President’s Letter
Dear RC02 Community,
I am writing this editorial from the Global North, where we are experiencing the acute effects of global warming, as our forests burn, holiday localities and private residences alike are devoured by conflagrations and the number of displaced persons evacuated and escaping are clogging highways and filling shelters. Even in places unaffected by wildfires, the number of elderly and destitute persons dying in their homes due to extreme heat is announced by the nearly constant sirens of emergency services in our inner cities. In my university home cities of Duisburg and Essen in Germany, ambulatory care workers, who make their morning rounds in private homes, arrive to find their patients no longer alive, and city officials report morgues at capacity and crematoriums operating continually. While the consequences of climate change in the global south are certainly disproportionate and resources for protecting citizens rare in comparison to those of high-income countries, no region is exempt from climate-ravaged destruction wrecked by global capital and governments everywhere are lacking the courage to take bold steps. High-income countries in Europe and the Anglo-American world are both causes and victims now. What are the sociological foundations for triggering solutions and the pathways through movements and markets that will counter carbon as the source of capital expansion, exploitation, dispossession, and accumulation?
With this newsletter, we approach the World Congress of International Sociology in Gwangju in 2027, where sociologists from around the world will be called to address the most pressing challenges of our turbulent times. I am pleased to announce that we have a full program of 27 sessions in the RC02 program. Our program encompasses scholarship on solutions to climate change in the global economy, including sessions on China’s ecological civilization initiative, green transformations in the global South, and decarbonizing global capitalism.
Other pressing issues of our time demanding sociological insights constitute our extensive program in 2027, spanning work transformation in the digital economy, coloniality, complex inequalities in the global economy, and how these impact care and migration markets, current research on Asian capitalisms, social movements, social solidarity, and the impact of geopolitical shifts on the future of the global economy and development.
As in the past, we are partnering with other RCs on joint sessions, five of which we lead (with RC07, RC09, RC17, RC23, RC44) and ten more with other RCs and WGs in the lead (WG10, RC09, RC19, RC20, RC21, RC23 and RC30). Our joint activities underline the importance of research on the economy and society for a wide range of sociological sub-disciplines, and our commitment to big questions that demand building coalitions to avoid over-specialization and the allure of reducing complexities.
The selection of sessions for the RC02 program for the 2027 Gwangju World Congress was challenging, as the number of submissions far exceeded the slots allotted. The program committee decided collectively on the selection, with quality, balance with fit and regional diversity as the main criteria. I would especially like to thank the members who agreed to merge their sessions, and to choose between their multiple submissions in the weeks before the deadline. This has allowed us to constitute the strongest possible program. Still, we could not avoid rejecting several excellent sessions. I urge the organizers of sessions we regretfully could not include to submit their scholarship to our program (see the list of accepted sessions below). It promises to be one our strongest programs ever.
The impact of location was evident in the many excellent submissions received from Asian scholars. Over a third of all accepted sessions are organized by Korean scholars, and over half by Asian scholars. As the region with two of the largest economies in the world, and with Gwangju as the heart of the democracy movement in the Korean peninsula, the impact of this scholarship will be global.
The large number of sessions (the maximum allocation possible) stems from our continued increase in membership. We are nearing 300 members, a balanced geographic scope between the Americas, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. The location of the 5th Forum in Rabat in 2025 has placed Morocco among the top five countries of RC02 membership. Still, Africa and West Asia and Latin America are underrepresented in our membership. The ISA has just announced that Brazil will host the 6th Forum in 2029. We will use this as an opportunity to advance our membership and relevance as a committee in this region, while continuing to reach out to sociologists in the MENA region and sub-Saharan Africa.
An important next step in this direction is enabled by our receipt of an ISA grant for research committee activities in 2026 and early 2027. As discussed at the business meeting in Rabat, we aim to organize a regional conference on economic sociology in the MENA region. Additionally, we will use our grant to support a Gwangju early career workshop for RC02 members.
As many memberships expire in the period before the World Congress, we ask members to renew as early as possible. As in the last Forums and World Congresses, RC02 will have a contingent of registration grants (deadline is January 27, 2027). Additionally, we hope to use our own funds collected from members for small travel grants to scholars in need. These are among the benefits of RC02 membership, so please do not let your membership lapse!
We also encourage you to submit short substantive articles for our bi-annual newsletter on current scholarship affecting the world today. Our weekly electronic newsletter circulates timely information announcing conferences, new research, and publications. There are numerous ways to stay involved!
Karen A. Shire
President, RC02 Economy & Society
List of Sessions: RC02 Economy & Society – World Congress Gwangju 2027 (paper submissions open August 3 – October 14, 2026)
1. The Social Relevance of Intermediation in Markets: Power, Trust, and Value Formation
2. Contemporary Colonialism: Modes of Domination, Violence, and Memory
3. Rethinking Development: Interrogating China’s Ecological Civilization Initiative
4. Standards In Turbulent Times: Geopolitics, Labour, and Capture from 5G to AI
5. Care In a Turbulent World
6. The Persistence of Protest: Labor and Social Movements In South Korea
7. Social and Solidarity Economy and Human Rights: Addressing Contemporary Social Challenges
8. Rethinking Inequality In a Changing Global Order
9. Contesting the Future of Work: Gender, Digital Power and Labour Inequalities across Global Contexts
10. Cultural, Moral, and Ethical Struggles in Markets
11. Cross-Border Labour Markets and Gender
12. Economy and Society in the Age of Digital Capitalism
13. Platform Institutions, Labour Processes and Collective Action In East Asia: Comparative Perspectives
14. Rethinking Frameworks for Understanding Inequalities: Insights from Asian Experience
15. Varieties & Modalities of Asian Capitalisms
16. Politicizing Communities and Local Everydayness Against Capitalism
17. Legitimacy, Development, and Green Transformation in the Global South: An Economic Sociology Perspective
18. After Globalization? the Economic, Political, and Social Transformation of World Society
19. Democratic Dynamics in the Twenty-First Century: Growth, Inequality, and Political Realignment
20. Reconfiguring Social Reproduction in Asia
21. Co-Evolving Industry-Labor Transitions in Future Mobility: Asian Trajectories and Global Comparisons
22. Strategies Against Disruptive Politics in Comparative Intersectional Perspective
23. Industrial Work and Its Future
24. Business and Society Relations in Twenty-First-Century East Asia
25. Digital Transformation and the Future of Work: Shifts In Capitalism and New Social Conflicts
26. Capitalism Under Climate Change: Dynamics and Possibilities
27. Business Meeting