The Theme for 2025 is Turns and Fractures.
Our daily lives and actions are increasingly defined by the shared experience of living in the midst of global turmoil. Climate change and species loss, as part of a large-scale socio-ecological crisis, have a holistic impact on living conditions on Earth. Safeguarding environmental resilience requires wide-ranging and profound changes in all sectors of society. The term polycrisis, which refers to multiple, complex crisis that are interlinked and mutually reinforcing, is often used both in research and in public discussion. Wars and armed conflicts, humanitarian crises, erosion of democracy, the rise of disinformation, deepening social inequalities, and geopolitical power struggles are some examples of these trends. Emerging technologies can provide solutions, but may simultaneously create new threats and even challenge our conceptions of humanity. Will the hopes attached to technology be realised in the future, ensuring livable conditions and biodiversity of life on the planet? What is AI capable of, and what is the role of humans in the age of AI?
At the Annual Sociological Conference, we ask what kind of turns and fractures we face as members of society and as sociologists. How is sociology researching, conceptualizing, and understanding the present turns, tensions, and fractures? What kind of growth can sprout from different ruptures, and where do current turns lead? How do we study and teach sociology in such a world? What kind of rethinking of sociological theory, paradigms, and methods is required by the
various turns and ruptures? What will sociology and sociological expertise look like in the future?
