2025 annual meeting

The Dismantling of Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe. Social Acceptance and Forms of Resistance

The Annual Conference of the Hungarian Sociological Association (MSZT)

15–17 October 2025 HUN-REN Centre for Social Sciences, Institute for Sociology Budapest


The 2025 Annual Conference of the Hungarian Sociological Association will explore the causes and consequences of the dismantling of democratic institutions in Central and Eastern Europe. Democratic decline observed in many countries of the region is not merely a political phenomenon; it has been related to the transformation of social structures, community relations, and civic participation. This conference seeks to examine the relationship between rising inequalities, political polarization, the rise of populism and authoritarianism.

The central problem  the conference poses is the clarification whether and in what way there are causal relationships between  social structural  transformations,  and institutional change.

In addressing these questions, particular attention will be devoted to the following areas:

  • The role of social inequalities
  • The values and issues fostering political divisions and polarisation
  • The processes of social exclusion
  • The consequences of insecurity and isolation
  • The political instrumentalisation of gender issues
  • The state of culture and academic freedom
  • The economic causes and consequences of these processes.

The conference will be conducted in Hungarian and English, with the explicit goal of fostering dialogue among social scientists from across Central and Eastern Europe. Panel and session proposals are invited within the above frameworks. .

 

Keynote Speakers:

Kaja Gadowska – President of the European Sociological Association, Associate Professor at Jagiellonian University, Kraków

Judit Takács – Research Professor at HUN-REN Centre for Social Sciences

KEY INFORMATION:

The organisers first invite session and panel discussion proposals in Hungarian and English by 31 March 2025, to be selected by the conference committee by 15 April 2025. The selected sessions will then be published. Submission of abstracts will then be accepted from 22 April to 2 June 2025.

 

CALL FOR PANEL AND SESSION PROPOSALS

Deadline: 31 March 2025.

For panel proposals, please submit: the name and affiliation of the panel organiser and invited participants, the language of the panel, and an abstract of up to 300 words in Hungarian and English.

Application form HERE

In case of a session proposal, please submit: the name and affiliation of the session organiser, the language of the session, and an abstract of up to 300 words in Hungarian and English. Interested parties are free to apply for the sections at a later stage. Applications from researchers working in different workshops are preferred for accepted sections.

Application form: HERE

 

CALL FOR ABSTRACT - application for sessions and open call

Application deadline: 2 June 2025

Application form: not yet available

To apply, please submit a bilingual (Hungarian and English) abstract.

Submitted abstracts will be selected by the organising committee.

 

The Organisers are:

The Hungarian Sociological Association (MSZT) and the HUN-REN Centre for Social Sciences, Institute for Sociology