Call for papers

About the conference

The aim of the conference is to identify symptomatic motifs of our recent historical and intellectual situation which embraces radical visions of social change. Both established and alternative theoretical strategies are confronted by disruptions of institutional and discursive frameworks initiated by powerful technological transformations, growing social diversity and reoccurring patterns of populist political mobilization. This situation, nevertheless, from a sociological perspective cannot be considered unique. It bears striking resemblances to the repeated crisis constellations of modernity during the long nineteenth and short twentieth centuries. Thus rationalization, commodification as well as motifs of cultural cataclysm have been core themes of sociological theory during its classical as well its as contemporary phases. Does this deep disillusionment displace progress in both the current social imaginary and sociological theory?

The conference continues the RC16 tradition of encouraging submission of abstract and session proposals on the entire range of topics under the general heading of sociological theory.