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

The Anthropocene marks a historic shift in the geological record in which humans are the primary drivers of climatic and environmental change. As such, many scholars and organizations acknowledge the need to further human quality of life with ecological sustainability. The United Nations (UN), through their Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), “recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change...” The concept of “sustainable development” and related policy outlines, such as the UN’s SDGs, paint an ecological future where economic growth, sustainability, and social justice can be achieved under one mission. Yet, sociological perspectives complicate and challenge this notion, as different features of UN SDGs may have countervailing logics and tendencies. For example, a variety of sociological approaches draw attention to how global capitalism, colonialism, and systemic racism produce socioenvironmental inequalities across axes of social difference in social and geographic space. In short, conventional discourses surrounding sustainable development may occlude needed attention to vulnerable populations who may face the economic and environmental consequences of energy transitions and render invisible the ongoing struggles around climate displacement and migration, among other issues. This session focuses on analyses that complicate and challenge conventional notions of sustainable development or more aptly identify what a just transition may look like. Empirical, theoretical, and conceptual papers are welcome from a variety of perspectives, including but not limited to ecofeminism, ecosocialism, postcolonialism, anticolonialism, and world-systems analysis.