Call for papers for the volume 11, number 2, year 2026
With the aim of fostering academic research in the field of State Sciences, the Editorial Team of the Journal of State Sciences (REVICE) hereby announces this Call for Papers for the special dossier of Volume 11, Issue 2 (2026). The theme of this issue is "The many Brazils that make Brazil: interpreters and interpretations – projects of nation and state".
What is Brazil? This question has animated the thought of intellectuals from the most diverse fields of knowledge for well over a century. From Euclides da Cunha to Milton Santos, from Gilberto Freyre to Lélia Gonzalez, from Florestan Fernandes to Ailton Krenak, and from Darcy Ribeiro to Celso Furtado, interpretations have been formulated, debated, and challenged, revealing the complexity and inexhaustibility of our country. More than simply resisting definitive explanation, each interpretation opens up a distinct possibility of Brazil, revealing that beneath a single territory and a single political order coexist multiple Brazils.
Every interpretation of Brazil is also an interpretation of its State, its institutions, and its historical trajectory. In seeking to understand the roots of power structures, social inequalities, development projects, or the meanings of democracy, interpreters of Brazil have not merely described the country; they have formulated distinct diagnoses and competing projects of nationhood. Thus, to think about Brazil has always meant debating its contradictions, its horizons, its territories, and its multiple meanings.
This issue comes at a particularly significant moment in the history of the Journal of State Sciences, as we celebrate our tenth anniversary. The choice of this dossier's theme draws upon a broad constellation of intellectual influences. The first stems from the Cadernos do Povo Brasileiro (Brazilian People's Notebooks), published between 1962 and 1964, whose academic and political purpose was to mobilize and raise public awareness of Brazilian reality in support of the structural reforms considered necessary during the administration of President João Goulart. This collaborative effort—bringing together the Higher Institute of Brazilian Studies (ISEB), Editora Civilização Brasileira, and the Popular Culture Center of the National Union of Students (UNE)—was abruptly interrupted by the censorship imposed under the Military Dictatorship. Even so, it leaves us with an enduring lesson: interpretation and projection, knowledge and transformation, advance together.
In addition, several important anniversaries further inspire our commitment to understanding and transforming Brazilian reality. This year marks the centenary of the birth of Milton Santos, an indispensable intellectual for understanding Brazil and its place in the world and, in the face of a dehumanizing globalization and a historical reality marked by deep fractures, for reaffirming the ever-relevant struggle for a full and engaged citizenship. After all, reality is both imperfection and possibility.
In this same spirit, there are also remarkable works that guide our endeavor. Two doctoral theses, which at different historical moments marked the emergence and development of the State Sciences program, converge in a particularly meaningful way with REVICE's tenth anniversary.
The first milestone dates back thirty years, when Joaquim Carlos Salgado published The Idea of Justice in Hegel. Originating from his professorial chair thesis, this seminal work established, with unparalleled depth, a conception of freedom, ethics, and politics articulated around a broader project of the State.
The second milestone coincides precisely with the birth of REVICE. A decade ago, Professor Philippe Oliveira de Almeida defended his doctoral dissertation, Critique of Anti-Utopian Reason: Institutional Innovation at the Dawn of the Modern State, thereby adding a crucial chapter to the history of State Sciences. For Professor Philippe, the State and the law should be understood not as static monuments, but as ongoing processes of collective discovery and learning, challenging the tendency to naturalize the status quo or to idealize existing legal norms as inevitable destinies.
By reconnecting with these defining moments and influential figures in its own history, REVICE seeks, through this special issue, both to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the publication of The Idea of Justice in Hegel and the tenth anniversary of the defense of Critique of Anti-Utopian Reason, while simultaneously looking toward the future by inviting the academic community to rethink Brazil. Accordingly, this special issue seeks interpreters who, guided by an experimentalist spirit, dare to excavate the contradictions embedded within tradition in order to imagine alternative institutions that genuinely reflect the latent potential and justice of the many Brazils that together constitute Brazil.
This special issue also seeks to underscore the pedagogical and interdisciplinary character of the Bachelor's Degree in State Sciences. In keeping with the demands of its own object of study—the State—the program has always been committed to a critical and radically interdisciplinary education, broadening the narrow horizons of individual disciplines toward the totality of human knowledge. Since the publication of its inaugural volume, State Sciences: Trajectories and Perspectives, in 2016, REVICE has played a fundamental role in consolidating the program and fostering the education of highly qualified scholars, challenging excessive specialization while opening new avenues for research. The various volumes published over the past ten years reflect this mission, exploring the evolution of State Sciences from its origins to its most recent developments.
It is within this context that the Journal of State Sciences proposes the special issue "The Many Brazils That Make Brazil: Interpreters and Interpretations – Projects of Nation and State". The aim is to bring together research that revisits the different ways in which Brazil has been conceived throughout its history, as well as the impact of those interpretations on the formation of Brazilian political, legal, economic, social, and institutional thought. Rather than merely assembling studies on canonical authors, this special issue seeks to encourage critical reflections on the diverse projects of the country that emerge from these different interpretations, as well as on their continuity and/or reinterpretation in the face of contemporary challenges.
In light of these considerations, we ask: What is Brazil? What are the many Brazils that emerge from the diverse traditions and intellectual disputes that have shaped Brazilian political and social thought, both classical and contemporary? How have the interpreters of Brazil contributed to the formulation of projects of State and nation throughout history? In what ways do the classical interpretations of Brazil continue to shape contemporary debates on democracy, citizenship, and development? What are the multiple identities that are forged within Brazil, and how do they, in turn, shape Brazil itself? Or, alternatively, which identities have been imagined and privileged at different moments throughout the country's history? Which subjects, territories, and experiences have historically been rendered invisible by the dominant narratives of national formation? How do interpretations produced by marginalized intellectuals challenge the canons of Brazilian thought? How have different interpretations of Brazil influenced the construction of Brazilian state institutions? How do recent transformations in Brazilian democracy challenge classical interpretations of the Brazilian State? Do Brazil's diverse territories produce distinct forms of political belonging and citizenship? In what ways do Indigenous, Quilombola, and peripheral experiences reconfigure our understanding of the Brazilian State? How do contemporary territorial conflicts challenge traditional models of state formation? And, ultimately, how should we interpret—and imagine—Brazil?
Accordingly, this special issue welcomes contributions addressing, but not limited to, the following themes: the Brazilian State; Brazilian democracy; Brazilian territory; technological development; sustainable development; inequalities; identities; Brazilianness; interpreters of Brazil; Brazilian political thought; Brazilian intellectual history; the formation of the Brazilian State; State and society; nation and nationality; racisms; sexisms; national projects; national identity; democracy and citizenship; federalism; modernization; authoritarianism; cultural studies; political culture; political institutions; elites; power; participation; regionalisms; contemporary Brazil; Colonial Brazil; Imperial Brazil; the Military Dictatorship; the Vargas Era; Brazilian social thought; the Brazilian essay tradition; the national imagination; institutional imagination; Brazilian social formation; coloniality; dependency theory; peripheral modernization; developmental nationalism; globalization; citizenship; urbanization; nationalism; Brazilian critical thought; decoloniality; national sovereignty; and cultural syncretism.
- REVICE operates on a continuous publication basis.
- Submissions for this special issue will be accepted from the date of publication of this Call for Papers until September 14, 2026.
- Manuscripts whose peer review and revision process is not completed by December 31, 2026, will be published in subsequent issues of REVICE.
- REVICE's submission guidelines, editorial policies, and all other publication policies are available on its official website.
- Only original research articles, essays, book reviews, unpublished translations, and historical memoirs will be considered for publication.
- REVICE continues to accept submissions on topics outside the theme of this special issue.
Belo Horizonte, July 8, 2026
Bruno de Oliveira Santos
Editor-in-Chief Journal of State Sciences
Theo Augusto Apolinário Moreira Fonseca
Deputy Editor-in-Chief Journal of State Sciences
