The Journal of Bioethical Inquiry is pleased to announce a special issue on Collective Representation in Healthcare Policy.

Karin Jongsma, Ph.D. (University Medical Centre Göttingen), Nitzan Rimon-Zarfaty, Ph.D. (University Medical Centre Göttingen and Ben-Gurion University), Prof. Dr. Aviad Raz (Ben-Gurion University), and Prof. Dr. Silke Schicktanz (University Medical Centre Göttingen) will serve as Guest Editors for the issue.

In this special issue, we intend to address ethical, sociological, and normative-political questions concerning the assumption that patient organizations (POs) represent a collective of affected persons and to scrutinize justifications given to advocacy by non-patients. PO serves here as an umbrella term and includes different forms of advocacy and self-advocacy. We invite empirical case studies as well as theoretical, conceptual papers from sociology, medical ethics, political science, political philosophy, disability studies, and organizational studies and are particularly interested in research on the following questions:

• Is it important that POs form their standpoints democratically?
• Should advocacy always be self-advocacy? And what does that mean for persons that have conditions that may limit their capacity to represent themselves?
• How do concepts of disease/being affected influence the possibilities and aims of POs in political participation?
• What are the current theoretical controversies regarding collective representation by POs?
• Are concepts of collective representation and advocacy socially embedded in organizational and cultural contexts?

As a general guideline, manuscripts should be under 4,000 words, excluding references. (Tables and figures can be printed and will be included in the word count at a rate of 375 words per half page.)

The deadline for submissions is August 1, 2017.

Manuscripts should be submitted via Editorial Manager and should conform to the Journal of Bioethical Inquiry’s style and referencing guide.