Critical sociology or sociology of critique: Report on the 11th Conference of The European Sociological Association

Abstract

This year, more participants than ever (about 2600 persons) registered for the biannual professional conference of European sociologists. Over three days a total of 2700 presentations and poster displays took place.The ESA had chosen an important and timely, real European theme for the conference again: “Crises, Critique and Change”. More specifically, it intended to explore three questions: Which crisis? Whose critique? What changes? The participants of the conference attempted to provide a thorough response to the first two questions from various points of view. Answering the third question was less powerfully successful which indicates that the sociologist profession has to make significant efforts to strengthen its social and professional prestige, which appears to have been shaken.