NEC Events

Farmers’ protests, the ‘greenlash’, the fossil fuel revival: the climate has reached a tipping point, not only physically but also socially. The 2026 Spring Conference of the DGS Section on Environmental and Sustainability Sociology explores how the growing resistance to sustainability agendas can be explained sociologically, what consequences the crossing of planetary tipping points has for social conflict constellations – and what this means for environmental and sustainability sociology and socio-ecological transformation research.

The program brings together over 30 theoretical and empirical contributions on topics such as obstruction strategies and ‘greenlash’ practices, the transformation of the environmental state, authoritarianism and nature, solidarity-based collapse prevention, and the future prospects of sustainability science. The event kicks off with an opening panel with Doris Fuchs (RIFS), Christine Hentschel (University of Hamburg) and Maria Backhouse (University of Augsburg); the first day (30 March) will conclude at 6.30 pm with a public panel discussion featuring Stefanie Hürtgen (IfS), Franziska Müller (University of Vienna) and Flurina Schneider (ISOE) in the Lecture Theatre Centre on the Westend Campus (HZ9) – open to all who are interested.

Organisers: Maria Backhouse (Augsburg), Hauke Dannemann and Dennis Eversberg (Frankfurt), Matthias Schmelzer (Flensburg) and Bernd Sommer (Dortmund).

Find the program here.