Inequalities, Power and Intersectionalities: Political Economy, Labor and Communication in Contemporary Democracies

Aurora – Journal of Art, Media and Politics invites researchers to submit articles for the special issue “Inequalities, Power and Intersectionalities: Political Economy, Labor and Communication in Contemporary Democracies,” scheduled for publication in December 2026. This special issue seeks to bring together articles that analyze contemporary forms of production, reproduction, and contestation of social inequalities, exploring the relationships between political economy, public policies, communication, and power relations. The proposal is grounded in the recognition that, in recent decades, the transformations of contemporary capitalism, combined with the massification of digital technologies, have simultaneously reshaped economic structures, the world of work, and the dynamics of politics. Digital platforms and technological infrastructures have become central actors in organizing the circulation of information, mediating public debate, and structuring markets and labor relations. In this context, material, social, and political inequalities have also been reconfigured. From an interdisciplinary perspective, the special issue seeks to foster reflections on how inequalities of class, race, gender, and territory intersect with transformations in capitalism, public policies, and communicational dynamics, influencing both policy- making processes and narrative disputes in public debate. It also aims to understand how governments, social movements, international organizations, digital platforms, and different actors in civil society compete over agendas, meanings, and legitimacy in national and transnational contexts. Theoretical or empirical contributions that mobilize different methodological and analytical approaches will be welcomed, including perspectives from political economy, feminist economics, sociology, political science, media and communication studies, public policy, and labor studies, provided they engage with the themes of inequality and power relations. We welcome papers that analyze, among other aspects, the impacts of the transformations of contemporary capitalism on the following thematic axes:

Axis 1: Contemporary capitalism, power relations, intersectionalities, and the reconfiguration of inequalities.

Axis 2: Political economy, the state, public policies, austerity regimes, and disputes around social rights.

Axis 3: Transformations in the world of work, working conditions in public and private sectors, and dynamics of precarization.

Axis 4: Digital platforms, their uses, technological infrastructures, and new distributions of power.

Axis 5: Online political communication, circulation of discourses, and narrative disputes in contemporary times.

The list above is indicative, and submissions that engage with the theme of the special issue are also welcome.

We welcome articles in English, Portuguese and Spanish.