European Sociological Association

History of the European Sociological Association

European sociologists first proposed the notion of forming a continental organization in 1987. In 1994, the European Sociological Association made its officially recognized debut. Sociologists from around Europe were formally admitted into ESA at the second conference in Budapest in 1995. The ESA has been a legally recognized non-profit organization in France since 2001. The Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Hommel’Homme (FMSH) headquarters in Paris are where the ESA office has been based since 2015. ESA is a 2800-member academic organization of sociologists.

The mission of the European Sociological Association

ESA strives to promote sociological research, education, and inter-sociologist communication.
ESA focuses on advancing sociological knowledge and offers sociology a platform in European politics.
Sociology has a lot to offer discussions and developments taking place at the European level due to European socio-political changes.

Activities of ESA

The ESA publishes two scientific publications and oversees the organization of various events.
ESA regularly interacts with international-level institutions to advance sociological research and information exchange.
ESA actively collaborates with European national associations to conduct surveys, polls, and other tools required for society’s social, political, and scientific analysis.

Governing Bodies of European Sociological Association

The organs of the ESA are:

General Assembly
President
Executive Committee
Research Networks
Council of Research Networks
Council of National Associations

ESA Research Networks

The ESA has long-standing networks of members dependent on a specific area of sociological study, known as research networks (RNs). Every ESA RN undertakes its field-based scientific endeavors. As representatives both within and outside of the ESA, RNs encourage global collaboration in the sociological sciences. In addition to planning their midterm conferences, Research Networks are essential in developing the agenda for ESA conferences.

ESA Research Streams

ESA members can apply to organize a Research Stream if a Research Network has not yet been created (RS). To focus on particular study disciplines or thematic challenges that current Research Networks do not entirely handle, ESA members form networks called Research Streams.

Council of Research Networks

The counsel representing the ESA’s Research Networks is the Council of Research Networks or CRN. Each Research Network’sNetwork’s coordinator and vice-coordinator make up this group.

The council’s primary objectives are to discuss research networks’ organizational and policy problems. The council makes suggestions to the Executive Committee regularly. The board advises the Executive Committee about European research and innovation policy. The council recommends candidates for the ESA election and topics for the ESA conference to the Executive Committee.

International collaborations of European Sociological Association

ESA has a memorandum of understanding in effect with the Indian Sociological Society and is a member of the International Sociological Association. The European Alliance for Social Sciences and Humanities, or EASSH, is another organization that ESA holds membership in.

The Council of National Associations

The ESA recognizes the value of National Sociological Associations in achieving its core goals and purpose. A delegate from each European National Association of Sociology makes up the Council of National Sociological Associations of Sociology, a body of the ESA.
Information sharing and research dissemination are the critical goals of the Council discussion.
The council advises the Executive Committee on European research policy and other pertinent sociology-related matters.
Sociologists from different regions of Europe are represented by organizations and societies in the Council of National Associations of ESA.

Members of the council

Albania – Albanian Sociological Association – ALBSA

Armenia – Armenian Sociological Association – ASA

Austria – Austrian Association for Sociology – OGS

Belgium – Flemish Sociological Association -VVS

Bulgaria – Bulgarian Sociological Association – BSA

Croatia – Croatian Sociological Association – HSD

Cyprus – Cyprus Sociological Association – CSA

Czech Republic – Czech Sociological Association – CSA

Denmark – Danish Sociological Association – DSF

Estonia – Estonian Association of Sociologists – ESL

Finland – The Westermarck Society – WSFS

France – French Sociological Association – AFS

Germany – German Sociological Association – DGS

Georgia – Georgia Sociological Association – GSA

Greece – Hellenic Sociological Society – HSS

Hungary – Hungarian Sociological Association – MSZT

Iceland – Icelandic Sociological Association – ISA

Ireland – Sociological Association of Ireland – SAI

Israel – Israel Sociological Society – ISS

Italy – Italian Sociological Association – AIS

Latvia – Latvian Sociologists Association – LSA

Lithuania – Lithuanian Sociological Association – LSD

Macedonia – Association of Sociologists of the Republic of Macedonia – ZSM

Malta – Malta Sociological Association – MSA

Netherlands – Netherlands Sociological Association – NSV

Nordic Sociological Association

Norway – Norwegian Sociological Association – NSA

Poland – Polish Sociological Association – PTS

Portugal – Portuguese Sociological Association – APS

Romania – Romanian Sociological Association – ARS

Russia – Russian Society of Sociologists – POC

Serbia – Serbian Sociological Association – SSD

Slovakia – Slovak Sociological Society – SSS

Slovenia – Slovene Sociological Association – SSD

Sweden – Swedish Sociological Association – SSA

Spain – Spanish Federation of Sociology – FES

Switzerland – Swiss Sociological Association – SSA

Turkey – Turkish Sociological Association – TSSA

Ukraine – Sociological Association of Ukraine – SAU

United Kingdom – British Sociological Association – BSA

European Sociological Association Membership

The European Sociological Association welcomes new members at all levels, including individual, institutional and affiliated members.

Scholars who further the advancement of sociological knowledge and research studies are welcome to join as individual members. Academics from different disciplines interested in the association’s mission and the development of sociology are welcome to join as individual members of ESA. All college and university students studying sociology or a related field are welcome to enroll as individual student members of ESA.

All institutions that advance sociological knowledge inside or outside Europe are eligible for institutional membership. Institutional members of ESA include national sociological associations from across Europe.

Research centers, academic institutions, and sociology departments are all affiliated, collective members.

Membership is subject to payment of membership fees, which the Executive Committee sets for each type of individual, institutional, and associated membership.

European Sociological Association Awards

ESA Best Article Award

In 2021, ESA held its first ESA Best Article Award ceremony. This prize recognizes the most exemplary original research article published in European Societies or the European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology over the preceding two years. The articles under consideration should include substantial unique research.

ESA Young Scholar Award

In 2021, the European Sociological Association handed out its first Young Scholar Award. This award recognizes a doctoral dissertation’s finest paper.

ESA Publications

ESA Book Series 1992-2000 Period

European Societies: Fusion or Fission – Thomas Boje, Bart van Steenbergen, and Sylvia Walby
The End of the Welfare State? Responses to State Retrenchment – Stefan Svallfors and Peter Taylor-Gooby
The Myth of Generational Conflict: The Family and State in Ageing Societies – Sara Arber and Claudine Attias-Donfut, 2000

ESA Book Series 2000-2010 Period

Inclusions and Exclusions in European Societies – Alison Woodward and Martin Kohli – 2001
Will Europe Work? Integration, Employment and the Social Order – Martin Kohli and Mojca Novak – 2001
Young Europeans, Work, and Family – Futures in Transition – Julia Brannen, Susan Lewis, Anne Nilsen, and Janet Smithson – 2002
Autobiographies of Transformation: Lives in Central and Eastern Europe – Mike Keen and Janusz L. Mucha – 2006
Europe and Asia Beyond East and West – Gerard Delanty – 2006
Cultural Overstretch? Differences Between Old and New Member States of the EU and Turkey – Jurgen Gerhards – 2007
Internationalization of Social Sciences in Central and Eastern Europe The ”Catching Up” – A Myth or a Strategy? – Ilona Pálné Kovács, and Dagmar Kutsar – 2010
Muslims in 21st Century Europe: Structural and Cultural Perspectives – Anna Triandafyllidou – 2010
Social Class in Europe: An Introduction to the European Socio-Economic Classification – David Rose and Eric Harrison – 2010
Conflict, Citizenship and Civil Society – Patrick Baert, Sokratis M. Koniordos, Giovanna Procacci, and Carlo Ruzza – 2010

ESA Book Series 2011 – 2020 Period

Baltic Biographies at Historical Crossroads – Aili Aarelaid-Tart and Li Bennich-Björkman – 2012
Mobilizing Regions, Mobilizing Europe. Expert Knowledge and Scientific Planning in European Regional Development – Sebastian M. Buttner – 2012
Post-identity? Culture and European Integration – Richard McMahon – 2013
The Social Meaning of Children and Fertility Change in Europe – Anne Lise Ellingsaeter, An-Magritt Jensen and Merete Lie – 2013
The Road to Social Europe. A Contemporary Approach to Political Cultures and Diversity in Europe –
Jean Claude Barbier – 2013
Religion, Identity, and Politics: Germany and Turkey in Interaction – Haldun Gülalp and Gunter Seufert – 2013
Artistic Practices. Social Interactions and Cultural Dynamics – Tasos Zembylas – 2014
Collective Memories in War – Elena Rozhdestvenskaya, Victoria Semenova, Irina Tartakovskaya and Krzysztof Kosela – 2015
Green European. Environmental Behaviour and Attitudes in Europe in a Historical and Cross-Cultural Comparative Perspective – Audrone Telesiene and Matthias Gross – 2016
Wage Distribution Fairness in Post-Socialist Countries. Situation and Socialization – Zsofia Ignacz – 2017

ESA Journals

European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology

The European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology publication aims to provide a venue for the interdisciplinary study of the interplay between culture and politics in Europe and beyond. Cultural phenomena in the light of their political setting are encouraged in this journal.

European Societies Journal

Research on every facet of European society and culture is included in European Societies. It is open to all theoretical and methodological approaches in sociology. There is an emphasis on resolving the political and social issues that primarily affect European countries.

The European Sociologist Journal

The European Sociologist is an online journal that the ESA releases twice a year. Since 1994, it has been distributed in various forms and as an open-access e-magazine on its website starting in 2018. It is the association’s central hub for communication with the world’s sociological community.

ESA Conferences

1st: First ESA Conference

Meeting Year: 1992
Location of Congress: Vienna
Theme: Sociological Perspectives on a Changing Europe

2nd: Second ESA Conference

Meeting Year: 1995
Location of Congress: Budapest
Theme: European Societies: Fusion or Fission?

3rd: Third ESA Conference

Meeting Year: 1997
Location of Congress: Essex
Theme: 20th Century Europe: Inclusions/Exclusions

4th: Fourth ESA Conference

Meeting Year: 1999
Location of Congress: Amsterdam
Theme: Will Europe Work?

5th: Fifth ESA Conference

Meeting Year: 2001
Location of Congress: Helsinki
Theme: Visions and Division: Challenges to European Sociology

6th: Sixth ESA Conference

Meeting Year: 2003
Location of Congress: Murcia
Theme: Ageing societies, new sociology

7th: Seventh ESA Conference

Meeting Year: 2005
Location of Congress: Torun
Theme: Rethinking Inequalities

8th: Eighth ESA Conference

Meeting Year: 2007
Location of Congress: Glasgow
Theme: Conflict, Citizenship and Civil Society

9th: Ninth ESA Conference

Meeting Year: 2009
Location of Congress: Lisbon
Theme: European Society or European Societies?

10th: Tenth ESA Conference

Meeting Year: 2011
Location of Congress: Geneva
Theme: Social Relations in Turbulent Times

11th: Eleventh ESA Conference

Meeting Year: 2013
Location of Congress: Turin
Theme: Crisis, Critique, and Change

12th: Twelfth ESA Conference

Meeting Year: 2015
Location of Congress: Prague
Theme: Differences, Inequalities, and Sociological Imagination

13th: Thirteenth ESA Conference

Meeting Year: 2017
Location of Congress: Athens
Theme: (Un)Making Europe: Capitalism, Solidarities, Subjectivities

14th: Fourteenth ESA Conference

Meeting Year: 2019
Location of Congress: Manchester
Theme: Europe and Beyond: Boundaries, Barriers, and Belonging

15th: Fifteenth ESA Conference

Meeting Year: 2021
Location of Congress: Barcelona
Theme: Sociological Knowledge for Alternative Futures

16th: Sixteenth ESA Conference

Meeting Year: 2023

ESA social media

ESA Sociology Twitter | ESA Sociology YouTube