CFP: Special Issue. “The Strong Programme in SSK and its significance for epistemology, philosophy of science and STS”

"Epistemology & Philosophy of Science" announces a call for papers for a special issue entitled “The Strong Programme in SSK and its significance for epistemology, philosophy of science and STS”.

About the Journal:

"Epistemology & Philosophy of Science" (Scopus Q1/2; https://www.scimagojr.com/journalsearch.php?q=21100837232&tip=sid&clean=0), a leading peer-reviewed quarterly journal founded by the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Our journal is committed to publishing high-quality research at the intersection of epistemology, philosophy of science, and scientific methodology. The journal provides a platform for international dialogue and exchange of ideas in both English and Russian.

Web: https://www.pdcnet.org/eps/Epistemology-&-Philosophy-of-Science

https://journal.iphras.ru/index

About the Special Issue:

2026 marks the 50th anniversary of the Strong Programme in the sociology of scientific knowledge (SP), assuming its start in 1976 with Knowledge and Social Imagery by David Bloor. It became a prominent trend-setter in 20th-century Science Studies. Although it originated in a specific socio-political and epistemological context, its ideas have remained relevant ever since: they continue to frame discussions and define the conceptual language of social and historical studies of science, as well as of epistemology and the philosophy of science and technology in general.

In this issue, we aim to present contemporary interpretations and critiques of the SP, evaluations of its relevance for epistemology and the philosophy of science and technology, and its influence on historical and sociological approaches to science.

Among the authors of the issue are Finn Collin, Steve Fuller, William Lynch, Andrew Pickering, Stephen Turner.

We invite abstracts for further submissions focusing on questions that include, but are not limited to:

• Historical roots of SP: How to overcome Mannheim and Merton?
• The interdisciplinary context of SP: psychology, anthropology and linguistics
• Sociological parallels to the Popper-Kuhn controversy
• Anti-Latour
• The new sociological object: technology
• Symmetry principle and the epistemology of non-scientific knowledge
• Is causality principle incommensurable with objectivity?
• Rational reconstruction and social construction of knowledge
• Sociological challenges of realism-relativism debates
• SP and the variety of explanations: sociological, historical, psychological, methodological
• The quest for a naturalistic SSK
• The Strong Programme in the era of “digital epistemology”: do model- and algorithm-produced knowledges imply a new kind of sociality, a new kind of authorship, and a new test for symmetry?
• New empirical fields as testbeds for the Strong Programme: risk modelling, biomedicine, AI models, digital humanities, and cybersecurity.
• The Strong Programme and the digital transformation of science: how do algorithms and platform infrastructures become “causes” of scientific belief and scientific acceptance?
• Symmetry and responsibility: can we preserve methodological impartiality without abandoning ethical commitments?
• Fifty years later: is the Strong Programme obsolete—or are we only beginning to understand its stakes?
• The Strong Program and the crisis of expertise: does it help explain misinformation, or can it inadvertently contribute to it?
• Social causes in distributed knowledge: is the Strong Program’s model still adequate for analysing digital scientific infrastructures?
• Symmetry under epistemic inequality: how should the Strong Programme address asymmetries of power, resources, and access that structure contemporary knowledge production?
• From communities to infrastructures: can SSK shift from explaining belief by “social groups” to explaining belief by standards, protocols, metrics, and audit regimes—without losing explanatory traction?
• Objectivity without “God’s-eye view”: what forms of scientific realism (structural, perspectival, entity) are most compatible with Strong Programme insights about practice and social causation?

Important Dates and Submission Details

The submission deadline for abstracts (250 words): March 15, 2026 (please, send your abstracts to [email protected] and to [email protected] with “Special Issue” in the title).

Notification of acceptance: March 30, 2026.

The submission deadline for manuscripts: August 1, 2026.

Abstracts and submissions are welcome in English or Russian. The length of the manuscript should not exceed 8000 words. General guidelines are available on the website (https://journal.iphras.ru/forcontributors).

All manuscripts will undergo peer review.

For further details, please contact the Editor:

Prof. Dr. Ilya Kasavin, RAS Institute of Philosophy, [email protected]