About the Journal

Contention offers a novel contribution to the study of social protest and political behavior. The journal intends to advance knowledge about a comprehensive range of collective actions, social movements, and other forms of political and social contention. Its main purposes are to offer a multidisciplinary forum to scholars from different fields and to bridge the gap between them, within and across the social sciences and humanities.

While recognizing the importance of the contribution that the increasing specialization of knowledge has brought to the understanding of political behavior and collective action, Contention aims to reconstruct the fragmentation of the scientific discourse by offering in each issue a coherent but diversified range of articles from different theoretical, methodological, and philosophical approaches.

Contention is directed to a varied audience, including scholars and students from the arts and social sciences, and in general to individuals with a scientific and applied interest in the topic of social protest and collective action.

Contention welcomes theoretical, methodological, and empirical contributions; critical review of the current literature in relevant fields; and research articles that expand our basic knowledge on and about the antecedents and consequences of collective actions. Examples of suitable articles include but are not limited to:

• historical analysis of past and present collective movements
• social and political theory
• sociopsychological analysis of the cognitive and emotional correlates of social protest
• methodology of the study of social movements
• pedagogical implications of social change
• legal and economic implications and considerations
• art through and from social movements