XX ISA World Congress of Sociology
Resurgent Authoritarianism: The Sociology of New Entanglements of Religions, Politics, and Economies
The global rise of authoritarianism, as well as populism, xenophobia, and racism, makes our task as sociologists more crucial than ever. This dilemma is assisted by the gradual symbolic thickening of public culture through combinations of extreme nationalist and religious fervor.
What is the best way to analyze global resurgent authoritarianism? In addition to dealing with the scars of the colonial era, a postcolonial approach should be supplemented with another approach; we need to find ways to diagnose and resist this resurgence. This approach should take into account how authoritarianism affects not only our societies, but also our knowledge production. The self-centered and unspoken have become more important than the told and argued. We are concerned not only with the hard authoritarianism that heralds the brutalization of society and politics, but also the soft authoritarianism that often thrives in the shadow of neoliberalism, as the state moves deftly in the open or in secret to devise modes of governance that shore up its power against popular discontent.
A special interest of our Congress is how to disaggregate the Western, but also sociological, assumption of secularism as inherent in modern society and at the same time analytically dissociate the state from religion. While this separation is still a crucial pathway toward democracy and citizenship, the process needs to be problematized. We particularly look forward to discussing the promising avenues of inquiry within sociology and related disciplines about what have been termed ‘post-secular societies’ and ‘multiple secularities’.
Thus the XX ISA World Congress of Sociology will focus on how sociologists worldwide can (and do) contribute to the understanding of the resurgent authoritarianism and analyze the new entanglements of religions, politics, and economies. It will also focus on how sociologists engage (physically and critically) in the formidable social movements we are witnessing today in different parts of the world and in a renascent civil society.
The XX ISA World Congress of Sociology in Melbourne, Australia, June 25-July 1, 2023 will be in hybrid format.
Deadlines
Deadlines for the XX World Congress program completion
The XX ISA World Congress of Sociology in Melbourne, Australia, June 25-July 1, 2023 will be in hybrid format. Further details will be provided in due course.
March 7, 2022 24:00 GMT
Announcing Program Coordinators: RC/WG/TG provide name and contact details of Program Coordinator to the ISA Secretariat isa@isa-sociology.org
May 10, 2022 24:00 GMT
Submission of proposals to the ISA Secretariat isa@isa-sociology.org for:
- Integrative Sessions which involve at least 3 Research Committees, 3 National Associations or a combination of the two
- Regular sessions by National, Regional, Linguistic and Thematic Associations
- Author Meets Critics sessions
- Ad Hoc Sessions
May 31, 2022: Announcing the Program Committee decision on accepted proposals
May 2 – May 31, 2022 24:00 GMT
Call for Sessions
- RC/WG/TG session proposer must submit session’s description on-line via Confex platform.
- Invited Session organizer (RC/WG/TG, Presidential, Plenary, LOC sessions, etc.) must submit session’s description on-line via Confex platform.
June 1 – 26, 2022 24:00 GMT
Final list of Sessions: RC/WG/TG Program Coordinator must finalize a list of sessions. Sessions format, titles, descriptions and the language in which they will be held (English, French or Spanish), as well as contact details of session organizers (name, affiliation, country, e-mail) will be available on the ISA conference platform run by Confex.
July 1 – September 30, 2022 24:00 GMT
Abstracts submission: Participants and organizers of invited sessions must submit abstracts on-line via Confex platform. Abstracts must be submitted in English, French or Spanish. Only abstracts submitted on-line will be considered in the selection process.
October 7 – November 7, 2022 24:00 GMT
Abstracts selection: Session Organizer must complete selection of abstracts and provide a final presentation designation (oral, distributed, poster, round table). Session Organizers move good quality abstracts unsuited for their sessions to the Program Coordinator’s bin for transfer to another session.
Note: abstracts transfers should be done to the Program Coordinator’s bin as early as possible so that good abstracts may be transferred to other appropriate sessions to enable organizers to consider these transferred abstracts and make decisions within the deadlines.
Session Organizers add chairs, co-chairs, discussants, and panellists to their sessions as needed.
November 8 – 25, 2022 24:00 GMT
Abstracts re-location: Program Coordinator re-locates good quality abstracts considered unsuited by Session Organizers from the Program Coordinator’s bin to other sessions.
No more sessions can be added after that deadline.
December 2, 2022 24:00 GMT
- Notification letters: Confex sends notification letters to:
- authors and co-authors of accepted abstracts
- authors of rejected abstracts
December 15, 2022 – January 26, 2023 24:00 GMT
• Sessions Scheduling
December 15 – January 15: Confex schedules Joint Session, Round Table, and Poster sessions
January 16 – January 26: Program Coordinators schedule regular sessions
January 31, 2023 24:00 GMT
• Applications for Registration Grants deadline: Program Coordinator receives applications for ISA grants submitted by the participants
February 15, 2023 24:00 GMT
• Submission of proposed Registration Grants recipients: Program Coordinator sends a list of selected individuals and amounts recommended to the ISA Secretariat isa@isa-sociology.org for verification and approval.
March 22, 2023 24:00 GMT
• Registration deadline for presenters: Registration must be paid by the deadline. Confex matches registrations with accepted presenters and will send out last reminder to register. Presenters who have failed to register will be automatically deleted from the program.
April 3 – 18, 2023 24:00 GMT
• Session Organizer modifies sessions based on withdrawal of non-registered presenters.
• Chairs and discussants are assigned from among the registered participants.
• Program Coordinator completes sessions schedule according to the conference timetable.
• In case the type of an individual’s presentation is changed, or if a presentation is transferred to a different session, Confex will send notifications to authors with final session and presentation details after June 15 deadline.
