Societies in Flux: Navigating Uncertainty, Change, and Resilience

The Annual Conference of the School of Advanced Social Studies will be held from 15 to 16 May 2026 in Ljubljana, Slovenia. 

Contemporary societies are increasingly shaped by instability, rapid transformations, and overlapping crises that challenge established social structures, political institutions, cultural frameworks, and individual experiences. Economic volatility, geopolitical tensions, digitalization, environmental uncertainty, migration, and shifting value systems have become defining features of everyday life across different social and cultural contexts. These dynamics place societies in a constant state of flux, i.e. a condition marked not only by disruption and uncertainty, but also by adaptation, creativity, and resilience. Long-standing assumptions about social cohesion, democracy, wellbeing, identity, and communication are being questioned and reconfigured, requiring new analytical tools, interdisciplinary dialogue, and reflexive approaches within the social sciences. The theme Societies in Flux captures this moment of profound transition. It invites reflection on how individuals, communities, institutions, and policies navigate uncertainty and respond to change, while simultaneously shaping pathways toward resilience and social sustainability. The conference foregrounds both structural transformations and lived experiences, acknowledging that global processes are always interpreted, negotiated, and experienced within specific cultural and social contexts. As the School of Advanced Social Studies marks its 20th anniversary, this theme also offers an opportunity for critical reflection on the past two decades of social change, as well as on the evolving role of social sciences in understanding and responding to emerging societal challenges. It emphasizes the responsibility of interdisciplinary and intercultural research to not only interpret social realities, but to contribute to informed dialogue, inclusive policies, and socially responsive practices. In bringing together diverse perspectives from sociology, political science, psychosocial counselling, media and communication studies, and related disciplines, GLOBAL SOCIAL NEXUS 2026 aims to provide a space for meaningful exchange on how societies navigate uncertainty, negotiate change, and cultivate resilience in an increasingly complex world.

The conference welcomes theoretically and empirically grounded contributions addressing the theme Societies in Flux: Navigating Uncertainty, Change, and Resilience, with particular attention to comparative, cross-cultural, and country-based perspectives. We invite individual paper abstracts and panel proposals that foster interdisciplinary and regional dialogue in an open and inclusive academic environment. Submissions in English should include the title and an abstract of up to 400 words, along with author details and institutional affiliations. Panel proposals are encouraged to include paper titles and contributors. A Book of Abstracts will be published as part of the conference proceedings. In addition, participants will have the opportunity to publish their full papers in an international peer- reviewed scientific journal. Further details on publication options, submission guidelines, and timelines will be presented during the conference, offering authors valuable opportunities to further disseminate their research.