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

In recent decades, youth studies have seen a diverse range of contributions and research addressing central themes in contemporary sociological debate, from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. Studying young people in contemporary society involves analysing globalization processes and structural changes in the relationship between state and market, and the radical changes imposed by neoliberalization processes, which have altered the regulation of labour and welfare markets, resulting in long-term effects on the markers of young people’s transition to adulthood. Indeed, the young people affected by the "polycrisis" belong to the age cohorts dealing with the transition from welfare to workfare, from societies confined within nation states to global societies marked by transnational mobility, by the effects of climate crisis, economic crisis and most recently, the war crisis. Within the framework of youth studies, some research investigates the participatory practices of young generations experimenting with new forms of aggregation and political action. Recently, scholars have emphasised the link between movements and generational units, using the generational dimension as a promising analytical and heuristic approach for investigating forms and practices such as resistance, resilience and revolution, and to discuss the concept of generation from an analytical and methodological standpoint. Centred on a qualitative approach, we intend to welcome theoretical-empirical research that reflects on the relevance of subjectivity, agency, individuality, collectiveness, and social and political aspects of young generations, on the structural changes that define young people’s socio-economic collocation and political agency, and analyse the concept of generation from an epistemological and methodological perspective.