The Trump Administration's actions during its first year in power has elicited coverage that cites "the authoritarian playbook." This coverage has created interest in how observers of the political scene not only define such a playbook in particular, but also discuss authoritarianism as a social form. In this vein, sociologists and students of symbolic interaction can offer a variety of insightful approaches to how this social form is possible. . As a social form, authoritarianism involves patterned social practices and relationships that maintain unequal alignments beneficial to a small, concentrated superordinate entity, or a power elite. This elite systematically increases their life chances at the expense of a populous array of subordinates. The elite superordinate class also operates by imposing strict regulations on media, suppresses and punishes political opponents, systematically degrades the rule of law, and creates obstacles that vastly limit the freedom of a subordinate class. This limitation includes suppressing opportunities that would allow members of a subordinate class to attain the privileges and well-being often congruent with a more democratic social form. Authoritarianism, like other social forms, is socially constructed over time. Once constructed and enacted, a complex process of institutionalizing authoritarianism separates the authoritarian nation from a more democratic one. Within the past few decades, for instance, Vladimir Putin's Russian system is now a highly centralized, personalistic autocracy, especially since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. While it would be a mistake to claim that the U. S. has become an authoritarian nation, the aforementioned authoritarian playbook attributed to the Trump Administration has involved actions that eviscerated the federal government, subjugated Congress, and ignored the rule of law. Consider the following activities attributed to the Trump Administration: Domestically --mass dismissal of career civil servants; --initiations of investigations and persecutions of political opponents; --attacked on the free press, universities, law firms, and civil society organizations; --dismantled the Department of Education; --unilaterally deployed National Guard troops to cities (Washington DC, Portland, Los Angeles, Chicago, St. Louis, Memphis) --activated State National Guard troops in 15 states; --implementing tariffs, prerogative that the Constitution gives to Congress, --skirted due process and the rule of law on deportations; --delegitimized judges; --scaled back or eliminated Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs in schools, government bodies and corporations; –ended federal funding for NPR (a radio network) and PBS (a television network) by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB); --demolished the historic White House East Wing to replace it with a larger State Ballroom; --renamed Trump-Kennedy Center. Internationally --issued a CIA strike on a port facility in Venezuela and captured President Nicolas Maduro and his wife during a subsequent raid; –issued a massive strike in Syria; –issued airstrikes in Somalia; –issued strikes in Nigeria; –issued a bombing in Iraq; –issued the attack of three nuclear facilities <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_facilities_in_Iran> in Iran <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran>; –issued a large campaign of air and naval strikes in Yemen; --issued U.S. military to carry out 30 strikes on alleged drug boat; --dismantled the Voice of America (VOA), one of the U.S.’s most effective tools for promoting press freedom and countering disinformation in authoritarian societies; --eliminated agencies or cut funding of organizations that promote democracy and safeguard human rights, such as the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL), the International Republican Institute (IRI), the National Democratic Institute (NDI), and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). The Trump administration’s authoritarian practices are not without resistance in the U.S. and abroad. More than 250 active legal cases in the U.S. are challenging the actions of the Trump administration. Most recently, the US Supreme Court ruled against the Trump Administration's deployment of National Guard troops to Chicago. Demonstrations against the Trump administration's crack down on free speech have emerged on university campuses in the U.S. Further, No Kings, a grassroot national and international anti-Trump organization, held two protests in 2025. Each protest involved millions of people in all 50 US states as well as in countries around the world, protesting the actions of the Trump administration as an abuse of power and threat to democracy. The communication processes and social interaction dynamics involved in constructing and resisting authoritarianism have an impact on various domains of social life. This impact affects individuals, families, schools, corporations, markets, and government bodies, etc. The processes also highlight issues such as free speech, social welfare, education, immigration, economy, and democracy, etc . Given the important and pervasive impact of authoritarianism and its detractors, Vol. 65 of Studies in Symbolic Interaction: An International Bi-annual Book Series (published by Emerald Publishing) is dedicated to publishing articles that emphasize constructing and resisting authoritarian policies. Original works that address the communication processes and social interaction of constructing and/or resisting authoritarianism, that are based on symbolic interactionism, and that emphasize agency, reflexivity, social interaction, temporality and processes are welcome. For all interested, please submit an abstract of no more than 750 words to Shing-Ling Sarina Chen (sarina.chen@uni.edu) by March 15, 2026. If the abstract is selected for inclusion, the final manuscript is due September 30, 2026. Sincerely, Shing-Ling Sarina Chen Studies in Symbolic Interaction