions. Guest editors must provide the journal with at least 6 referee names (referees will review the symposium as a whole). The names should not simply be ones provided by the authors and they should not include names of referees with clear conflicts of interest or who are at the same institutions as the authors or guest editors. When a Symposium is published in print, its Introduction receives a Main DOI (eg, 10.1177/2399654420911410) and each other contribution receives a unique sub-DOI (Main + a, b, c, etc.).

    **Note that, for both theme issues and short symposia, guest editors are not involved in assessing reviews or making decisions. This is done by the handling editor. Guest editors will be copied on handling editors’ decision letters for their information and so they can consult with the authors, if they so choose.

    1.3 Writing your paper

    The Sage Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources. Sage Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance their article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation.

    1.3.1 Make your article discoverable

    When writing up your paper, think about how you can make it discoverable. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article through search engines such as Google. For information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords, have a look at this page on the Gateway: How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online

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    2. Editorial policies

    2.1 Peer review policy

    All manuscripts submitted to Environment & Planning C: Politics and Space are subject to a double anonymize peer review process in which the author’s name is withheld from the reviewer, and the reviewer’s name from the author.  Please ensure that your paper is fully anonymised.  All papers are reviewed by at least 2 individuals.

    2.2 Authorship

    All parties who have made a substantive contribution to the article should be listed as authors. Principal authorship, authorship order, and other publication credits should be based on the relative scientific or professional contributions of the individuals involved, regardless of their status. A student is usually listed as principal author on any multiple-authored publication that substantially derives from the student’s dissertation or thesis.

    Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.

    2.3 Acknowledgements

    All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.

    Please supply any personal acknowledgements separately to the main text to facilitate anonymous peer review.

    2.3.1 Third party submissions

    Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:

    •    Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input 
    •    Identify any entities that paid for this assistance 
    •    Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.

    Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.

    2.3.2 Writing assistance

    Individuals who provided writing assistance, e.g. from a specialist communications company, do not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgements section. Authors must disclose any writing assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input – and identify the entity that paid for this assistance. It is not necessary to disclose use of language polishing services.

    2.4 Funding

    Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading.  Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. 

    2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests

    Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space encourages authors to include a declaration of any conflicting interests and recommends you review the good practice guidelines on the Sage Journal Author Gateway

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    3. Publishing Policies

    3.1 Publication ethics

    Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway

    3.1.1 Plagiarism

    Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.

    3.1.2 Prior publication

    If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.

    3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement

    Before publication, Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Sage’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants Sage the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than Sage. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the Sage Author Gateway

    3.3 Open access and author archiving

    Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space offers optional open access publishing via the Sage Choice programme and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish open access either discounted or free of charge depending on the agreement with Sage. Find out if your institution is participating by visiting Open Access Agreements at Sage. For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access. For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines and Publishing Policies.

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    4. Preparing your manuscript for submission

    4.1 Formatting

    The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. LaTeX files are also accepted. Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.

    4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics

    For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines  

    Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For specifically requested colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Sage after receipt of your accepted article.

    Figures should be submitted as TIFF or JPEG for images containing no text or graphs, or as EPS for images containing graphs and line art.

    4.2.1 Maths

    Equations should to be submitted using Office Math ML and Math type.

    4.3 Supplementary material

    This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc) alongside the full-text of the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplementary files

    4.4 Reference style

    Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space adheres to the Sage Harvard reference style. View the Sage Harvard guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.

    If you use EndNote to manage references, you can download the Sage Harvard EndNote output file

    4.5 English language editing services

    Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.

            4.6 Author biography

    Please provide an author biography of 80-120 words.  Author biographies must be included in the title page of the manuscript and not in the text file so as not to compromise anonymize peer review.

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    5. Submitting your manuscript

    Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit https://mc04.manuscriptcentral.com/epc-pion to login and submit your article online.

    IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created.  For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.

    5.1 ORCID

    As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities ensuring that their work is recognised.

    We encourage all authors to add their ORCIDs to their Sage Track accounts and include their ORCIDs as part of the submission process. If you don’t already have one you can create one here

    5.2 Information required for completing your submission

    You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).

    5.3 Permissions

    Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the Sage Author Gateway

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    6. On acceptance and publication

    6.1 Sage Production

    Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be sent by PDF to the corresponding author and should be returned promptly.  Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate.

    6.2 Online First publication

    Online First allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the Sage Journals help page for more details, including how to cite Online First articles.

    6.3 Access to your published article

    Sage provides authors with online access to their final article.

    6.4 Promoting your article

    Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The Sage Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice.  

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    7. Further information

    Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space editorial office as follows:

    Katie Nudd
    katie.nudd@fl.nudd.org.uk

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