Letter from the Chief Editors

Since its incipit in 2012, JEOD has published manuscripts addressing a variety of organisational forms. Contributors have focused mainly on alternative forms of enterprise featuring participatory and democratic governance solutions, as well as on the relation between such organisations and instances of local development. Much of the reflection has concerned largely cooperative firms, social enterprises and the theory underpinning these organisations, as well as aspects connected with their impact like social capital, environmental sustainability, community engagement and development. But as we write, the evolution of societal challenges and the response of the organisations addressing them have evolved further and continue to change. More research is needed on the challenges of what have now become “traditional” varieties, but also around novel, emerging organisational forms, as the growing number of international conferences and empirical researches shows. JEOD aims at capturing these new developments and sustain both academic discussion and public debate by introducing two novel article sections. The first – Research Proceedings – hosts short reports whose aim is to support communication around work in progress, as well as preliminary evidence from ongoing research projects from around the world. The second – Conference Letters – will give space to short letters from conference participants, panel and conference chairs who wish to report and comment on new avenues of research that emerge from academic events, and contribute to the identification of open research questions and emerging ideas. JEOD will keep its open access policy with the intention of ensuring access to fresh knowledge and debate to all publics. We heartedly invite the academic and research community to contribute to this project.