The ESA Research Network 27 (Research Network on Southern European Societies) invites scholars to submit abstracts for the ESA 2026 Conference, to be held in Warsaw in August 25-28, titled ‘Strengthening Democracies: Social Action, Solidarity, and Sustainable Futures’.
The abstract submission deadline is 30 January.
Further information about the conference is available at ESA’s website.
Abstracts must be submitted via conftool.
RN27 Call
RN27 contributes to the ESA 2026 Conference theme by exploring how democratic resistance, collective action, and solidarity are shaped within the specific historical, political, and socio-economic contexts of Southern Europe. This research network provides a platform to critically examine how the region navigates democratic backsliding, social fragmentation, and ecological challenges, while also highlighting grassroots responses and institutional innovations that foster sustainable and inclusive futures.
We invite contributions that address these dynamics at local, national, or transnational levels, including comparative perspectives within and beyond Southern Europe. We especially welcome empirical and theoretical work that sheds light on the evolving role of civil society, trust in institutions, intergenerational solidarity, and the interplay between socio-political mobilization and environmental transitions.
We welcome paper proposals addressing Southern European societies across the following thematic areas:
Territories, communities and social spaces
Nature, environments and ecologies
Education, research and innovation
Gender
Social stratification
Cultures and lifestyles
Social policy
Migration and mobility
Work, firms and markets
Societies and polycrisis
Theoretical and conceptual development on Southern European societies
RN27 Joint Sessions
In addition to its thematic tracks, RN27 is organising three joint sessions at ESA 2026:
Joint Session RN27–RN10 | Citizenship Education in Southern Europe
Across Southern Europe, far-right ideologies, neoliberal reforms and curriculum depoliticisation are reshaping citizenship education. This session invites critical analyses of how these tensions unfold in different national contexts. Contributions are welcome on policy change, grassroots resistance, pedagogical innovation and comparative research, examining how schools may reinforce exclusion or foster democratic renewal, solidarity and sustainability.
Joint Session RN27–RN33 | Migration and Gender in Southern European Societies
This joint session provides a comparative and interdisciplinary space to examine how gendered identities, social relations and inequalities are shaped and transformed through migration processes. Contributions may address migration and welfare policies, care work and transnational families, intersections of gender, class and ethnicity, return mobilities, as well as the role of feminist movements and civil society.
Joint Session RN27–RN37 | Residential Patterns, Care Practices and Vulnerable Neighbourhoods
This session explores vulnerable neighbourhoods in Southern European cities, focusing on residential patterns and care practices. It aims to discuss mutual aid networks, family dynamics and ongoing urban transformations. Contributions on forced mobilities, new housing arrangements and inequalities are welcome, with gender, age and migration perspectives especially encouraged.
RN27 warmly encourages researchers at all career stages to submit their abstracts and join the network’s discussions at ESA 2026 in Warsaw!