Call for Papers: Special Issue on Costs

There are crises behind and ahead of us. Almost behind us is the Covid-19 pandemic; amid us are wars in Palestine and Ukraine; and in store for us, locally, is the 2025 midterm elections where democracy in the Philippines is put to test. For the forthcoming special issue of Kasarinlan, we invite scholars to look at these and similar crises at home and abroad and find out the conditions, resources, and ideas required to live through and move along them. We seek papers that study the actors charged with determining these costs and how costs are undermined through various means of manipulation or distortion. In less-than-ideal situations, we ask, what does it take to accomplish, to have, and to become? In other words, what are the social and personal costs involved in, say, conducting business, governing peoples, averting disasters, producing knowledge, staying alive? Kasarinlan invites submissions that articulate these costs, contextualize them, lay bare their histories, and explain how they are constructed. We are especially interested in contributions that understand and negotiate worth and value beyond the vocabulary of economics.

We welcome contributions that address the following or similar lines of inquiry related to costs:

How do societies and cultures assign value and reckon with loss?
What are the economic, social, and personal costs of acquiring goods and services in different crisis contexts?
What are the costs of ensuring peace, quality education, affordable healthcare, sustainable environment, and good government, among others, in troubled times?
How are opportunity costs and costs of non-acquisition or loss handled in various crises?
What are the psychological and emotional toll of living through crises, and what are the costs of setting up and maintaining the support systems necessary to address them?
How do conflicting media coverage and communication strategies influence public perception and response to crises? What role does accurate information play in managing costs?
How can innovation and technological solutions be leveraged effectively to address costs in crises?
Who bears the burden of these costs, and is the burden equitably distributed?
When does shared cost become a shared sacrifice for the greater good?

Kasarinlan particularly encourages contributions that provide interdisciplinary perspectives, drawing from the fields of medicine, law, environmental science, management, and the arts. Reviews of recent books (published within the last five years) related to the theme on costs are also welcome.

Interested contributors must submit a draft article (6,000 but not more than 8,000 words) with an abstract (not more than 300 words) and six keywords. Reviews should be between 1,500 to 2,000 words. English-language manuscripts must strictly follow the Chicago Manual of Style, while submissions in Filipino should follow the Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino Manwal sa Masinop na Pagsulat. For the full author guidelines, please see this link.

Submissions to this special issue are accepted from July 1, 2024 until December 31, 2024.

All inquiries concerning the submission of articles should be addressed to:

The Editor
Kasarinlan: Philippine Journal of Third World Studies
Third World Studies Center
Lower Ground Floor, Palma Hall
College of Social Sciences and Philosophy
University of the Philippines Diliman
Quezon City 1101, Philippines
P.O. Box 210
Telephone: (Direct Line via PLDT) +63 2 8920 5428
(UP Trunkline)+63 2 8981 8500 ext. 2488

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

All submissions should be sent as .doc or .docx via email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..