Deadline for receipt of proposals: Thursday 15 January 2026 at 5 p.m.

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Hello everyone, 

The academic journal Change in the Mediterranean is inviting young researchers to send in their proposals for articles for its issue 4 on the theme :

Empathy and justice in the Mediterranean: when emotion becomes the norm

Emotions, long studied by social psychology, neuroscience and literature, are now being explored in a growing number of humanities and social science disciplines: law (Jeuland, 2020), political science (Braud, 1996), anthropology (Le Breton, 1998), history (Corbin et al., 2016) and sociology (Hochschild, 1979). This movement is part of the emotional turn in the social sciences (Taïeb, 2024), which recognises emotions as social phenomena in their own right. Empathy, on the other hand, remains little explored in a truly interdisciplinary approach. While psychology and neuroscience have studied it extensively (Decety & Jackson, 2004; Singer & Lamm, 2009; De Waal 2010), work in the human and social sciences remains limited, reflecting an emerging interest in its social, moral and normative role. This thematic issue of Change in the Mediterranean proposes to study the relationship between justice and empathy in the Mediterranean region, not only in the legal field but also in other normative social contexts and through several disciplinary approaches.

The word empathy was coined in 1873 by the philosopher Robert Vischer (The optical sense of form), where it refers to the aesthetic projection of the viewer into the work of art. It was not until the XXᵉ century that the word left the field of aesthetics to enter that of psychology and the social sciences. Under the influence, in particular, of the work of Theodor Lipps and then North American psychology, empathy came to mean the ability to understand the emotions, needs and internal states of others. The emphasis is no longer on subjective projection into an object, but on the interpersonal relationship and recognition of the other as a subject. 

Justice, understood as a system for regulating conflicts and distributing rights, presupposes an element of empathic projection: understanding the situation of others, perceiving their prejudice, imagining their point of view. This interweaving runs through history, from the earliest legislative texts to contemporary debates. Beyond the law, the archaeologist who reconstructs the life of a vanished population, the sociologist who observes the mobilisation of collective emotions or the historian who studies medieval charity each mobilise a form of cognitive or moral empathy. The aim of this issue is to explore the relationship between justice and empathy, at the crossroads of disciplines and temporalities, in order to understand how this emotion contributes to the production, transformation or contestation of norms and permeates social practices and collective representations, even inspiring the creation of artistic works such as the one by Banksy (London, 2025). It will also be an opportunity to examine the place of empathy at the heart of the scientific process (Gallenga, 2008) in a variety of disciplines, in the choice and treatment of subjects, the construction of knowledge, the conduct of research and the relationship with respondents.

By following three axes (see the full call), this call for papers invites contributors to examine empathy as a constituent emotion of the sense of justice, and to analyse how it shapes, nurtures or challenges legal and social norms: 

1. Empathy creates social and legal norms 
2. The place of empathy in the implementation of justice and social mobilisation
3. Contemporary alternatives: management, entrepreneurship, urban planning and the environment 

Submission conditions

Proposals for contributions must contain between 2,500 and 5,000 characters(including spaces, excluding bibliography). They must contain a title, keywords and the bibliography used. They may be submitted in French or English. Consult the editorial standards. Proposals must be sent in Word format (.docx) to the following address mesopolhis-revue-mem[at]univ-amu.fr. Please indicate your status and affiliation in the email. Deadline for returning article proposals: Thursday 15 January 2026, 5 p.m.

Mutations en Méditerranée (MeM) is a multidisciplinary scientific journal that focuses on the transformations taking place in the Mediterranean area. Managed by doctoral students and supported by the laboratory MESOPOLHIS (Aix-Marseille University and Sciences po Aix), it offers a publication space for young researchers through an annual thematic issue, in open access, and welcomes articles in English and French.

FULL CALL [en] : https://www.revue-mem.com/581

In English : https://www.revue-mem.com/583

The editorial committee for the third issue :

• Sara Ben Amor, PhD student specialising in contract law and digital law, Aix-Marseille University, Centre de droit économique (CDE), ED 67
• Matthieu Guillou, D. student in archaeology, Aix-Marseille University, CNRS, Ministry of Culture, Centre Camille Jullian, ED 355 - Founding Chairman of DatArk
• Delphine Monrozies, Professor and researcher in the art and technique of representation, Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Marseille, doctoral student in architecture at Project(S), Aix-Marseille University, ENSA.M, ED 355
• Constance Moréal de Brevans, PhD student in anthropology, Aix-Marseille University, CNRS, IDEAS, ED 355
• Maïa Tahiri, PhD student in sociology, Aix Marseille University, Sciences Po Aix, CNRS, MESOPOLHIS, ED 355

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Cover photo credit: © Instagram publication on Banksy's account. Royal Courts of Justice, London, 08 September 2025