On August 31—September 3, the 15th Conference “Sociological Knowledges for Alternative Future” was held online in Barcelona, Spain, by the European Sociological Association (ESA). The event brought together 3941 participants from 74 countries.
The Conference was opened by Alondra Nelson, Deputy Director for Science and Society in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Federico Mayor Zaragoza, President of the European Center for Peace and Development Council of the United Nations. They presented the report “Envisioning alternative futures” which outlined the discussion within the Conference.
The Conference program included diverse formats, such as plenary reports, semi-plenaries, thematic sessions, and research streams, among others. Researchers in the field of social studies discussed the urgent issues, including the changes under the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic:
- The future alternative to neoliberalism;
- Gender equality in the post-COVID 19 pandemic;
- The influence of social studies on the humanities and the society;
- The changing of public spaces under the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic;
- Radical movements and political activism in the context of discussions of genders;
- The development of remote work and the growth of inequality during distance learning as consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic;
- Modern art and economics of the arts in crisis periods;
- The mutual influence of religious and ecological movements, among others.
The ESA consists of 37 Research Networks (RNs). RN10 Sociology of Education focuses on the changes in the field of educational practices at all levels, from global analysis to everyday life. Within RN10, MCU researcher Elena Nekhorosheva, Head of the Laboratory of Urban Health and Wellbeing at the MCU’s Research Institute of Urban Studies and Global Education, and Ekaterina Enchikova, University of Porto, presented the joint report “From home to school and back home: daily children mobility before and during the COVID-19 pandemic“. The study concerns how students’ attendance at school has changed, as well as the reasons and consequences of the changes. The findings of the study correspond to the conclusions made in the reports of other researchers presented at the Conference.
See the full Conference program on the official website.
