Rationality and Society
Authors are encouraged to submit original papers dealing with social-science theory and empirical social-science research based on the rational-action paradigm, as well as work challenging or further developing this approach. Qualitative and quantitative approaches as well as theoretical and empirical works are welcome.
In particular, the editors encourage contributions that relate rational-action based research to pressing societal challenges, such as climate-change, societal polarization, or migration and contributions linking it to new approaches emerging from, e.g., computational social science, complexity science, cognitive science, neuroscience, or genetics.
Rationality & Society is committed to a swift review process. Editorial first decisions (reject or review) are usually made within two weeks after initial submission. The median decision time for peer-reviewed submissions is 60 days.
Submit your manuscript today at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ras.
Rationality & Society is a peer-reviewed journal which focuses on the contributions of rational-action based theory to a broad range of disciplines studying human societies, and on the questions and controversies surrounding this approach. Read more about the aims, scope and envisaged future developments of Rationality & Society in an editorial statement by the current editor-in-chief.
Why Choose Rationality and Society?
Against the background of ever-greater specialization and fragmentation among scientific fields, the rational action paradigm offers an inter-lingua of the social sciences connecting disciplines such as economics, sociology, political science, historical sciences, cognitive psychology, moral philosophy or law. Contributions to Rationality and Society demonstrate the use of the rational action paradigm for developing theoretically consistent, analytically precise, empirically refutable, and practically useful theories of societal phenomena studied in a multitude of disciplines.
Contributions, Societal Challenges and Scientific Controversy
Contributions to Rationality and Society continue to show the power of the rational action approach for studying empirical phenomena linked to pressing societal problems, as varied as social and educational inequality, social movements, xenophobia, populism, voter turnout, corruption, wage bargaining, migration, small- and large-scale cooperation problems including climate change — all from a unifying perspective. Work appearing in this journal also continues to add significantly to the further development of the rationality paradigm itself and to the scholarly discussion of its merits and limitations. Fundamental theoretical work as well as empirical studies appear in this journal, applying, elaborating upon or testing a range of variations, extensions, criticisms, and refinements of the rational choice model of human behavior.
Social Research and Theory
Rationality and Society is an international journal focusing on the latest social research and theory using the rational action paradigm as its foundation. The journal publishes scholarly articles that further this research and theory, but its pages are also open to work that challenges this approach.
Rationality and Society contains purely theoretical work, as well as qualitative and quantitative empirical research, and policy analysis.
Discussion and Debate
Rationality and Society actively solicits comments and criticism on papers published in its own pages. The Forum is a section which promotes open and critical debate. The editors welcome scholarly discourse as a contribution to the intellectual vitality and further development of rational action-based theory and research across the social sciences.
| Andreas Flache | University of Groningen, Netherlands |
| James S. Coleman | University of Chicago, IL, USA |
| Jonas Stein | University of Groningen, Netherlands |
| Mary C. Brinton | Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA |
| Robert H. Frank | Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA |
| Douglas D. Heckathorn | Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA |
| Victor G. Nee | Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA |
| Delia Baldassari | New York University, USA |
| Carlo Barone | Science Po, France |
| Stephen Benard | Indiana University Bloomington, USA |
| Steven J. Brams | New York University, USA |
| Ronald S. Burt | University of Chicago, USA |
| Jules L Coleman | Yale University, USA |
| Rense Corten | Utrecht University, Netherlands |
| Jacob Dijkstra | University of Groningen, Netherlands |
| Emily Erikson | Yale University, USA |
| Bruno S. Frey | Zeppelin University, Germany |
| Vincenz Frey | University of Groningen, Netherlands |
| Diego Gambetta | Collegio Carlo Alberto, Italy |
| Thomas Gautschi | University of Mannheim, Germany |
| Ashley Harrell | Duke University, USA |
| Michael Hechter | Arizona State University, USA |
| Peter Hedström | Institute for Analytical Sociology, Sweden |
| Christine Horne | Washington State University, USA |
| Guillermina Jasso | New York University, USA |
| Timur Kuran | Duke University, USA |
| Siegwart Lindenberg | University of Groningen, Netherlands |
| Freda B. Lynn | University of Iowa, USA |
| Michael W. Macy | Cornell University, USA |
| Peter V. Marsden | Harvard University, USA |
| Stephen L. Morgan | Johns Hopkins University, USA |
| Karl-Dieter Opp | University of Leipzig, Germany |
| Trond Petersen | University of California, USA |
| Brent Simpson | University of South Carolina, USA |
| Frans N. Stokman | University of Groningen, Netherlands |
| Piotr Swistak | University of Maryland at College Park, USA |
| Milena Tsvetkova | London School of Economics, United Kingdom |
| Rafael Wittek | University of Groningen, Netherlands |
Manuscript submission guidelines can be accessed on Sage Journals.