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

This regular session aims to bridge both the pragmatic considerations in political/environmental sociology and the ambitions of cultural sociology, by advancing the program of a “cultural pragmatics” capable of drawing, for instance, from the theoretical impulses and analytical methods of John Dewey, Erving Goffman, or Hans Joas, as well as Jeffrey Alexander, Pierre Bourdieu, or Stuart Hall. The aim will be to explore the cultural and performative dynamics of environmental action, both collective and individual, ranging from the local to the global level, by taking as privileged fields or case studies particular social mobilizations as well as official global negotiations.

Participants may address the following questions: How do “environmental problems” arise in the public space or the civil sphere? How do (new) communities and repertoires of practices develop and evolve through collective action or institutional intervention? What is the place of genuine improvisation or spontaneous performance in collective mobilisation and action pertaining to environmental matters? When does existing “culture” constitute a disabler or an enabler of environmental action? How do ideas, identities, or repertoires circulate between levels and scales of environmental action?