12th Conference of the European Sociological Association 2015

Differences, inequalities and sociological imagination

A profound challenge that the social sciences, and sociology in particular, are now called upon to confront has to do with the depth and extraordinary acceleration of global processes of social and cultural change. Today's byword 'globalisation' only partially captures the full significance of these processes. Sociological knowledge therefore encounters a limitation: it is easier to see what is disappearing than what is coming into being. Yet this limitation can be overturned and become a resource: a stimulus to intensify our theoretical and empirical exploration of the world around us by relating everyday life to history, connecting individual experiences to major issues of democracy and justice, and viewing the exercise of agency in the light of processes of domination. Sociological imagination is the tool that our discipline has honed over the decades to accomplish this.

But what are the major issues that the global sociological community now has the responsibility to tackle? First and foremost, they arise from the exponential increase in social inequalities, a process that the international economic crisis has exacerbated beyond measure. This situation threatens the very existence of democracy and calls for the construction of forms of social analysis which are strongly connected to the arena of public policy. Concurrently, these forms of analysis must also be capable of offering communities and individuals knowledge and insight that can help to stem the tide of fatalism and apathy.