RC47 Newsletter

No. 1/2026

is now out!

This issue features updates on recent RC47 activities, information on the upcoming Mid-Term Conference How to Study Social Activism? Theory and Methods, opportunities for early-career researchers, the Call for Sessions for the XXI ISA World Congress, and news from across our community.

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Call for Sessions

XXI ISA World Congress of Sociology – Global Sociology in Turbulent Times

Gwangju, 4–10 July 2027

📅 Sessions deadline: June 25, 2026

As no additional sessions can be added after this deadline, the upcoming call represents a crucial opportunity to actively shape RC47’s scientific presence within the Congress. We therefore warmly encourage all RC47 members to begin reflecting on possible session proposals, thematic collaborations, and co-organising networks in view of the opening of the call.

RC47 Conference Participation Grants for Early-Career Researchers

The RC47 grant supports the participation of early-career RC47 members in the international conference The Cultural Turn of the Far Right: Symbolic Power, Affective Politics and Everyday Extremism, which will take place on 13–14 July 2026 at the University of the Basque Country, Bilbao (Spain).

RC47 Mid-Term Conference 2026

How to Study Social Activism? Theory and Methods

📍 Conference dates: 23–25 September 2026
📍 Location: University of Gdańsk, Poland

This conference represents the key RC47 scientific event of 2026 and an important opportunity to come together as a research community to reflect on the theoretical, methodological, and empirical challenges of studying contemporary activism.

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A Time for Sociology

Declaration

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RC47 Webinar Series

Sociological Perspectives on the 2024/2025 Student Movement in Serbia

Friday, 13 March 2026 / 14:00 CET
Online event: https://zoom.us/j/94449435537

Two teams of sociologists from the University of Belgrade will present findings from recent research on the 2024/2025 student movement in Serbia.

Speakers: Aleksandra Marković · Dragan Stanojević · Smiljka Tomanović · Jelena Pešić

Encampments for Palestine and Academia

4:00 PM Beirut/Palestine (UTC+2) | 2:00 PM (UTC+0)
Online event

This session focuses on student-led encampments that have emerged across universities worldwide as spaces of solidarity, political learning, and the production of radical imaginaries. These encampments raise crucial questions about collective action, academic freedom, knowledge production, and the limits of institutional politics.

To participate, please register via the form below:

RIDA47

Visit the RC47 Research Interests DAtabase to explore and connect with fellow researchers.

Visit RIDA47

Online Tribute in Memory of Michael Burawoy

(1947 – 2025)

co-hosted by the International Sociological Association (ISA) and American Sociological Association is now available on ISAsociotube channel.

ISAsociotube channel

ISA Solidarity Statement with the Palestinian People

New Far Rights Global Research Network

Interdisciplinary collaborative research to unravel the global surge of the ‘New Far Right’
A community of social scientists from around the world putting their minds together to understand the causes, characteristics, and impacts of the ‘New Far Right’ in its multiple expressions.

RC48 + RC47

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International Sociological Association Research Committee on Social Classes and Social Movements (RC47) was founded as a Thematic Group in 1988. In 1990 it was recognised as a Working Group coordinated by Louis Maheu. The first board members included Carlo Carboni, Lucio Kowarick, Roland Roth and John Urry. Two years later, in 1992, the Working Group was promoted to a Research Committee with the same coordinator and board. Since then the boards have grown and have become increasingly internationalised. Geoffrey Pleyers, who served as RC47 president from 2014-2018 was elected as the president of the International Sociological Association in 2023. The first RC47 female president, Simin Fadaee was elected in 2023.

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