NEC Events

On March 30 and 31, 2026, the spring conference of the Section for Environmental and Sustainability Sociology of the German Sociological Association (DGS) will take place at Goethe University Frankfurt am Main under the title „Klima gekippt?! Umkämpfte Transformation, Greenlash und (Post-)Apokalypse“.

The conference is being organized by Maria Backhouse (University of Augsburg), Hauke Dannemann and Dennis Eversberg (Goethe University Frankfurt am Main), Matthias Schmelzer (Europa-Universität Flensburg), and Bernd Sommer (TU Dortmund).

The call for papers for the conference is below. The deadline for submissions is December 15, 2025.

We look forward to receiving exciting proposals for contributions!

Call for Spring Conference of the DGS Section on Environmental and Sustainability Sociology. 

Farmers' protests, the reversal of climate and environmental policy decisions at national and EU level, a surprisingly rapid decline in environmental awareness indicators, a sharp decline in public support for climate policy measures, and an aggressive revival of fossil fuels, not only in the US, against a backdrop of new geopolitical tensions – in view of the escalating crisis dynamics at various levels, the climate seems to have shifted not only from an Earth system science perspective, but also socially in many respects.

This is most clearly evident, first, in the fact that the issue of climate change is being pushed off the political and public agenda. It is no longer just marginal actors or organized interest groups, but the mainstream of politics and public opinion that is currently turning its back on globally agreed sustainability goals. Instead, the determination to hold on to the existing way of life is coming to the fore. In view of escalating economic, social, and political crises, securing prosperity and “stability” and restoring growth momentum are moving to the top of the priority list for politicians, business leaders, and large sections of the population. No longer is there a focus on global coordination and cooperation in the name of sustainability and ecological transformation, but rather on going it alone to protect self-interest in the name of sovereignty, security, and resilience.

As a result, secondly, the political and social climate is turning against those actors and agendas that continue to advocate sustainability and climate protection. A societal transformation towards sustainability and climate protection is increasingly less understood as a promise for the future or a necessary response to the crisis, but rather perceived as an imposition or even a threat. A new defensive consensus against sustainability policy is emerging that extends far beyond the authoritarian party and voter spectrum. The climate movement, pro-ecological political actors, and sustainability and transformation research are increasingly confronted with hostility—not only from opposition movements that aggressively question the legitimacy of a sustainability and transformation agenda, but also from key actors within democratic institutions who see themselves as legitimized by broad social support. In the US, for example, the Trump administration is pursuing an “anti-climate policy” and actively combating and sanctioning corresponding measures. 

This requires further explanation, especially since, thirdly, the consequences of planetary changes such as climate change are becoming increasingly visible and noticeable in all regions of the world. The rapid changes in current climate data, which have come as a surprise even to climate researchers, make it clear that the physical tipping point of key parameters of the Earth system is no longer an abstract future danger, but is already a present reality. The crossing of planetary tipping points, which can hardly be prevented and is in all likelihood already happening, casts the shadow of a comprehensive loss of socio-ecological control. Prominent voices in sociology and the climate movement conclude that social-ecological transformation projects are over and that, in the spirit of a new modesty (Adler), the focus should now be on adaptation or resilience (Beckert, Blühdorn) and prepping (Müller).
The 2026 spring conference of the DGS Section on Environmental and Sustainability Sociology will address the fundamental and urgent questions that we as a subdiscipline face in light of these dynamics. 

• We look forward to seeing many participants at the conference and to receiving both theoretical-conceptual and empirical proposals for contributions. Please send abstracts of no more than 300 words by December 15, 2025, to:
  umweltsoziologie-PleaseRemoveIncludingDashes-@uni-frankfurt.de

Hosts: Maria Backhouse (University of Augsburg), Hauke Dannemann and Dennis Eversberg (Goethe University Frankfurt am Main), Matthias Schmelzer (Europa-Universität Flensburg) and Bernd Sommer (TU Dortmund).