{"id":2390,"date":"2025-11-21T12:49:41","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T12:49:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/sci\/?p=2390"},"modified":"2025-12-12T10:47:31","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T10:47:31","slug":"sci-2025-conference-round-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/sci\/2025\/11\/21\/sci-2025-conference-round-up\/","title":{"rendered":"SCI\u2019s 2025 Conference Round-Up: Turbulence, Crisis & Disruption in Sustainability Research"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The 2025 conference season is coming to a close. Here\u2019s a look back at where SCI members have been sharing their research and insights this year.<\/b><\/h3>\n

Text by Raka\u00a0Mukherjee<\/p>\n

Throughout this year\u2019s conference season, SCI researchers took their work to international forums together reflect the core themes driving SCI\u2019s research agenda.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How does turbulence become a testing ground for transformation<\/b><\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

Luke Yates, whose research is focused on the politics and strategies of digital mobilization, presented two papers at the International Sociological Association Forum of Sociology in Rabat. His panels on Strategy in Collective Action and Platform Politics, co-organised with Kevin Gillan and Simin Fadaee, explored how movements creates strategy in uncertain terrains and how grassroots actors negotiate power within platform capitalism.<\/p>\n

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At SCORAI Europe 2025 in Lund, Steffen Hirth and Ulrike Ehgartner presented their research on turbulence in food systems. Their work on \u201cCivil Food Resilience in a Turbulent World\u201d and \u201cLand Abuse Change: Regenerative Agriculture and the Question of Producing Meat Within Planetary Boundaries\u201d examined how governance and responsibility evolve within complex ecological transitions.<\/p>\n

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S\u00f6nke Mestwerdt\u2019s research on entrepreneurship across the Global South was presented at several conferences. In Mexico City, his paper \u201cPitch Perfect: Emotional Appeals and Lender Decision-Making in Social Entrepreneurship\u201d won the Best Empirical Paper Award at the 21st Annual Social Entrepreneurship Conference. He continued with \u201cHow Do Social Entrepreneurs Form Social Opportunity Beliefs?\u201d at BCERC in Boston and \u201cEverything, Everywhere, Agentic All at Once\u201d at Montr\u00e9al\u2019s All Aboard Entrepreneur-Ship workshop, where he also received mentoring and feedback from senior scholars. At AOM 2025 in Copenhagen, he delivered multiple papers \u2014 including \u201cThe Role of Informal Reference Points in New Venture Decision-Making\u201d and \u201cBringing the \u2018Social\u2019 Back into Social Entrepreneurship Studies\u201d. He also co-organised a Professional Development Workshop titled \u201cMeasuring What Matters: Entrepreneurial Value Creation Through Impact Measurement and Management.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

How do crises invite new imaginaries\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/h2>\n

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At the European Sociological Association Consumption Research Network Conference in Prague, Dan Welch presented \u201cConsumer Society and the Crisis of the Democratic Imaginary,\u201d tracing how post-war ideals of prosperity have fractured since the financial crisis. At SCORAI Europe, he shared results from the international collaboration IMAGINE, which explored how cultural imaginaries shape societal responses to sustainability challenges across food, clothing, and mobility. Earlier, at the BSA Conference in Manchester, he joined the Culture Stream Plenary to discuss where the sociology of consumption might go next.<\/p>\n

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Helen Holmes at SCORAI approached crisis through the lens of decay, presenting \u201cCircular Consumption and the Social and Cultural Practices of Decay.\u201d Helen\u2019s research reframes decay not as an ending, but as a quiet transformation within circular consumption. It is a reminder that renewal often begins where we least expect it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

James Jackson\u2019s contributions spanned the architecture of financial and political crisis. At the EISA Conference in Bologna, he presented Green Financial Planning and Central Bank Independence in the Context of Climate Change. At the PSA Conference in Birmingham, his co-authored paper \u201cHistoricising the De-Risking State\u201d traced centuries-old entanglements of state, capital, and climate governance. Later in the year, speaking at the Westminster Employment Forum Policy Conference, he explored how funding priorities for green industries and the National Wealth Fund might steer markets toward sustainable transformation, while balancing innovation and systemic risk.<\/p>\n

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How can disruption become an opportunity\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/h2>\n

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At the International Studies Association Conference in Chicago, the Green Energy Transitions and Societies (GETS) team – Sandra Barrag\u00e1n, James Jackson, Mat Paterson, and Silke Trommer, organised two linked panels exploring disruption in global energy transitions. Their sessions drew together new research on trade governance, green finance, and policy change to shape a dialogue on how disruption acts as both challenge and opportunity in the path to decarbonisation.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In Lisbon, Mike Hodson presented at the International Sustainability Transitions Conference on \u201cThree Challenges of Theorising the Urban.\u201d His talk envisioned cities as living systems that function as dynamic spaces where sustainability transitions and social disruption converge.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

SCI\u2019s postgraduate researchers, Tetyana Solovey, Anowyesha Dash and <\/b>Topo Mokokwane<\/strong>, presented their work-in-progress at recent conferences. <\/b>At the BSA Conference, Solovey presented an\u00a0upcycled textile poster\u00a0<\/i>illustrating her research on the remaking of clothes. It reflects on\u00a0making as both a potential pathway for sustainable fashion and a method of doing research. <\/b>Dash shared her research on circular business models in the seafood sector at the IABS Conference in Maastricht, contributing to broader debates on sustainability and innovation across global supply chains. Topo Mokokwane was selected to participate in the European Sociological Association Annual PhD Summer School at the Universit\u00e0 degli Studi di Palermo in Italy. This year\u2019s theme was Minorities & Marginalities. Topo was accepted due to his innovative approach to this topic through the lens of environmental sustainability.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In summary, the 2025 conference season highlighted how uncertainty and crisis can be navigated and leveraged to drive more equitable and sustainable futures.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Related<\/h1>\n

Related posts:<\/h3>
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