Call for Chapters: Aligning Purpose, Passion, Practice, and Place to Foster Holistic Leadership and Followership

Editors

Darcia Roache, Yorkville University, Canada
Stephanie Varnon-Hughes, Claremont Lincoln University, United States
Timi Olubiyi PhD, West Midlands Open University, Nigeria
Susan Romeo-Gilbert, Capilano School of Business, Canada

Call for Chapters

Proposals Submission Deadline: May 24, 2026
 Full Chapters Due: August 16, 2026
 Submission Date: August 16, 2026

Introduction

Holistic Leadership and Followership: Purpose, Passion, Practice, and Place (4Ps) is a scholarly edited book that brings together leading academics, civic practitioners, and interdisciplinary scholars to advance a new paradigm of leadership and followership for complex systems. Traditional leadership models, rooted in hierarchy, individual heroism, and technical competence, have proven insufficient for navigating the complexity of today’s social, civic, and organizational challenges. In response, this book offers a grounded and human-centered alternative that centers shared responsibility, mutual influence, and collective meaning-making. While many leadership books emphasize skills, competencies, or styles, this book offers a different contribution: a way of understanding leadership and followership as ethical, relational, and place-based practices that are lived daily within communities and systems not only exercised from formal roles. It bridges scholarship and practice by integrating mindfulness, dialogue, collaboration, and adaptive change with real-world civic and community contexts.

Objective

This edited book aims to: 1. Theorize leadership and followership as mutually constitutive ethical practices. 2. Develop a place-based framework integrating ecology, history, and community into leadership theory. 3. Examine leadership within AI-mediated and digitally transformed systems. 4. Advance adaptive and complexity-informed leadership scholarship. 5. Explore governance and accountability in socio-technical systems. 6. Reframe followership as agency, stewardship, and moral participation. 7. Provide interdisciplinary contributions connecting leadership to sustainability science and technology ethics. 8. Offer empirically grounded case studies of place-based leadership practice. 9. Develop normative and practical tools for leadership development in AI-enabled environments. 10. Position leadership as a regenerative rather than extractive social practice.

Target Audience

Intended Audience Primary Audience • Academics and business management scholars/students • Undergraduate and Graduate-level courses in Leadership Studies • Leadership, followership and management scholars • Public administration researchers • Organizational studies academics • Nonprofit and civic leadership scholars • Graduate students (Leadership, Public Policy, Organizational Studies, Sustainability) • Civic and nonprofit executives Secondary Audience • Leadership educators • Government officials and policy practitioners • Community development professionals • Sustainability leaders • Faith-based and interfaith leaders • Organizational consultants • Doctoral students in leadership and governance# The book is particularly well suited for: • Graduate-level courses in Leadership Studies • Public Administration programs • Organizational Change courses • Nonprofit Management programs • Sustainability and Civic Leadership curricula

Recommended Topics

This edited book recommends that possible lines of enquiry should include but not be limited to the following indicative themes suitable for inclusion Ethical and Conceptual Foundations • Leadership–Followership Reciprocity in Complex Systems • Moral Agency and Identity in Technologically Mediated Contexts • Leadership Ethics Beyond Compliance AI and Digital Leadership • Algorithmic Governance and Ethical Accountability • AI-Augmented Decision-Making and Human Responsibility • Digital Platforms and Distributed Followership • Data Ethics and Leadership Integrity Sustainability and Regeneration • Climate Leadership and Intergenerational Justice • Regenerative Governance Models • Sustainability Transitions and Adaptive Leadership • Circular Economies and Community-Based Leadership Place-Based Leadership • Indigenous Knowledge and Leadership Practice • Land, Ecology, and Moral Accountability • Community Co-Production and Civic Leadership • Urban Regeneration and Local Governance Organizational and Institutional Contexts • Leadership in Hybrid and Remote Work Environments • Public Trust and Democratic Leadership • Nonprofit and Civic Sector Adaptive Leadership • Faith-Based and Intercultural Dialogue Leadership Followership and Shared Authority • Courageous Followership in Authoritarian Contexts • Ethical Dissent and Organizational Accountability • Collective Agency in Networked Movements Development and Education • Leadership Education in the AI Era • Developing Ethical Reflexivity • Teaching Place-Based Leadership Leadership and Followership Held Together: Why a Holistic Framework Is Necessary Now • The limits of leader-centric models • The crisis of legitimacy and trust • Overview of the 4Ps framework • Invitation to relational and place-based practice

Submission Procedure

Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit on or before May 24, 2026, a chapter proposal of 1,000 to 2,000 words clearly explaining the mission and concerns of his or her proposed chapter. Authors will be notified by June 7, 2026 about the status of their proposals and sent chapter guidelines.Full chapters of a minimum of 10,000 words (word count includes references and related readings) are expected to be submitted by August 16, 2026, and all interested authors must consult the guidelines for manuscript submissions at https://www.igi-global.com/publish/contributor-resources/before-you-write/ prior to submission. All submitted chapters will be reviewed on a double-anonymized review basis. Contributors may also be requested to serve as reviewers for this project.

Note: There are no submission or acceptance fees for manuscripts submitted to this book publication, Aligning Purpose, Passion, Practice, and Place to Foster Holistic Leadership and Followership. All manuscripts are accepted based on a double-anonymized peer review editorial process.

All proposals should be submitted through the eEditorial Discovery® online submission manager.

Publisher

This book is scheduled to be published by IGI Global Scientific Publishing, an international academic publisher of the "Information Science Reference", "Medical Information Science Reference", "Business Science Reference", and "Engineering Science Reference" imprints. IGI Global Scientific Publishing specializes in publishing reference books, scholarly journals, and electronic databases featuring academic research on a variety of innovative topic areas including, but not limited to, education, social science, medicine and healthcare, business and management, information science and technology, engineering, public administration, library and information science, media and communication studies, and environmental science. For additional information regarding the publisher, please visit https://www.igi-global.com. This publication is anticipated to be released in 2027.

Indexing Information for Prospective Authors

IGI Global Scientific Publishing meets the criteria for inclusion in major indexing services such as Scopus; however, it is important to note that all indexing decisions are made independently by these services. IGI Global Scientific Publishing books are selectively indexed by the indexing organization after publication. Indexing cannot be guaranteed for any book prior to publication, and the indexing organization has complete control over the final selection and timeline.

Important Dates

May 24, 2026: Proposal Submission Deadline
June 7, 2026: Notification of Acceptance
August 16, 2026: Full Chapter Submission
September 27, 2026: Review Results Returned
October 25, 2026: Final Acceptance Notification
November 1, 2026: Final Chapter Submission

Inquiries

Darcia Roache
Yorkville University
drdarciaroache@gmail.com

Stephanie Varnon-Hughes
Claremont Lincoln University
svarnon-hughes@claremontlincoln.edu

Timi Olubiyi PhD
Babcock University Ogun State Nigeria
West Midlands Open University Lagos State Nigeria
olubiyit@babcock.edu.ng
timi.olubiyi@westmidlands.university

Susan Romeo-Gilbert
Capilano School of Business
susanromeogilbert@capilanou.ca
Back to Call for Papers List