Now What? 

Reimagining hope, ‘truth’ and equality

The conference theme calls on conference participants to consider Now What? for the imagined and enacted praxes of hope, ‘truth’ and equality – now and in the immediate future. Now What? for contemporary and future-facing Sociology(ies). And Now What? for the next crises – material, physical, social, digital, etc – that lie just over the horizon and are yet to capture the public’s imagination, let alone threshold sociological interest.

These questions are asked with urgency as individuals and institutions around the globe lurch through the immediacies of current crises, most notably the Covid pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine – while at the same time they are routinely called upon to navigate the more persistent crises of late capitalism, such as tipping point climate change, ‘sacrifice zones’ of global pollution and ever present life-quality/ life-chance discriminations. Indeed, within this crisis inundated milieu various intersecting social fissures and inequities (e.g. economic, ethnic, residential, age, gendered, etc) are rendered ever more pronounced, just as the precarious nature of fair-weather, incremental progress is alarmingly highlighted by the resurgence of neo-liberal economic essentialism, xenophobic and morally conservative popularisms, and the reactionary misdirections of conspiracy theorists and the ‘collaterally damaged’ (Bauman 2007). And through all of this, individuals and institutions are stickily embroiled within an evolving morass of competing ‘truth claims’ – scientific, political and sociological – which they both generate and reflexively engage with differently privileged or disadvantaged measures of resilience, hope and despair (Connell 2020; Matthewman & Huppatz 2020; Robbie & Krishnamurthi 2020; Ward 2020).

So Now What? for sociological theorising, analyses and research initiatives – responsive, innovative and aspirational – within and outside academia. Now What? for constructive and ameliorating social policies. Now What? for social activism – increscent and radical (Barber & Naepi 2020).

Host Sponsor:

Massey University Sociology Programme