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

Our sessions emerge from a critical self-reflexivity concerning the disciplinary origins, theories, and orientations associated with the sociology of law, as well as the role of Scandinavian countries as colonial powers, including in the Arctic region involving the Sami peoples. The sessions aim to contribute to decolonization in various forms. Bringing together perspectives from scholars at different career stages, they provide a platform for critical discussion and debate on a range of issues pertinent to decolonizing the sociology of law.

This session aims also at open a debate on the following topic: European colonialism has been tightly connected to nation-state building, forging mono-lingual and mono-cultural societies. The dichotomy between “civilized” Western culture and "untamed" nature served as a frame to force upon colonized groups a monocultural context. Today, the internet provides new opportunities for identity formation due to its modes of diffusion and access. It serves as a place for the creation and negotiation of identities. This justifies a decolonial approach to the positionality of minority and indigenous groups in the digital space, highlighting patterns of inequalities, specifically racial and gendered policies within national identity building processes projected online, and reflecting how the expansion of digital spaces creates conditions for forming decolonization processes with modified and adapted narratives of cultural self-representation.

(Session organized by RCSL Working Group Comparative Studies of Legal Profession, in partnership with WG Law and Migration)