The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute produces an annual Special Issue, comprising of a collection of articles as voted for by the RAI Publications Committee. Each Special Issue will be distributed by Wiley-Blackwell free of charge to RAI Fellows, and as part of the subscription to libraries taking the JRAI.
CALL FOR PROPOSALS: JRAI Special Issue 2028
PROPOSALS DUE BY 20 MARCH 2026
The Publications Committee of the RAI invites proposals for the Special Issue to appear in 2028. Proposals for the 2028 issue should be sent by email to the RAI via publications@therai.org.uk, by 20 March 2026.
Proposals must meet the following criteria:
• They should contain clear evidence that the resulting volume, if selected, will be authoritative; will meet the highest academic standards; and will appeal to a broad academic readership. Topical themes will be welcome.
• They should be submitted in the confident expectation that, if shortlisted, a near-complete manuscript will be ready in June 2026 (exact date tbc).
• The intended length of the full volume should be between 80,000 and 100,000 words and include between six and nine articles (excluding the introduction)
• They should not be currently under consideration for publication elsewhere.
• Assignment of copyright to the RAI is a condition of publication. Authors and editors will be responsible for ensuring that all secondary copyright permissions have been obtained.
To include in your Proposal:
Please address the following in your proposal. The Publications Committee may ask for further details or clarification of a proposal prior to initial shortlisting.
- Name, position and contact details of proposer(s) / guest editors
- Title (working title if necessary) of proposed Special Issue
- Brief description of the project, activity or event, with dates if applicable, on which the proposed Special Issue is based
- Names and positions of (provisional) additional authors/contributors, if applicable
- An abstract for each article to be included in the issue
- Description of content in as much detail as possible, giving the academic context of the proposal and demonstrating academic excellence, innovation, and appeal to a wide anthropological readership
- Short bibliography of key references
- Details of any images/photographs to be included
- Confirmation that if your proposal is shortlisted, you will be able to provide a near-complete manuscript of the full text in June 2026 (exact date tbc). The intended length of the full volume should be between 80,000 and 100,000 words and include between six and nine articles (excluding the introduction).
- Confirmation that if your proposal is shortlisted, you have obtained all necessary copyright agreements for reproduction of material
- Proposals should be no longer than 2000 words
After proposals are received and the deadline has closed, the RAI Publications Committee will shortlist proposals for further consideration, and notify proposers of this shortlisting by May 2026. Near-complete manuscripts of shortlisted volumes will be required in June 2026, after which each shortlisted manuscript will be double-blind reviewed and a final decision on the winning volume will be given in December 2026.
For more information on the JRAI Special Issues or proposal submissions, please reach out to publications@therai.org.uk.
Current Special Issue
Nightmare Egalitarianism
Editors: Natalia Buitron, Florian Mühlfried, Hans Steinmüller
Associate Editor: Simon Coleman
Egalitarianism – creating equality among people – always requires levelling and measurement. Levelling, however, is often violent, and potentially in tension with local autonomy. Based on case studies from Amazonia, Burma, Georgia, India, Malawi, Morocco, and the Ancient Near East, this special issue probes into the dark sides of egalitarianism. Contributors show how the very forces that level differences also generate new exclusions.
The collection offers a solid framework to distinguish different modes of egalitarianism; the main variable being the strength of commensuration: universal levelling in ‘general egalitarianism’, partial commensurability in ‘segmentary egalitarianism’, and the refusal of equivalence in ‘non-egalitarianism’. By tracing the social dynamics of autonomy, imagination, and containment, the issue invites readers to rethink one of anthropology’s most cherished concepts.
First published: 09 March 2026
Beyond Public Reason
Editors: Charis Boutieri, Samuel Sami Everett, Erica Weiss
Associate Editor: Narmala Halstead
This special issue revisits the concept of liberal public reason, tracing its intellectual lineage from Enlightenment philosophy through Jürgen Habermas and John Rawls to its contemporary role in shaping political institutions and global governance. Long celebrated for its universalist aspirations, public reason has also been shown (particularly through anthropological inquiry) to rest on exclusions structured by culture, race, gender, class, and religion. The contributions gathered here interrogate how liberal public reason operates not only as a normative ideal but also as a hegemonic philosophy and pedagogical instrument, disseminated across transnational contexts as a model of rational, secular deliberation. At the same time, this issue moves beyond critique. The essays examine immanent social projects that enact alternative modes of public reasoning grounded in vernacular, embodied, and relational practices. Emerging both within and beyond liberal institutions, these projects articulate political horizons not fully determined by liberal assumptions. Rather than opposing liberalism to its presumed “illiberal” others, the authors illuminate diverse forms of deliberation – from community organizing and legal argumentation to spiritual claims and practices of solidarity – that reconfigure public reason as plural, situated, and responsive to deep difference without demanding assimilation to liberal norms.
First published: 04 Dec 2025 https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.70003
Previous Special Issues
2025 (S1): Ageing Time Beings edited by Lotte Meinert and Lone Grøn (available on Wiley Online Library here)
2024: Religious Suasion edited by Sam Victor and Danny Cardoza (available on Wiley Online Library here)
2023: After Failure: Temporalities of and Traces edited by Catherine Alexander (available on Wiley Online Library here)
2022: On Irreconciliation edited by Nayanika Mookherjee (available on Wiley Online Library here)
2021: Towards and Anthropology of Data edited by Rachel Douglas-Jones, Antonia Walford, Nick Seaver (available on Wiley Online Library here)
2020: Mind and Spirit: A Comparative Theory edited by Tanya Luhrmann (also available as a stand alone book from Wiley here)
2019: Energy and Ethics? edited by Mette M. High and Jessica M. Smith (also available as a stand alone book from Wiley here)
2018: Dislocating Labour: Anthropological Reconfigurations edited by Penelope Harvey and Christian Krohn-Hansen (also available as a stand alone book from Wiley here)
2017: Meetings: Ethnographies of Organizational Process, Bureaucracy, and Assembly edited by Hannah Brown, Adam Reed, and Thomas Yarrow (also available as a stand alone book from Wiley here)
2016: Environmental Futures, edited by Jessica Barnes (also available as a stand alone book from Wiley here)
2015: The Power of Example: Anthropological Explorations in Persuasion, Evocation, and Imitation, edited by Andreas Bandak and Lars Højer (also available as a stand alone book from Wiley here)
2014: Doubt, conflict and mediation: the Anthropology of Modern Time, edited by Laura Bear (also available as a stand alone book from Wiley here)
2013: Blood Will Out: Essays on Liquid Transfers and Flows, edited by Janet Carsten (also available as a stand alone book from Wiley here)
2012: The Return of Hospitality: Strangers, Guests, and Ambiguous Encounters, edited by Matei Candea and Giovanni Da Col
2011: The Aesthetics of Nations: Anthropological and Historical Approaches, edited by Nayanika Mookherjee and Christopher Pinney
2010: Making Knowledge, edited by Trevor Marchand (also available as a stand alone book from Wiley here)
2009: Islam, Politics, Anthropology, edited by Filippo Osella and Benjamin Soares (also available as a stand alone book from Wiley here)
2008: The Objects of Evidence: Anthropological Approaches to the Production of Knowledge, edited by Matthew Engelke (also available as a stand alone book from Wiley here)
2007: Wind, Life, Health: Anthropological and Historical Perspectives, edited by Elisabeth Hsu and Chris Low (also available as a stand alone book from Wiley here)
2006: Ethnobiology and the Science of Humankind, edited by Roy Ellen (also available as a stand alone book from Wiley here)