Symbolic boundaries in social communication

 Symbolic boundaries differ significantly from boundaries of a mechanical or physical nature (although they can sometimes result from them) - they are determined by culture and created by specific groups of people. Symbolic boundaries take the form of social prohibitions and permissions, practices of valuation and devaluation, exclusion and inclusion of individuals and groups. They create and sustain the life of societies that are differentiated by age, social class, race, ethnicity, education, or nationality. We would like to gather research on the various connections between symbolic boundaries and these social differences. On the one hand, these differences are accompanied by a corresponding symbolic dimension. People establish or remove symbolic boundaries precisely because they differ, for example, in class or ethnicity. On the other hand, social communication plays an important role in the emergence and reproduction of social differentiation. It is not without reason that racist or classist discourses are important issues in communication research. Social communication can therefore be analyzed both as a means and as a result of power that creates inequalities or flattens hierarchies. Due to the widespread occurrence of symbolic classification systems, the issue of symbolic boundaries belongs to the canon of social sciences. A significant tradition of research on this phenomenon already exists between the classics of sociology, anthropology, history, or social psychology and contemporary scholars of these disciplines.

 In everyday practices – individual and collective – some boundaries are erected, and others are erased; some are highlighted in order to negate others. These practices are present in both institutional life (schools, businesses, media, and civic centres) and in the private sphere. Today's public debate and the democratization of access to the possibility of speaking publicly constitute a particularly interesting field of research on symbolic boundaries. Equally important is communication that takes place outside the media circuit, that is, the one that conditions informal social contacts. Communication via digital and social media, which often takes place on the line dividing media transparency and private relations, has become a particularly important field of research for asking questions about the dynamics of symbolic boundaries.

 We encourage you to submit articles related to the following topics, although their list is not exhaustive of the issues we are interested in:

 

• relations between symbolic boundaries and other types of social boundaries,
• practices of establishing or blurring symbolic boundaries in social communication,
• symbolic boundaries in various types of communication (public rhetoric, expert discourse, everyday interactions),
• symbolic boundaries in social life and their personal experience and reconstruction (e.g. in conversations, interviews, narratives),
• changes in public and private communication occurring under the influence of new symbolic boundaries,
• philosophical and theoretical foundations of research on symbolic boundaries,
• symbolic boundaries between different research trends in communication studies,
• threats and risks associated with shifting and creating symbolic boundaries in social life,
• historical transformations of symbolic boundaries: conditions, blockages, and opportunities.

 

We invite you to submit texts in both Polish and English. The guidelines for preparing texts for publication in “Kultura i Społeczeństwo” are available at: https://czasopisma.isppan.waw.pl/index.php/kis/about/submissions

The guest editors of the issue are Jerzy Stachowiak (University of Lodz, jerzy.stachowiak@uni.lodz.pl) and Adam Konopka (Collegium Civitas, adam.konopka@civitas.edu.pl). The issue is prepared in cooperation with the Social Communication Research Group of PTS https://www.facebook.com/sbkspts.

The publication of the issue is planned for the second half of 2025. We are waiting for applications until the end of February 2025. Texts are accepted exclusively via the journal's website: http://www.kulturaispoleczenstwo.pl