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

How can we live together on a limited planet? Sociology, social movements, and social change

Language: English

"How can we live together on a limited planet?" is arguably the most critical question sociology must address in the 21st century. Ecology and environmental issues are more than specific objects for sociology: they intersect with all the topics and fields of research in science and sociology. How can we contribute to these debates as sociologists? How can a global dialogue sociology help us to tackle global warming, the depletion of natural resources, and the destruction of nature? The invited speakers will share theoretical and analytical proposals to grasp how the Anthropocene and the limits of the planet challenge sociology. To do so, they will be asked to build on recent contributions by sociologists and social movements of their region. Considering social movements as producers of knowledge, cosmovision and alternative practices provide new resources to tackle the challenges of the Anthropocene. This dialogue between theoretical, analytical, and practical proposals from different perspectives and world regions leads to challenging or revisiting some of the key concepts of our discipline, including globalization (M. Chaudhuri); (green) capitalism (B. Bringel), the Anthropocene and biocentrism (MA Manahan); and modernity, the welfare state and autonomy/interdependency (G. Pleyers). To this end, the speakers will assess some proposals from the North and the Global South that insist that infinite growth on a finite planet is not possible, including degrowth, commons, eco-social transition, energy communities, agroecology, and rights of nature. Representative of participating RCs and NAs will comment on the talks and explain how they resonate in their country or field of research.