Call for Papers - Social Ontology 2023

Theme: Social ontology and the social sciences, and the method(s) of social ontology 

August 16-19, 2023, Stockholm University, Sweden

Deadline for abstracts: January 30, 2023

Social Ontology is the internationally leading philosophical and philosophy-related interdisciplinary conference series on social and collective phenomena. Social Ontology 2023 in Stockholm particularly invites contributions on the nature and existence of social phenomena, methodological debates about social ontology, and analyses of collective intentionality and collective responsibility. 

In-person conference with the option of ISOS members to participate online during the keynote lectures and the special panel on the method(s) of social ontology: Social Ontology: What is it? What do we want it to be?

Call For Abstracts

Submit abstracts (300-500 words, prepared for blind review) by January 30,

2023, at EasyChair: https://easychair.org/account/signin?l=8Mcn1YrKqlUM4zSvKSBYBT

Notification of acceptance: March 6th, 2023.

Interdisciplinary contributions are strongly encouraged. This year, we particularly invite contributions from sociology, economics, political science, and applied perspectives.

Topics include:

• The ontology of the social world; the nature and existence of social phenomena 
• Collective intentionality 
• The ontology of social kinds (e.g. race or gender or class)
• Social structures and opaque kinds of social facts
• Shared, joint or collective action
• Shared, collective, and corporate responsibility
• Collective or shared beliefs, intentions, and emotions
• Linguistic or mental representations of social phenomena 
• Social skills, habits and practices
• Trust, cooperation, and competition
• The concept of social power and stratification 
• The nature, evolution, and functioning of social norms
• The structure of institutions, firms, and organizations
• The ontology of economics including unintended effects
• The method(s) of social ontology 
• Approaches to the metaphysics of the social world
• Critical social ontology 

Keynote speakers

Michael E. Bratman, Stanford University

Katharine Jenkins, University of Glasgow

Muhammad Ali Khalidi, City University of New York

Emma Tieffenbach, University of Geneva

Vanessa Wills, The George Washington University

Panel: Social ontology — What is it? What do we want it to be?

Confirmed participants: Ásta, Hans Bernhard Schmidt, Miguel Garcia-Godinez

Social Program

The City of Stockholm has kindly invited us to the City Hall for a tour and dinner. This is the place of the annual Nobel Prize Dinner. There will be trips to Stockholm archipelago and other social events. 

Bursaries

ISOS hopes to offer some bursaries to contribute to conference costs for students and precariously employed social ontologists who are accepted to give papers at the conference. Please consider this when deciding whether to submit.

Organizers

The International Social Ontology Society and the organizing team consisting of Åsa Burman, Gunnar Björnsson, Erik Angner, Staffan Carlshamre and Anandi Hattiangadi (Stockholm University). In case of questions, feel free to reach out to Åsa Burman. 

The Conference Series

The Social Ontology conferences are held under the auspices of the International Social Ontology Society. Previous events in this series have been held at the Universities of Basel, Helsinki, Konstanz, Leipzig, Munich, Manchester, Neuchâtel, Palermo, Rome, Rotterdam, Siena, and Tampere, as well as the University of California San Diego and Berkeley, Delft University of Technology, Tufts University, Indiana University, Bloomington, and the University of Vienna.