Three Special Dossiers from the World Congress of Philosophy (WCP) 2024

This call for papers is inspired by the 2024 World Congress of Philosophy, held at Rome in August of that year. The event constituted an opportunity for a gathering of the ICPIC (International Council of Philosophical Inquiry with Children) community, aggregated around the thematic Section n.81, entitled "Philosophy with Children" - co-chairs: Philip Cam (Australia), Edwige Chiroutier (France), Bruno Curko (Croatia), Marina Santi (Italy), Kono Tetsuya (Japan) - and dispersed throughout numerous other Sections included in the WCP general programme, which focused on different aspects of childhood and philosophy. The outcome of the meeting was remarkable and indicative of the current era. From a quantitative perspective, the Section received over one hundred proposals on the topic. The quality of the contributions reflected the high level of inquiry currently being undertaken in the field of P4wC studies, offering conceptual synergies for discussion and diverse cultural insights for inspiration. Philosophy for/with Children has demonstrated itself to be a "grown-up" field of inquiry, as well as a recognisable community of scholars committed to the value of childhood in philosophy, operating across boundaries of age, tradition, culture, discipline, and ideology.
The WCP president's welcoming message explicitly espoused a cosmopolitan ideal, noting that "a glance at the plenary programme of the Congress should reveal a shared attempt to embed theoretical reflections in the lived reality of our time." Leading scholars from a range of backgrounds will engage in discourse on pressing ethical, social, and spiritual issues. They will challenge the boundaries of traditional disciplinary demarcations and address urgent public concerns, including inequalities, cultural and gender diversity, sustainability, rights, and political transformations on a global scale. To this aim, the Special Panel, conducted in French on the subject of "Peuples exclus de la philosophie" (People Excluded from Philosophy), organized by Edwige Chirouter, addressed this issue.
The whole community of P4wC scholars was able to respond to the challenge in a spirit of "inclusive togetherness" as expressed by the FISP (International Federation of Philosophical Societies) Secretariat at the World Congress of Philosophy. This event was considered a crucial opportunity for all to come together, to think, to empathize, and hopefully to understand each other better in such turbulent times.
Subsequent to this favorable outcome, the aim of the present call for papers is to provide a comprehensive account of the contribution made by the PwC community to the field. To this end, a WCP Dossier for childhood & philosophy Journal will be published, edited by Marina Santi, Edwige Chirouter, and Walter Kohan. The Dossier will comprise three Special Issues, whith papers/contributions/roundtables accepted into the WCP general programme, that contribute to the following areas of research:
1. Section n. 81 “Philosophy with Children” plus Students’ contributions coherent with the focus.
2. Special French Panel on “Peuples exclus de la philosophie”
3. Round Tables presented around the topic of Childhood and Philosophy.
Papers for the three dossiers should follow the childhood & philosophy submission procedure. Guidelines for authors can be found at the journal’s website:
https://www.e-publicacoes.uerj.br/childhood/about/submissions

Papers can be submitted in English, French, Italian, German, Portuguese or Spanish (with abstracts of no less than 200 words and 3/5 keywords), will be submitted to double blind peer review and should receive a response up to 60 days after submitted. Accepted papers will be published according to the childhood & philosophy rolling pass system in 2025, as soon as they are approved. childhood & philosophy is included in major indexes such as Scopus and Web of Science.

1. Dossier “Philosophy with Children across boundaries”
Guest Editor: Marina Santi
Papers submitted to this Dossier should be contributions accepted in the WCP programme and included in the Section n.81 “Philosophy with Children” or in the Students Section, if coherent with the topic. The language of the paper can be the same as the WCP submission. According to the main theme, the papers should respect the focus on the theoretical, social, cultural, and physical boundaries across the practice of philosophizing with children.
Deadline: December 31 2024; Acceptance: March 31 2025; Publication: from May 31 2025.

2. Dossier “Peuples exclus de la philosophie”
Guest Editor: Edwige Chirouter
Philosophy has long been dominated by elitist voices and exclusive perspectives. Many people - children, women and the working classes - have been excluded from this intellectual domain. Yet the practice of philosophy is essential both for the construction of oneself as an autonomous subject and for emancipation and integration into political and civic life. While the official and institutional discourse of teaching philosophy aims for universality and emancipation, it is still strictly reserved for the few. Our proposals aims to think about - and overcome - this marginalization of the practice of philosophy by exploring the cultural contexts and more or less explicit discourses that preside over these processes of exclusion, as well as all forms of resistance, experimentation, contribution and decolonization by and for those who have been historically invisibilized. The same arguments seem inexorably used to exclude a large part of humanity from the exercise of philosophy: a biological “nature” that renders certain people “incapable” (by virtue of their gender, age, social class, origin), their denaturation by the exercise of rationality (and the denaturation of philosophy, which would be “soiled” or “impoverished”), the moral danger of exposing them to critical thought, and so on. The themes of this dossier are: Philosophy and children; Philosophy and women; Philosophy and the working classes; Philosophy and epistemic colonialism.
Deadline: December 31 2024; Acceptance: March 31 2025; Publication: from May 31 2025.
3. Dossier “Children around the tables of philosophies”
Guest Editor: Marina Santi, Edwige Chirouter, and Walter Kohan
Papers submitted to this Dossier should be contributions accepted within a Round Table in the WCP program, if coherent with the Dossier topic. Papers related to each Round Table must be collected by the Round Table organizer, according to a content’s rationale under her/his responsibility. The list of papers of each Round Table submitted will be considered as a single proposal to be accepted or invited to revision following the childhood & philosophy submission procedure.
Deadline: February 28 2025; Acceptance: May 31 2025; Publication: from July  31 2025.