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5th International Conference 

Social and Solidarity Economy and the Commons 

Collapse and Regeneration: Community-led initiatives prefiguring liveable futures

Call for Contributions

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The conference will take place from the 26th to 28th of November 2025 at the Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (Iscte) in Lisbon, Portugal.   

This year’s theme is ” Collapse and Regeneration: Community-led initiatives prefiguring liveable futures“. The full Call for Contribution description with submission guidelines is here.

We are facing unprecedented times, marked not only by climate collapse, but also the tearing of the social fabric, due to increased socioeconomic inequality, political polarization, mistrust of institutions and expertise, bellicism, and erosion of an international rules-based order. 

Such context is contributing to a growing interest in the performance  of the role of “social learning spaces” by community-led initiatives (CLIs) where alternatives to the status quo are experimented with, enacted, and coordinated (Egmose, Hauggaard-Nielsen, and Jacobsen 2022).

We invite researchers, practitioners, activists and policymakers to submit proposals for contributions to this conference, focusing on how CLIs  contribute to the regeneration of socioeconomic systems threatened or affected by social, ecological, institutional or political collapse, namely by promoting cultural (including ethical) perspectives that emphasise cyclicity over linearity, therefore supporting regenerative and tendentially post-extractivist approaches to livelihoods. 

We are looking for contributions exploring the role of CLIs in the rebuilding of livelihoods and institutions in the following contexts – 7 thematic fields:

  1. The aftermath of environmental disasters.
  2. Armed conflicts and peacebuilding initiatives.
  3. Weakening of the rule of law and emergence of parallel structures of governance based on organized crime.
  4. Culture wars, political polarization and radicalization (namely in the framework of the re-emergence of the far-right and threats to the rights of women, girls and the LGBTQI+ population).
  5. Supporting grassroots resistance to authoritarianism, marginalization and oppression, namely through embodied activism and trauma-informed practices.
  6. Promoting grassroots-led transnational cooperation in a context of increased isolationism and fragmentation of the world order. 
  7. Problematizing current trends in the application and usage of information technologies for collective action, as well as promoting their democratization and accountability.

We aim to promote interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary perspectives at both theoretical, conceptual, and methodological levels. Submissions might be based on formal research or on concrete activist, economic or public policy initiatives.

Please visit the full Call for Contributions with the  Submission Guidelines for paper abstracts, book presentation and/or session proposals, and the Important Dates page with deadlines for submissions and registrations for presenters and attendees. 

The contributors and keynote speakers for the 5th edition will be published soon here. 

Please feel free to share this Call for Contributions within your academic and non-academic networks, organizations and activists. We appreciate your support.

Grants and Bursaries requests: Due to lack of funding SSE Organization is not able to offer any grants, travel support, or registration fee waivers.

Face-to-face event: This event is fully presential. It is not possible to present or attend online.