5th ISA Forum of Sociology (6-11 July 2025)

We ask questions like these:

How is the ocean organized? What kind of organizations play a role? How have these organizations developed historically? What logics do these organizations follow?

How is the ocean being technologized? What technological developments in recent decades have contributed to new possibilities of access and how are these developments linked to scientific findings, but also to economic interests and political calculations?

How has scientific development in particular affected society's approach to the ocean? To what extent is "our" access to the ocean not only technologically but also scientifically mediated in a very specific way?

To what extent is the ocean subject to a specific type of regulation and how has this developed in recent decades?

Which economic sectors are becoming increasingly important today regarding the ocean and which others may be displaced or must adapt? What is the significance of narratives such as the blue economy?

To what extent do these developments go hand in hand with ecological concerns?

The panel is open to a very broad spectrum of works. The only condition is that they have something to do with the ocean – this mostly forgotten phenomenon in sociology.