Third ISA Forum of Sociology (July 10-14, 2016)

THE FUTURES WE WANT: Global Sociology and the Struggles for a Better World

The Third ISA Forum will be convened in Vienna, Austria, 10-14 July 2016 on the theme "The Futures We Want: Global Sociology and the Struggles for a Better World." This theme encourages a forward-orientation in empirical, theoretical, and normative research to tackle the problems and opportunities that often cut across borders.

Protests around the globe have challenged inequality, oppression, and ecological destruction, and have insisted on the possibility of another, better world. Intensifying uncertainties demand innovations in methods and theories. Tomorrow no longer appears as pre-determined by inevitable trends but as a rather contingent outcome of complex, typically multi-scalar dynamics that vary in their intensity of contentiousness. Social actors aspire, desire, envision, expect, fear, imagine, plan, project, reject, sustain, and wage war over futures. What can sociology contribute to these broader debates? How do assumptions and aspirations about the future influence daily routines and long-term collective lives? How are risks identified, avoided, mitigated, transferred, or shared? What closes and opens the horizons of social imaginaries? How are different forces positioned to shape futures? How can the making of futures be democratized? What can be learned by comparing struggles in different countries and settings? How do emancipatory movements and everyday practices at the grassroots overcome discipline, exploitation, and misrecognition? What visions for alternative futures are imaginable, desirable, and achievable? What are viable roadmaps for social transformation?

This general theme provides a platform for dialog among ISA's many participating Research Committees (RCs), Working Groups (WGs), and Thematic Groups (TGs). It calls for research on the full range of sociological topics from the tiny worlds of micro situations to the broad macro dynamics affecting the entire planet. It encourages inquiries into the multiplicity of possibilities, projects, and visions. It welcomes diverse approaches, including comparative and interdisciplinary collaborations.

Markus S. Schulz
ISA Vice-President for Research and Forum President

• Registration Fees

  Forum registration fees are divided into Regular and Student fees. Each student, PhD students included, must provide a photocopy of her/his valid student card or equivalent. There are different fees available for ISA Members and Non-Members. ISA Members are scholars who paid to the ISA Secretariat in Madrid their individual membership fees for the current year. To join ISA see Individual Membership.
  
  Regular registration fees have been divided into three categories: A, B, and C. Each participant must identify the economy category in which her/his country of residence is classified and pay the registration fee corresponding to this category. See the Table of Economies. Note: Credit cards will be charged in €. As a result of local currency fluctuations, the charge shown on your credit card statement might be slightly different from the the posted € at the current exchange rate.
  
  All programme participants (paper givers, session organizers, chairs, discussants, etc.) must pay a full registration fee before April 5, 2016.
  
  The registration fee for participants includes:
  

  • Access to Forum Sessions and the Exhibition Area
  • Forum Name Badge
  • Opening Ceremony and Welcome Reception
  • All Forum materials including Program Book and Book of Abstracts (in pdf format)

  
  Daily registration will be available for purchase at the Registration Desk in Vienna. The daily registration fee of 120€ includes:
  
  

  • Access to Forum Sessions
  • Welcome Reception
  • Forum Programme
  • Forum Name Badge
  • Forum Program Book and Book of Abstracts (in pdf format)

  
  Tickets for the Welcome Reception and other social events will be available for purchase by non-registered persons.

  Note: May 15 is the deadline for initiating wire transfers. After that date, all registration fees must be paid by credit card.

• Accessibility for All

  The ISA has adopted the following policy to make its meeting more accessible.
  

  • ISA Registration forms will have a box to request particular accessibility services, but without making any guarantees for their provision.
  • Live broadcast of the Plenary Sessions. The ISA Secretariat will request the Local Organizing Committee to make a live broadcast of the plenary sessions with corresponding language subtitles. This would give electronic access to anyone in the world (with the right equipment) as well as those present at the meeting, thereby making sign-language interpretation unnecessary, at least, for these sessions.
  • Assistance at Meetings. The ISA Secretariat will create a point person on the ISA staff to communicate with people about access issues and to address them, as far as possible, throughout the meeting.
  • Conference bids. The ISA will require conference bids to include access to buildings, rooms, and restrooms (including gender-neutral restrooms), and this will be used as one criterion to evaluate the proposed venue.
  • Presentation Guidelines. The ISA will request all presenters to review and conform to the following set of principles: big, simple, clear, and consistent.
    "Big refers to fonts larger than 24-point that are easy to read from any place in a room. Simple includes limiting text to six lines on a slide with no more than 7 words per line. Clear means choosing sans-serif fonts (such as Arial and Tahoma) in colors and sizes that produce high-contrast visuals. Consistent means creating a presentation with a logical sequence, with transitions that explain how the parts of the presentation are related to each other and the big picture." (Adapted from ASA Footnotes, July-August, 2008)
  • No guarantees. There is much variability in venues across the world. If it places undue financial burden on the meeting, we may not be able to promise accessibility services to those who need them nor pay for them should they be provided. We will make every effort to inform potential participants of the services being offered before the deadline for registration.
  • An ISA accessibility committee will be formed that will liaise with the Local Organizing Committee to see what accommodations will be possible for any given meeting. It will be important for the LOC to provide information about accessibility of accommodation and transportation as well as of the venue itself in advance of the date for early registration. Contact�isaforum2016@univie.ac.at

For additional information, including travel and tourism, visit the Austrian Local Organizing Committee website.