SAI Annual Conference 2025

SAI Members

Non-SAI Members

Early Bird

After 28th February

Early Bird

After 28th February

Postgraduate / low wage

€35

€55

€90

€110

Full price ticket

€90

€140

€115

€180

Membership Fees

Postgraduate/low wage

€ 25

Full

€55

Tickets

While we are running without a theme this year, we expect that discussion and debate at the conference will turn to pressing contemporary issues and challenges. Politically it is the year of elections globally, and democracy is increasingly under threat, with authoritarianism, a coarsening of political rhetoric and action, a lack of alternatives and stasis, but also people power, protest, and activism. Wars rage in Sudan, the Middle East, Ukraine and elsewhere, all devastating, but with different levels of attention and types of support provided. As war spreads, more countries are abandoning their neutrality. The peace on this island has been destabilised as the political settlement on ‘these islands’ has been disturbed. Migration has become increasingly politicised, with protests, racist attacks, Far Right mobilisation, inadequate accommodation and services for International Protection Applicants, and stricter policing of borders.

Economic life has been dominated by ongoing inflation and difficulty in accessing essential services, from housing, childcare, and health, with periodic tragedies caused by this dearth. Concerns have intensified about the standards with which public services and infrastructure projects are managed or mismanaged. A budgetary bonanza runs parallel to scarcity through corporation tax receipts and windfalls. Fiscal opulence and the tax strategy it is based on have resulted in fewer friends in an EU fretting about its competitiveness. While the essentials of life have become more costly, a consumerist and mediatised culture deepens, shaped by algorithmic power, surveillance, and Al. Despite movements to increase sustainability, it has been a year of heatwaves, floods and droughts as the climate catastrophe deepens. Localised disease outbreaks presage the next big one.

The past remains a troubled source of unresolved conflict and injustice. Legacies of abuse, the denial of harm and state violence continue to be disclosed. How family and care are defined and supported has been reopened, and how an ethic of care can shape policy is an ongoing struggle.

Life and events have been shaped and mediated by the keg sociological concerns of gender, family, sexuality, class, ethnicity, race, age, and the organisation of social services, work, media, leisure, and religion. What are the inequalities and solidarities that characterise these, and what are the movements, narratives, and ways of being that address them?

How do sociologists make sense of these times? How does the contemporary climate shape the research that we do? Sociology is a means of clarification, mobilisation and change that addresses these times, and we hope to hear your contribution.

The conference will offer a welcoming and convivial space for the broad sociological community to assemble, discuss and problem-solve. We hope to see you there.

  • Abstracts should be no longer than 250 words;
  • The extended deadline for submission is Friday the 31st of January 2025;
  • Abstract decisions will be given by Friday the 14th of February 2025;
  • The early bird registration date is Friday the 28th of February 2025.
  • Registration closes on Friday the 25th of April 2025.
  • The conference will take place on Thursday the 8th and Friday the 9th of May 2025 at University College Cork.

We welcome sociological research on any topic: abstracts and any questions to: SAI25@ucc.ie.

Format

  • Oral presentations, with a 15-minute presentation and 5 minutes of questions.
  • Panels, with speakers, for 60-80 minute sessions.
  • We welcome traditional papers, but also invite proposals for creative ways to communicate sociological research that can help undiscipline the discipline. You can submit a ‘special event’ proposal to this end. Special events can take place in a 20-minute slot in a panel, or during breaks in the conference schedule.

Content

  • We welcome all sociological research.
  • The conference is especially keen to showcase/create space for feminist and decolonial analysis in Irish sociology and strongly encourages scholars working in those areas to submit, to address the gaps in the Irish sociological canon. We encourage all contributors to consider employing a feminist and decolonial lens in their paper.
  • We encourage research that is in dialogue with the wider public and communities, to provide models of how sociology is engaged in politics, causes, movements, and communities.

Suggested Themes

*          Adaption to and creative responses to social crises
*          Democracy, protest, and activism
*          Peace, war, and militarism
*          Migration and borders
*          Far-Right mobilisation
*          Work and welfare
*          Health and medical sociology
*          Space, urban planning, regional development
*          Inequality and poverty
*          Housing and homelessness
*          Care
*          Decolonisation
*          Climate catastrophes
*          Gender, sex, and sexualities
*          Racial injustice and inequalities
*          Social class
*          Online living and mediatisation of social life
*          Leisure, sociability, art, sport, and consumerism
*          Creativity and Al
*          Harm, violence, rule-breaking
*          Religion, meaning and spirituality
*          Childhood, education, socialisation, and ageing
*          Qualitative, quantitative, computational, and creative methods
*          Social theory
*          Teaching Sociology.

Financial Aid

*          Lower price tickets will be available for people in precarious employment
*          Please indicate if you wish to apply for financial aid in the email to which you are attaching your abstract.
            We can offer free tickets, transport, and potentially other support to some people.

Conference Organising Committee

SAI Conference Officer: Adepeju Olaide Oti

UCC Local Organising Committee: John O’Brien, Brenda Mondragon Toledo, Julius Cezar Macarie, Myles Balfe, Des Fitzgerald, Tanya Watson, Amin Sharifi Isaloo, Billy Goodwin

If you have any questions about the conference, please email SAI25@ucc.ie.