VENUE: Faculty of Human, Social and Political Science, Free School Lane, Cambridge CB2 3RQ

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS: Professor Greg Philo (School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Glasgow), Professor Donatella Della Porta (European University Institute, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies), Professor Emeritus Goran Therborn(Faculty of Human, Social and Political Sciences, University of Cambridge), and Professor Ted Benton (Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Essex)

This conference moves beyond crisis as a category of diagnosis and critique to explore alternative horizons, addressing fundamental questions about the nature and extent of ruptures and continuity in the contemporary social world.

Among the multiple horizons in view, we are motivated by the generational need to draw upon the legacies of critique, while shifting toward the production of alternative futures. From diagnosis to treatment. From deconstruction to reconstruction. From negation to vision. From crisis to progress. Such is the responsibility of our Age, from which positive social change might rise.

Conference themes:

• CRITICAL AND EMANCIPATORY THOUGHT AND ACTION
• CITIES AND SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION
• ALTERNATIVE ECONOMIC PRACTICES
• WORK AND LIFE
• MEDIA
• EDUCATION
• REVOLUTIONS AND SOCIAL PROTEST
• (POST) DEMOCRACY
• ENVIRONMENT

We have also introduced a soapbox session within the Conference programme and encourage speakers to participate. For the natural orators out there, the soapbox session provides you with the opportunity to stand up for 2 minutes and air your fiery, risky, extravagant and controversial views on the following question: WHAT IS RADICALISM?

The conference is organized by PhD students at the Department of Sociology, University of Cambridge. To give attendees time to explore the city’s history and socialise, the conference will be held over two days.