Dear Colleagues,

Society 5.0, by proposing to further the potential of the individual-technology relationship in fostering the enhancement of the quality of life of all people through a super smart society, is an extremely recent concept that will potentially be a core notion in a very near future, as a guide for social development in diverse societal contexts and that may have a profound impact on societies at all levels, such as in terms of quality of life and sustainability. Society 5.0 emerges, to a great extent, as a (con)sequence of the implementation of Industry 4.0 in the mobilization of technology for production. But will it be an essentially political-ideological concept applied and implied in Japan?

This Special Issue aims to deepen, through empirical research or reflection, on what is the contribution of the social sciences in the analysis and innovation of Society 5.0, the (un)successes, the impacts and uncertainties that emerge from its design and implementation and that may be materialized in issues such as the uncertainty generated by Society 5.0, its relevance and the possibility of application in several social contexts; reasoned reflections with a prospective component of a phenomenon that generates indeterminacy and uncertainty are present, among others. In short, this Special Issue is a contribution to expand our understanding of this phenomenon, at all levels of open analysis, which seeks, above all, to contribute to opening up this debate and introduce lines of research from social sciences’ perspectives.

So as to meet this purpose, this Special Issue of Social Sciences aims to invite the submission of original manuscripts (whether in the form of research, reviews, theoretical papers or reasoned essays, whatever the methodology used), from a disciplinary or interdisciplinary stance.

Dr. Sandro Serpa
Dr. Carlos Miguel Ferreira
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Social Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Society 5.0;
• social innovation;
• social participation;
• change;
• technology;
• corporate responsibility;
• sustainable innovation