ESA RN03 midterm conference “Memory, Crisis and Future”

This mid-term conference will take place during the 30th Anniversary of the ESA RN 03 “Biographical Perspectives on European Societies” and give space for vivid discussions, inspiring presentations and a small celebration of the anniversary during a special session.

Over the past three decades, the network has led studies exploring contemporary societies and their transformations. Now, as the network enters its fourth decade, European societies grapple with recovery from the pandemic’s aftermath amidst geopolitical crises such as the war in Ukraine and the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. Compounded by the global environmental crisis, marked by unprecedented floods in Spain and wildfires in Southern Europe, these challenges have left deep scars on individuals and communities. At the same time, we continue to witness ongoing social conflicts surrounding the consequences and memorialization of past crises, conflicts, and disasters—such as wars, genocidal violence, and social and political inequalities—both within and beyond the European continent. These historical events shape the context in which current processes are interpreted. The rapid and dramatic societal changes, along with emotional traumas of illness, loss, and separation, call for a renewed focus on biographical research as a lens for connecting past, present, and future (Wengraf, 2001; Roberts, 2002; O’Neill and Nurse, 2024).

In this era of rapid global change, economic instability, environmental challenges, and political unrest, this conference seeks to explore the intricate connections between biography, memory and temporality, societal processes, and crises, as well as visions of the future. These themes are particularly relevant in a European context, where historical narratives and contemporary challenges continue to shape lives and societies. Biographical research, as Norman Denzin (1997) highlighted, embodies a humanistic commitment to studying the social world from the perspective of interacting individual. The conference aims to foster and encourage the interpretive analysis of lives, embracing the ethical, political, and self-reflexive dimensions of biographical research. As AI becomes an increasingly significant tool in academic research, we invite discussions on its role as a transformative tool shaping both methodology and understanding in biographical studies and AI as a critical subject of sociological examination. Given the profound societal changes we are witnessing, the importance of methodological innovation and the development of research ethics, ethical procedures and practices, including methodological governance remain one of the key challenges of biographical methodology (Caetano and Nico, 2018).

The sessions will be dedicated to biographies and crises, e.g. covid 19; memory and generations; migration, displacement and memory; and solidarity and society.

You can find more information about the preliminary programme and the registration here: http://www.uni-goettingen.de/esarn03