These mini-midterm meetings come together around the theme “Bonding beyond boundaries” to illustrate the geographic dynamics of our community but also to explore how the sociology of consumption community exemplifies and benefits from crossing disciplinary boundaries. As a community, we can draw inspiration from literature and the arts, from environmental as well as medical sciences.

Date and places

2023 Mini Midterm Meetings in Multiple Locations – August 28, 2023

Berlin, Bologna, Gijón, Helsingborg, Manchester, Paris, Prague.

Argument

Following a midterm conference that took place in Oslo in 2022 and given that the next ESA Conference will not be before 2024, RN5 Board Members are happy to announce a series of mini midterm meetings that will take place simultaneously in multiple locations on August 28, 2023.

These mini-midterm meetings come together around the theme “Bonding beyond boundaries” to illustrate the geographic dynamics of our community but also to explore how the sociology of consumption community exemplifies and benefits from crossing disciplinary boundaries. As a community, we can draw inspiration from literature and the arts, from environmental as well as medical sciences. Closer to home, coming together beyond boundaries could also invoke other social sciences and sociological themes that are relevant to consumption, such as economics, digital humanities, gender studies and futures studies. Going beyond boundaries also suggests working with novel methods, including living labs or visual sociology, as well as bringing in voices and perspectives from beyond Europe, or considering the blurring of boundaries due to the hybridization of society. This general theme acts as an umbrella for all the mini-midterms while each location is invited to bring forward a specific sub-theme, as listed below.

Our multiple locations will also share a common keynote speaker: Professor Emily Huddart Kennedy encourages us to think beyond boundaries with her recent book, Eco-Types: Five Ways of Caring about the Environment. While certain ways of ‘being environmental’ are well recognized, Kennedy invites us to acknowledge that caring for the environment need not have solely one manifestation. Environmentalism beyond boundaries is a way to go beyond normative understandings of the right way to care. While mini midterm participants will be physically in different locations, this shared, online keynote will gather all participants in a common discussion.

Submission guidelines

Please use this online form to submit your interest in participating in one of the mini midterms, listed below. You can select a first and second choice. We will do our best to honor your first choice, while respecting the maximum capacity indicated by each host.

Submit your abstract / interest in participating by March 1, 2023.

Please visit the ESA RN5 web pages for more information or follow this link to view the full text of the Call as well as details on the locations and sub-themes. You are invited to choose between different destinations: Berlin, Bologna, Gijon, Helsingborg, Manchester, Paris, or Prague.

As you know, our RN – in partnership with SCORAI EU ­– has launched a new journal. The editors of Consumption and Society are welcoming papers for an open submission, with a print date of early 2024 (accepted papers will be first online). In addition to research papers, the journal welcomes book reviews, interviews, commentaries, and other formats. Do keep C&S in mind for your forthcoming publications.

Confirmed keynote speaker

Emily Huddart Kennedy, Associate Professor and Associate Head, Department of Sociology, University of British Columbia.Eco-Types: Five Ways of Caring about the Environment

When we picture the ideal environmentalist, we likely have in mind someone who dedicates herself to reducing her own environmental footprint through individual choices about consumption—driving a fuel-efficient car, for example, or eating less meat, or refusing plastic straws. This is a benchmark that many aspire to—and many others reject. In Eco-Types, Emily Huddart Kennedy shows that there is more than one way to care about the environment, outlining a spectrum of eco-social relationships that range from engagement to indifference.

Drawing on three years of interviews and survey research, Kennedy describes five archetypal relationships with the environment: the Eco-Engaged, often politically liberal, who have an acute level of concern about the environment, a moral commitment to protect it, and the conviction that an individual can make a difference; the Self-Effacing, who share the Eco-Engaged’s concerns but not the belief in their own efficacy; the Optimists, often politically conservative, who are confident in their relationship with the environment, doubt the severity of environmental problems, and resent insinuations that they don’t care; the Fatalists, who are pessimistic about environmental decline and feel little responsibility to adopt environment-friendly habits; and the Indifferent, who have no affinity for any part of the environmental movement.

Kennedy argues that when liberals feel they have a moral monopoly on environmental issues, polarization results. If we are serious about protecting the planet, we must acknowledge that we don’t all need to care about the environment in the same way.

Selection committee

• Marie Plessz, INRAE, Centre Maurice Halbwachs, France
• Margaret Lolley, Centre Maurice Halbwachs, France
• Rocío Pérez Gañán, Université Oviedo, Espagne
• Cecilia Diaz Mendez, Université Oviedo, Espagne
• Ondřej Spacek, Université Charles de Prague, République tchèque
• Claire Hoolohan, Université de Manchester, Royaume-uni
• Melanie Jaeger-Erben, Université Tubingen, Allemagne
• Elisabeth Süßbauer, Université Tubingen, Allemagne
• Stefan Wahlen, Université Giessen
• Piergiorgio Degli Esposti, Université Bologne, Italie
• Tullia Jack, Université Lund, Suède
• Marlyne Sahakian, Université Genève, Suisse