Call for Contributions – European Sociologist Issue #55 “Artificial Intelligence and Sociology: Challenges of Professional Transformation”
The European Sociologist is the e-magazine of the European Sociological Association. Edited by ESA Communications Committee, it is published online and welcomes articles from ESA members. The European Sociologist has regular sections and, since the #48 issue, it includes a special section devoted to a selected theme.
The European Sociologist encourages contributions for all the regular sections and the special theme of this issue by June 10th 2026.
Sections
DISCUSSION
This section is open to contributions on topics and debates of general concern for the ESA and broader social science audiences, or of specific relevance to RNs or NAs. This may include, for example, commentaries to debates developed in recent events (workshops, conferences etc.) organized by RNs or NAs, overview articles addressing emergent issues, methodologies and literatures, and critical reviews and commentaries.
Contributions should not exceed 2,500 words (including references).
DOING SOCIOLOGY
A) SPOTLIGHT
This section is open to summaries of PhD theses and work in progress of early-career scholars.
B) PUBLIC SOCIOLOGY
This section is open to papers concerning research with direct public impact or other public outreach initiatives.
C) INTERVIEWS
This section is open to interviews with prominent or emergent scholars, concerning their career, theoretical and methodological approach and reflections on the topics of their concern.
Contributions to each section in Doing Sociology should not exceed 2,500 words (including references).
SPECIAL SECTION #Issue 55.
Artificial Intelligence and Sociology: Challenges of Professional Transformation
Call for articles
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming not only societies, but also the very practice of sociology. From data analysis to writing, teaching, and publishing, AI is redefining what it means to be a sociologist today. More broadly, AI is reshaping contemporary societies, transforming economic organisation, governance, communication, everyday life, and all domains of social life. Sociology is increasingly called upon to play a leading role in analysing these transformations, including the reproduction of existing and emerging inequalities, the intensification of biases, the commodification of higher education, and the disruption of established patterns of communication and sociability. At the same time, AI is profoundly altering the practice of doing sociology itself: how sociological knowledge is produced, analysed, evaluated, taught, published, and communicated to the wider publics.
While sociologists have actively contributed to the analysis of digitalization, algorithms, and platform societies, less systematic attention has been paid to AI as ever more relevant feature of professional and epistemic transformations within sociology. The rapid diffusion of machine learning, large language models, and automated data processing raises fundamental questions about sociological methods, theory, academic labour, ethics, and public responsibility.
This special issue of European Sociologist aims to provide a forum for reflecting on how AI is reshaping sociology as a discipline and as a profession in Europe and beyond. Bringing together empirical, theoretical, methodological, and reflexive contributions, the issue seeks to strengthen sociology’s capacity to critically engage with AI-driven social change, while also examining its own internal transformations, perspectives, challenges, risks and promises.
We particularly welcome a diversity of contributions, including empirical, theoretical, methodological, and reflexive work. Submissions may draw on qualitative, quantitative, or mixed-methods approaches, and may adopt comparative or case-based perspectives. We also encourage critical and interdisciplinary contributions that engage with the broader social, ethical, and political implications of AI for sociology.
The special issue opens a floor for addressing more blatantly visible shortcomings associated with the growing presence of AI in sociological work, but also encourages the exploration of its potential advantages for advancing sociological knowledge. For instance, the use of AI for big data analysis, meta-theoretical reflection on the discipline’s legacy, unfolding disciplinary biases and fallacies, as well as representing a potential tool for enhancing the theorizing process, exploring new hypotheses, testing models, refining codified language, or fostering creativity and sociological imagination.
In the end, the question is whether AI truly represents something epochally novel for sociology, and if so, whether it will ignite its flourishing or signal the dawn of its demise.
Themes and questions
We invite contributions addressing (but not limited to) the following thematic areas:
- Professional transformations and sociological practice
How does AI reshape sociological research routines, data analysis, academic writing, evaluation, publishing, peer review and academic labour in general?
How does AI reshape social cleavages, centre–periphery dynamics, gender dynamics, or stratifications and how do social cleavages influence access to AI tools and infrastructures?
How does AI affect public sociology, expert authority, and the public role of sociologists?
AI as an instrument of fostering sociological imagination or hindering creativity?
- Research, methodology, and epistemology
Opportunities and limits of computational social science, machine learning, and large language models for sociological research
Hybrid methodologies combining AI-based tools with qualitative, interpretive, and critical approaches
Algorithmic bias, opacity, reproducibility, and epistemic justice
The consequences of automation for sociological explanation, interpretation, and theory-building
- Teaching sociology in AI-driven societies
AI and higher education: pedagogical challenges, curriculum redesign, and academic integrity
Training future sociologists in the critical and responsible use of AI
AI literacy as a sociological competence
Ethical standards and normative frameworks for AI use in teaching and research
- Social theory and critical perspectives
AI, power, and knowledge: revisiting classical and contemporary social theory, crafting new theories
AI, capitalism, inequality, surveillance, democracy, and governance
Comparative European perspectives on AI-driven transformations: epistemic (de)colonization; question of language(s), etc.
Submission date: Sunday June 10th 2026
All submissions should be addressed to: communication@europeansociology.org
Guest editors:
Olga Salido Cortés, Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain)
Krešimir Žažar, University of Zagreb (Croatia)
Visa Rantanen, LUT University, Lahti (Finland)
