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

How do individuals and groups shape desirable representations of the future in vulnerable contexts? Drawing on Appadurai (2004) and Zipin et al. (2015), we know that among populations living in disadvantaged circumstances, aspirations tend to be largely conservative. As suggested by the notion of adaptive preferences (Elster, 1983; Sen, 2002), individuals adjust their ‘wants’ to what is most likely to be successful, particularly in adverse circumstances. Why does this happen? And how could it be differently? Sociologists have used concepts such as “habitus” (Bourdieu, 1971) or “resource” (Giddens, 1984) to explain why this is so, while calling for distributive justice in their plea for more equal conditions. But aspirational justice, i.e. circumstances in which every individual – regardless of income, gender, age, health condition, etc. – could enjoy substantive freedom (in the sense of Robeyns, 2005) to frame desirable horizons that are compatible with a life ‘they have reason to value’ (Sen, 1999), has received little attention. What are the conditions for aspirational justice? - We welcome both theoretical contributions and empirical contributions to a sociology of desirable futures in vulnerable contexts. We are especially interested in studies of aspirations and desirable futures in the area of work, education and training, but are open to considering contributions based on observations in other empirical areas.