22 February 2021:
NSA CONFERENCE CANCELLED (key-notes will still be available online)
We are truly sorry for the inconvenience. For further information please see the front page.
Theme of NSA 2021
The Sociology of Conflict: Global Transformations – Local Manifestations
Sociology is unimaginable in the absence of a commitment to understand conflict. The study of societal conflict connects early classics with present-day shapers of the discipline. Processes of change are intrinsically fraught with conflict – challenging identities, values, societal institutions, distribution of resources and structures of power – at all levels, from the individual to the global. We want to highlight the contribution of Nordic sociology to our collective understanding of conflict in the 21st century.
There is a widespread sense that the world is entering a period of unprecedented upheaval, with a spectrum of new threats and few convincing responses: Environmental change, armed conflict, transnational terror, migration, pressure on various institutional mechanisms, increased inequality and new technologies change the way we work, communicate and interact.
It is a paradox – and a puzzle for the sociological imagination – that while these threats are all fundamentally transnational in nature, the dominant responses seems to be to look inwards, rather than to pursue the building of encompassing norms and institutions. For sociology, a discipline often engaged in illuminating vexing socio-political tensions, even informing possible responses, the mounting skepticism to the scholarly pursuit of knowledge also raises question about positioning and engaged scholarship.
For the 30th Nordic Sociological Association Conference in Oslo we welcome proposals for sessions and/or papers that grapples with all forms of conflict related to unfolding global transformations. Contributions will range across all levels of analysis, from macro-level analysis of the interconnected global system to micro-level examinations of impacts, responses and perceptions for individuals and families. We welcome a broad variety of methodological approaches, as well as contributions of a conceptual or theoretical nature, including reflections on the changing role of sociology, sociologists, and sociological knowledge in its own right.