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

The proposed session highlights how ‘transformative’ development agendas harbour hope, amidst significant challenges. The session hopes to advance conversations around what should comprise the acceptable ‘social foundation’ for sustainable transformations. It welcomes critical analyses about the limits of the ‘Anthropocene’ discourse, and invites examples of distinctive, new, or missed opportunities to bridge different, ‘pluriversal’, ideas, experiments and strategies for transformative development. The session hopes to share, test, and learn from, a variety of existing knowledges, experiments and alternatives, which have the potential to combine economically redistributive, ecologically feasible and socially just development agendas, across different geographical, social and political locations.

Papers considering the role of social imaginaries and knowledge alliances, especially ‘real utopias’ connecting environmental, social and economic agendas are especially sought. Alternatively, contributions that critically analyse obstacles to such alliances are also welcomed, in order to better think about how different socio-economic and environmental problems and constituencies might be connected, potentially bridging ‘red’ (socio-economic) and ‘green’ (environment and sustainability) agendas for transitions and transformations.

Contributions reflecting the Forum’s host location, region, institutions and settings are particularly welcomed.