Panels
Panels for researchers, teaching staff and professionals
Coordinator: Professor Phd Adrian Hatos, President of Romanian Sociologists Society (SSR)
Lumea se schimbă într-un ritm frenetic iar rolul sociologiei – și al sociologilor ca experți și actori publici totodată – devine simultan mai contestat și mai necesar. Acest panel, organizat sub egida Societății Sociologilor din România (SSR), propune o dezbatere critică și reflexivă asupra prezentului și viitorului sociologiei în societatea românească.Pornind de la ideea că forța sociologiei nu rezidă în popularitate, ci în capacitatea de a problematiza, și de a face inteligibile realitățile sociale – chiar și atunci când acest lucru produce disconfort – panelul explorează relevanța publică a cunoașterii sociologice și condițiile în care sociologii pot deveni actori semnificativi în viața democratică și în procesul de elaborare a politicilor publice. Sociologii nu sunt doar observatori, ci producători de cunoaștere relevantă și potențiali mediatori între date, interpretare și decizie. Panelul abordează o serie de teme interconectate: identitatea profesională și statutul sociologilor în România; poziționarea instituțională a sociologiei între universitate, piața muncii și spațiul public; provocările generate de digitalizare, dataficare și inteligența artificială; precum și capacitatea disciplinei de a răspunde unor probleme sociale majore, precum inegalitățile, polarizarea socială sau deficitul de guvernanță. Panelul va combina prezentări scurte cu o dezbatere structurată și deschisă, implicând cercetători, practicieni, inclusiv reprezentanți ai unor instituții publice. Întrebările centrale includ: De ce tip de sociologie are nevoie societatea românească astăzi? Cum pot sociologii să-și crească impactul public fără a-și compromite autonomia critică? Ce rol ar trebui să joace organizațiile profesionale, precum SSR, în consolidarea disciplinei și creșterea vizibilității acesteia? Panelul este deschis atât contribuțiilor teoretice, cât și celor empirice, precum și intervențiilor orientate spre practică profesională și dezvoltare instituțională. Scopul său este de a stimula o reflecție colectivă asupra viitorului sociologiei în România și de a contura direcții posibile pentru întărirea relevanței, legitimității și impactului său societal.
Coordinators: Professor Phd Marian-Gabriel Hâncean & Lecturer Phd Bianca-Elena Mihăilă, University of Bucharest
This thematic section invites contributions that explore the use of Social Network Analysis (SNA) in advancing primary prevention research, with a particular focus on understanding the social risk factors of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and other noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). In line with the theme of ACUM 2026 (Social Dynamics and Digital Transformations), the section seeks to examine how relational structures, social influence, and digital environments shape the diffusion, reinforcement, and mitigation of behavioral and socio-environmental risk factors in contemporary communities. NCDs are often framed in terms of individual behavior (diet, smoking, physical activity), yet these behaviors are correlated and deeply embedded in social networks that transmit norms, resources, stressors, and opportunities. This section encourages theoretical, methodological, and empirical papers that use SNA to analyze how risk factors circulate within families, peer groups, communities, organizations, or digital platforms. Contributions may address but are not limited to topics such as social contagion of health behaviors, network-based inequalities in exposure to risk, community-level resilience mechanisms, digital social networks and health communication, or the role of informal leadership in prevention initiatives. We particularly welcome interdisciplinary approaches that integrate medical studies, digital trace data, participatory mapping, longitudinal network designs, or multilevel network modeling. Papers may also explore methodological innovations, including exponential random graph models (ERGMs), stochastic actor-oriented models, multilayer networks, or network-informed intervention design. By bringing together researchers working at the intersection of sociology, communication, public health, medical research, and data science, this section aims to advance a relational understanding of primary prevention and to highlight how digital and offline networks jointly shape health trajectories.
Coordinators: Assoc. Prof. Phd Romeo Asiminei & Assist. Prof. Phd Sergiu Bortoș, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași
The accelerating entanglement of digital technologies with political life has fundamentally altered the conditions under which democratic processes unfold. Electoral crises, disinformation campaigns, and the fragmentation of the public sphere are no longer peripheral phenomena but defining features of contemporary politics, raising urgent questions about the sustainability of democratic institutions in the digital age. This thematic section responds to these challenges by bringing together scholars who examine the intersections of political communication, alternative media ecosystems, and democratic discourse at a moment when the boundaries between information, manipulation, and mobilization have become increasingly blurred. The section addresses several interrelated questions: How do digital platforms reconfigure the dynamics of electoral competition and political participation? In what ways do alternative and hybrid media – from partisan news outlets to social media influencers – challenge or reinforce dominant political narratives? How do actors operating at the margins of institutional politics exploit digital affordances to amplify populist and anti-democratic messaging? And what do these transformations mean for the normative ideals of deliberative democracy and an informed citizenry? Theoretically, contributions to this section engage with frameworks drawn from political communication theory, media sociology, and democratic theory, including agenda-setting, mediatization, and hybrid media systems approaches. Methodologically, the section is deliberately pluralist, encouraging quantitative analyses of digital trace data, computational content analyses, qualitative discourse studies, and mixed-methods designs that capture both structural patterns and interpretive depth. By situating these inquiries within the broader conference theme, this section aims to generate cumulative knowledge about the mechanisms through which digital and media technologies are reshaping political power, communication norms, and civic engagement. The expected contribution is both empirical — mapping concrete transformations in specific national and transnational contexts — and theoretical, advancing more nuanced models of how digitally mediated political communication operates in times of democratic strain.
Coordinators: Assoc. Prof. Phd Mihai Burlacu (Transilvania University of Brasov) & Senior Researcher Phd Gabriel Stoiciu ('Francisc Rainer' Institute of Anthropology)
In an age of digital echo-chambers and culture-war trench lines, video games and digital worlds represent far more than escapist media. They are generative emplacement for anthropological research and intercession. Our panel questions the ways in which ludic systems (i.e. MMORPGs, blockchain-based metaverses, and indie narrative games) reconfigure identity, belonging, and political possibility. We encourage anthropologists to submit papers examining: (1) emergent solidarities in speed-running collectives that subvert corporate platform governance; (2) Affective economies of rage and care in toxicity-moderated Discord servers; (3) speculative world-building in futurist Minecraft realms and Indigenous-led Roblox nations that re-territorialise digital places; (4) methodological experiments using in-game participant observation, avatar auto-ethnography, virtual artefact analysis and collaborative modding as theoretical grounded practice. We welcome contributions that include diverse topics, such as: micro-interactions in Final Fantasy XIV wedding ceremonies, patterns of crypto-colonialism in Axie Infinity play-to-earn ecologies, cultural appropriation in Genshin Impact etc. We are interested in revealing How might ludic reflexivity prefigure less extractive socialities? We assert that by approaching video games as experimental theory-machines rather than mere data sources, our panel entails a “ludic” anthropology that rejects the essentializing perspective of “digital natives” discourse. Instead, we encourage anthropologists to develop ways of creating virtual worlds alongside players. We aim to ascertain whether in such worlds the process of content creation is either a bug or a feature to be hacked and re-imagined.
Coordinator: Assoc. Prof. Phd Gabriela Motoi, University of Craiova
This panel aims to explore the complex interrelations between educational systems, labour market dynamics, and social policies in a context shaped by rapid transformations driven by globalization, digitalization, and the transition toward green and sustainable economies. Starting from the premise that education represents a key driver of social inclusion and occupational mobility, the panel will examine the extent to which educational and social policies respond effectively to labour market demands and contribute to reducing structural inequalities. The panel welcomes both theoretical and empirical contributions addressing: (1) the alignment between educational provision and labour market needs; (2) the role of social policies in facilitating the transition from education to employment; (3) the impact of socio-economic inequalities on access to education and employment opportunities; (4) institutional and community-based mechanisms supporting inclusion and equity. Furthermore, the panel will examine public policies and best practices at national and European levels, with a particular focus on programmes aimed at enhancing employability, developing key competencies (including digital and green skills), and supporting disadvantaged groups. The overarching goal is to contribute to the debate on the necessity of integrated, flexible, and context-sensitive policy frameworks capable of bridging the gap between education and the labour market.
Coordinators: Professor Phd Claudiu Coman (Transilvania University of Brasov) & Professor Phd Lucian Marina (1 Decembrie 1918 University of Alba Iulia)
Twenty-first century social transformations are marked by tensions between global and local forces, between homogenization and diversification, between transnational flows and contextual resistances. The concept of glocalization offers an essential analytical framework for understanding these paradoxical dynamics, transcending simplistic global-local dichotomies by recognizing simultaneous processes of adaptation, hybridization and reconstruction of social spaces. In the context of the information and communication technology revolution, glocalization acquires new dimensions. Digitalization does not lead to simple cultural homogenization, but rather facilitates the reconstruction of places through digital means and the creation of hybrid "glocal" spaces where identities, practices and social structures are continuously negotiated between global influences and local specificities. This reconfiguration of time and space fundamentally transforms how communities construct and maintain collective identities in the era of digital platforms. An intersectional approach becomes indispensable for analyzing these complex phenomena. Intersectionality enables examination of how categories of gender, class, ethnicity, nationality and other axes of differentiation intersect within global processes, producing stratified experiences and multiple inequalities. In the digital age, these intersections become even more visible: unequal access to technology, the digital divide, labor transformation and new forms of online activism reflect complex configurations of power that cannot be understood through a single analytical dimension. This thematic section proposes a theoretical and empirical synthesis that integrates glocalization with intersectional perspectives to analyze contemporary social phenomena. We will explore concrete manifestations of these processes across diverse domains: from female digital entrepreneurship and relocated labor to networked social movements, translocal identity transformations and the reconfiguration of public space. We will examine how digital technologies are adapted and reinterpreted differently according to local contexts and intersections of social categories, producing both opportunities for empowerment and new forms of exclusion. The section's central questions include: How do glocalization processes manifest in different social and cultural contexts? To what extent do digital technologies facilitate or impede social justice and inclusion? How can intersectional perspectives enrich our understanding of glocal dynamics? What implications do these processes have for public policy, digital governance, and sustainable development strategies? Suggested domains for papers: (1) Digital entrepreneurship and gender intersectionality in the global economy; (2) Digital social movements and intersectional networked activism; (3) Translocal identities and belonging in superdiverse communities; (4) Multiple digital inequalities and the digital divide in glocal contexts; (5) Cultural transformations and identity negotiation in hybrid spaces; (6) Language and identity policies in the glocal age; (7) Relocated labor and intersectionality in the global economy; (8) Digital citizenship and transformations of public space; (9) Migration, mobility and identity reconstruction in glocal spaces; (10) Digital education and accessibility in intersectional contexts.
Coordinators: Professor Phd Laura Nistor (Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Cluj-Napoca) & Lecturer Phd Andreea-Claudia Mardache (Transilvania University of Brasov)
Contemporary societies are confronted with an accelerating ecological crisis: planetary boundaries have been exceeded in multiple domains, from climate change and biodiversity loss to resource depletion. Yet understanding why societies respond, or fail to respond, to these challenges remains fundamentally a sociological question. This section invites contributions from sociology, communication studies, social psychology, and related disciplines that examine the social dimensions of environmental change and sustainability transitions. We welcome papers that address, but are not limited to, the following questions: How do structural factors, e.g., class, inequality, and institutional configurations shape individual and collective environmental behavior? How is environmental risk communicated across different media systems, and how does this shape public concern, trust, and policy support? How do social norms, lifestyles, and identity interact with ecological awareness and consumption patterns? What role do technology and digital platforms play in mobilizing or demobilizing environmental action? How do governments, corporations, and civil society negotiate the urgency of decarbonization in public discourse? The section is intentionally broad in scope, welcoming both quantitative and qualitative approaches, comparative and case-based analyses, as well as theoretical and empirical contributions. We particularly encourage work that bridges micro-level individual behavior and macro-level structural or institutional dynamics, and that connects the social sciences to ongoing policy debates about just and effective sustainability transitions. By bringing together scholars working on these themes, the section aims to contribute to a richer sociological understanding of how societies navigate ecological crisis and what conditions might enable more ambitious, socially equitable, and effective responses.
Coordinators: Professor Phd Carmen Buzea & Assoc. Prof. Phd Horia Moașa, Transilvania University of Brașov
While technological change continues to transform work and organizational systems, core human elements, such as agency, identity, and trust, remain fundamental to how organizations operate. This panel brings together scholars and practitioners to examine these dynamics across both established frameworks and emerging, technology-driven contexts. At the core of the discussion is human agency: how individuals navigate, shape, and interpret their roles within increasingly complex and technology-mediated environments. As organizations adopt algorithmic management and automated decision-making, revisiting the social and psychological foundations of work becomes critical. We welcome contributions engaging with two complementary directions:
1. Traditional Foundations and Sociological Perspectives: This stream revisits key themes in Organizational Behavior and the Sociology of Work, including organizational identity, trust, and evolving power relations. Contributions may address leadership, motivation, group dynamics, and the enduring social structures that shape workplace interactions.
2. Digital and AI-Driven Transformations and the Future of HR: This stream focuses on the impact of Artificial Intelligence and digital transformation on HR practices, organizational culture, and professional identities. Relevant topics include the ethics of algorithmic decision-making, shifting definitions of talent and productivity, and new forms of human-machine collaboration.
By placing these perspectives in dialogue, the panel seeks to contribute to a more integrated understanding of organizational change. Rather than treating technology as a determining force, the focus is on how human agency can be sustained and redefined. We welcome qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods contributions. The panel is guided by a central question: how can organizations remain resilient, trust-based, and attentive to the human dimension in a period of continuous transformation?
Coordinators: Professor Phd Adrian Netedu & Assoc. Prof. Phd Lucian Sfetcu, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași
The European Declaration on Digital Rights and Principles (2022) aims, among other things, to “put people and their rights at the centre of the digital transformation”. This directive and others have extensively debated notions that have become commonplace today: digital divide, web accessibility, improving digital skills, connectivity, silver economy, digital gaps. If digital inclusion concerns all European citizens as a whole, we can nevertheless see that there are distinct social groups whose digital integration needs to be supported more consistently and here we are talking about: seniors (faced with digital illiteracy - related to connectivity or telemedicine but also to exposure to digital fraud), people with disabilities (those with vision, hearing, motor or cognitive disabilities), children and young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, people with low incomes (in fact cases of digital poverty), migrants and refugees, victims of domestic violence. Specialized sociological research can analyze such cases to identify the resulting social consequences: situations of social isolation, lack of access to digital platforms, digital desertification (especially in rural areas), deepening economic inequalities (through lack of access to remote work), the case of 'digital natives' without access to advanced technology but exposed to cyberbullying and disinformation, the case of migrants disconnected from the digital world in the countries of arrival, the success of high-performance digital systems in situations of domestic violence. Here is a whole series of reflections topics for sociologists, social workers or those responsible for various public policies and they are invited to participate to present their research or direct experiences in this aria.
Coordinators: Professor Phd Cosima Rughiniș & Lecturer Phd Simona Vulpe, University of Bucharest
Feeling rules are not stable. They are rewritten as new technologies enter the spaces where emotions are formed, named, and exchanged. Therapeutic culture taught people to read their inner lives through a clinical vocabulary and to expect a listener trained in reflective empathy. Self-help books, talk shows, and counseling manuals circulated scripts for processing loss, anger, or desire. Intimacy journalism and the confessional registers of blogs, podcasts, and first-person essays extended those scripts into public life, making self-disclosure an aesthetic and civic practice. Social media platforms added metrics, audiences, and templates, turning affective expression into a continuous, semi-public performance governed by visibility and reaction. Dating apps reorganized courtship around profiles, swipes, and asynchronous messaging. Generative AI now offers scripted empathy on demand, through chatbots designed for companionship, coaching, grief, or romantic interaction, and through writing assistants that draft, rephrase, soften, or amplify what users say to one another. Each of these shifts changes what counts as an appropriate feeling, who is qualified to hear it, and how emotional effort is divided between persons, professionals, and infrastructures. Each also reorganizes emotional labor in Hochschild's sense. Therapists, nurses, teachers, call-center workers, content moderators, influencers, and AI trainers perform different versions of managed feeling, under different technical and institutional conditions. This panel examines how technologies, understood broadly, shape emotion work, emotional labor, and feeling rules. We welcome contributions that treat emotions as socially organized, and that trace how specific technologies, old and new, enter emotional life. Relevant questions include: How do technologies mediate intimacy, recognition, attachment, or grief? What feeling rules emerge around particular tools, genres, or platforms, for example norms of trust, disclosure, authenticity, or suspicion? How is emotional labor redistributed between users, workers, and systems in care, education, journalism, platform work, and domestic life? How are boundaries between presence and automation, sincerity and performance, negotiated in practice? Relevant topics include therapeutic culture and its media, intimacy journalism and confessional genres, social media and platform affect, dating apps and mediated courtship, AI companionship and attachment to conversational agents, emotional labor in digital environments, and public narratives about the promises and risks of emotionally responsive technologies. We welcome empirical contributions, including early-stage and exploratory studies, drawing on diverse data and methods.
Coordinators: Professor Phd Gabriela Dima & Assoc. Prof. Phd Marinela Șimon, Transilvania University of Brașov
This section aims to create a space for critical reflection and interdisciplinary dialogue on contemporary transformations that are reshaping both social needs and intervention practices in the field of social work. In a context marked by rapid changes – globalization, migration, digitalization, economic and climate crises, as well as the reconfiguration of public policies – the social work profession is called to rethink its theoretical foundations, working methods, and role in society. The section invites contributions that address, but are not limited to, the following directions:
• How do contemporary social changes influence the role and professional identity of social workers?
• What new theoretical and methodological models are needed to respond to emerging needs?
• How can digital technologies be integrated into social work practice without compromising human relationships?
• What are the implications of current social policies for access to services and social equity?
• What lessons can be learned from recent crises (pandemics, conflicts, forced migration) for the future of the profession?
The section seeks to bring together empirical research, theoretical reflections, and case studies that offer relevant perspectives on the transformation of social work. By facilitating the exchange of ideas between researchers and practitioners, this section aims to contribute to the development of a conceptual and practical framework adapted to current realities.
Coordinator: Professor Phd Adrian Hatos, University of Oradea
The rapid diffusion of digital technologies is reshaping education not merely as a technical domain, but as a fundamentally social institution embedded in broader structures of inequality, power, and cultural reproduction. This panel invites sociological analyses of how digitalization—ranging from platform-based learning to artificial intelligence – reconfigures educational systems, practices, and outcomes. A key concern is the transformation of educational inequalities in the context of digital expansion. Beyond issues of access, the panel foregrounds the role of “digital capital” in structuring opportunities, trajectories, and outcomes, as well as its interaction with established forms of social, cultural, and economic capital. Contributors are encouraged to examine how digitalization may reproduce, transform, or intensify existing stratification patterns across social groups, institutions, and territories. The panel also addresses shifts in educational relationships and forms of socialization. The increasing mediation of interactions through digital technologies raises important questions about authority, autonomy, trust, and control within educational settings. How are teacher–student relations, peer interactions, and institutional linkages redefined in digitally mediated environments? What new forms of governance, surveillance, and evaluation emerge, and with what consequences? Drawing on the concept of “learning ecologies,” the panel further explores the expansion of education beyond formal institutional boundaries, encompassing hybrid, networked, and informal contexts of learning. This perspective allows for a broader sociological understanding of how individuals navigate multiple learning environments and how these environments are socially structured. We welcome theoretical and empirical contributions that engage with themes such as digital inequality and digital divides, social reproduction, platformization, datafication, artificial intelligence in education, and the sociological implications of educational policy in the digital age. The panel aims to foster critical dialogue on the role of education in contemporary societies undergoing rapid technological and social transformation.
Coordinators: Assoc. Prof. Phd Ana-Maria Bolborici (Transilvania University of Brasov) & Assoc. Prof. LLM 01 Pitt Angela Maria Romito (Università dagli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro)
In a global context marked by armed conflict, geopolitical fragmentation, and systemic crises, democratic systems are increasingly tested in their ability not only to endure shocks but to adapt without compromising fundamental principles. “Resilience” has thus emerged as a central – yet contested–concept in contemporary debates on democracy. This panel offers an interdisciplinary exploration of democratic resilience, situating European developments within a broader global framework. It focuses on the interplay between legal structures, conflict dynamics, and forms of citizen participation, asking how democratic systems respond to crises while safeguarding rights and legitimacy. Particular attention will be paid to legal challenges arising in emergency contexts, including shifts in governance, the strain on fundamental rights, and the adequacy of existing mechanisms for conflict prevention and resolution. The panel will also address the protection of vulnerable groups – especially minors – in contexts of migration, war, and displacement. At the same time, the panel examines the role of active citizenship and civic engagement in sustaining democratic resilience. Contributions are invited to reflect on whether participation acts as a stabilizing force, a site of contestation, or both, across different political and institutional settings. We welcome both theoretical and empirical contributions from European and international scholars and practitioners in law, political science, sociology, and related disciplines. Submissions engaging with non-European or comparative perspectives are particularly encouraged in order to foster a broader international dialogue on democratic resilience across diverse political and institutional contexts. Thematic areas: (1) Global and regional perspectives on international relations, security, and geopolitical dynamics; (2) Legal challenges in times of crisis and mechanisms for conflict resolution; (3) Protection of minors in contexts of migration, conflict, and war; (4) Democratic participation and active citizenship in the EU; (5) The role of EU citizens in strengthening democratic resilience; (6) Civic engagement tools and their impact on community resilience.
Coordinators: Lecturer Phd Ionuț Foldes, Lecturer Phd Adriana Teodorescu & Researcher PhD Mihaela Hărăguș, Babeș-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca
Is demographic ageing in Central and Eastern Europe a social problem, or is it a narrative of crisis? The distinction matters because how ageing is framed shapes the policies designed to address it, the resources allocated, and the social actors held responsible. This thematic section challenges the dominant framing of population ageing as a social problem requiring urgent corrective intervention and instead proposes that ageing be understood as a structural consequence of the broad social transformations in labour markets, welfare regimes, and family organisations in industrial and post-industrial societies. The crisis narrative, we argue, is not neutral. It selectively mobilises anxiety, legitimises welfare state withdrawal, and displaces political responsibility onto individuals and families least equipped to bear it. The section is particularly attentive to the CEE context, where post-socialist welfare states have never fully developed the institutional infrastructure of care and where familialism by default continues to organise the lives of older adults and their carers. Rather than treating this arrangement as a cultural given, we approach it as a political outcome, a product of specific policy choices and their consequences. A central concern of this section is the individualisation of responsibility for ageing. Across CEE, discourses of self-care, healthy ageing, and personal preparedness have gained traction in policy and public debate. We read this shift critically, drawing on scholarship that examines how neoliberal restructuring transfers risk and responsibility from states to individuals, a transfer that is profoundly unequal, given that access to the resources needed to age well is deeply stratified by class, gender, place of residence, and migration history. The section invites papers addressing the following themes (indicative, not exhaustive): (1) Crisis narratives and the framing of demographic ageing in CEE; (2) Familialism by default and the gendered organisation of care in CEE; (3) Institutionalisation of long-term care: policies, practices, and lived experiences; (4) Active ageing and its discontents: critical perspectives and post-socialist translations; (5) Self-care, (hyper-)responsibilisation, and inequalities in the capacity to “age well”; (6) Left-behind older adults and transnational care arrangements; (7) Older-age migration to and within Romania and CEE; (8) Vulnerability and unmet care needs in later life; (9) Conceptual and measurement challenges in ageing societies; (10) Political and demographic perspectives on population ageing in CEE.
Coordinator: Assoc. Prof. Phd Alina Coman, Transilvania University of Brasov
In the last decades, the theme Gender Retina (as a metaphor for decoding stereotypes in contemporary visual culture) have introduced significant reinterpretations in our way of understanding the both reality and social practices of everyday life. While the topic of equality of rights and opportunities is debated on the public agenda, we still face with persisting gender inequalities displayed by press, television, advertising, cinematography and digital space. We can mention here some interest themes - formation and reinforcement of gender stereotypes, normalization of violence and inequality, impact on political interest and civic participation, changing mentalities through diverse representation. This state of affairs continues to challenge us to elaborate more subtle analyses of the ways in which personal life and society are shaped by gender. This panel is addressed to academics, researchers, MD and PhD. students and professionals with a particular interest related to gender studies. We invite proposals from various disciplines - psychology, sociology, communication, digital media, political studies, anthropology, culture studies, history and literature.
Coordinators: Assist. Prof. Phd Bianca Mădălina Popa, Lecturer Phd Livia Pogan (Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu) & Professor Phd Tatiana Spătaru (Moldova State University)
Social cohesion remains a cornerstone of the European Union’s strategic objectives and policy frameworks. However, in a period defined by "polycrises" – ranging from economic instability and geopolitical shifts to rapid digital transformations – this mission faces significant challenges at the European, national, and sub-national levels. This panel invites diverse analytical lenses from a range of social science disciplines to explore the evolving nature of social cohesion and its resilience in contemporary society. We welcome debates focused on the conceptual clarification of the term, its operationalization and measurement, and its shifting dynamics amidst increasing socio-political polarization. The panel aims to identify the factors that foster or hinder cohesion, as well as the mechanisms through which academic findings are translated into effective policy instruments. We particularly encourage contributions that adopt comparative or transnational frameworks, though context-specific studies with wider theoretical implications are also welcome. By bridging conceptual reflections with empirical evidence, this panel seeks to contribute to the ongoing dialogue on how societies navigate the complexities of the 21st century to maintain inclusive and stable social bonds.
Coordinators: Professor Phd Gabriela Rățulea & Professor Phd Florin Nechita, Transilvania University of Brasov
The question of European identity has become especially relevant in a context marked by geopolitical tensions, democratic backsliding, the resurgence of extremist ideologies, and the challenges posed by digital transformation. Far from being a fixed or self-evident construct, European identity is continuously negotiated through collective memory, educational practices, cultural narratives, and civic engagement. In particular, the ways in which Europe’s totalitarian past is communicated to younger generations play a significant role in shaping democratic values, critical thinking, and a shared sense of belonging to European values. This thematic section invites contributions that explore the formation and transmission of European identity through the lens of historical awareness and memory politics. It seeks to examine how educational systems, cultural institutions, and public discourse contribute to fostering or fragmenting a common European civic culture. Special attention is given to the challenges of engaging younger generations in meaningful reflection on authoritarianism, propaganda, and the ethical responsibilities of citizenship in contemporary Europe. The section encourages interdisciplinary approaches that bridge sociology, media studies, political science, cultural heritage, and related fields. Key questions guiding this section include: (1) How is European identity constructed, negotiated, and contested across different national and cultural contexts? (2) How can comparative perspectives between Eastern and Western European experiences enhance a shared understanding of Europe’s past? (3) What role do memory institutions and civil society organizations play in shaping historical awareness and civic values? (4) How do digital media and new communication technologies influence the transmission of historical knowledge and collective memory? (5) In what ways can education about Europe’s difficult past contribute to strengthening democratic resilience and active citizenship among young people? By bringing together theoretical reflections, empirical research, and case-based insights, this section aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of how European identity is formed and reconfigured in times of social and digital transformation.
Coordinators: Researcher PhD Anca Velicu, Institute of Sociology, Romanian Academy & Professor PhD Diana Cheianu-Andrei, International Center "La Strada", Moldova
Since the advent of television, children's media practices have moved beyond the confines of the domestic sphere and become a matter of public concern. Policymakers have repeatedly attempted to regulate the potentially harmful content children encounter, pressuring media and content industries, as well as technology manufacturers to develop tools that limit children's access to such material. The rise and evolution of the internet – particularly what has been termed the social internet and, more recently, the post-social internet – has not only sustained these anxieties about the effects of digital media on children but also intensified them. Children's digital practices have become a contested terrain, shaped by competing interests and interventions from families, schools, legislators, and industry actors, while children themselves remain largely marginalised voices in these debates. Against this backdrop, this panel invites contributions from across these intersecting fields, united by a shared interest in understanding children's digital lives. Interdisciplinary in character, the panel welcomes perspectives from the sociology of childhood, media sociology, communication studies, social psychology, and education sciences. It aims to move beyond purely descriptive or theoretical accounts, encouraging engagement with the methodological and ethical challenges that research in this space entails – reflecting critically on both the difficulties and emerging approaches that define this dynamic and often contentious field.
