Coordenators:
Ana Romão [Academia Militar, CINAMIL; CICS.NOVA]
Maria da Saudade Baltazar [UÉvora; CICS.NOVA]
Nuno Poiares [Inst. Superior de Ciências Policiais e Segurança Interna, ICPOL]
With the return of war to Europe, in a context of geopolitical uncertainty, technological transformation, and communicational polarization, security and defence have become central dimensions of the public sphere. The thematic area Security, Defence, and Armed Forces invite the submission of papers that, from sociological and interdisciplinary perspectives, explore how security futures are constructed and how they are debated, contested, and legitimized in the public sphere.
The section welcomes theoretical, empirical, and methodological contributions (qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods), as well as comparative analyses and case studies (Portugal and international contexts), including critical approaches to public policies, institutional practices, and dynamics of participation and contestation in the public sphere.
By way of example, proposals addressing topics such as the following are particularly welcome:
- Human rights and police/military education and training in multicultural contexts;
- Public opinion, trust, legitimacy, and accountability of military and police institutions;
- Hate speech, disinformation, radicalization, and extremisms;
- Intersectorality and security governance (education, health, justice, migration, civil protection, local authorities);
- Recruitment, careers, professionalization, working conditions, and organizational cultures;
- Security technologies: surveillance, AI, cybersecurity, and privacy;
- Borders, migration, asylum, and securitization (including international cooperation);
- Use of force, conflict mediation, and internal/external oversight mechanisms;
- Memory, national identity, military symbolism, and media representations of the armed forces and security forces;
- Civil–military relations, citizen participation, and transparency in public decision-making on defence;
- Environmental and climate security: disasters, resilience, civil protection;
- Anticipating instability: scenarios and the social construction of security and Defence Futures.
In line with the articulation between knowledge production and social impact, the Security, Defence, and Armed Forces section aims to foster a space for dialogue between research and practice, in keeping with the APS tradition. Alongside theoretical contributions, we welcome applied and action research proposals developed in professional settings, including by participants outside academia (e.g., armed forces, security services, civil protection, justice, local authorities, NGOs, education, health, technology, cybersecurity, or the media). We particularly encourage submissions from early-career professionals and researchers, including work in progress and collaborative projects linking academia, institutions, and communities.
Proposals, in addition to theoretical essays, must be formulated presenting their theoretical framework, objectives, methodologies used, results and conclusions.
Professional contributions can take the form of experience reports, including context, objectives, actors involved, methodologies, activities developed, and key learnings.
Proposals must be submitted via the personal area by the deadline specified in the submission guidelines.
Proposals may be submitted in Portuguese, English, Spanish or French.
The maximum length of the abstract is 2,500 characters (excluding spaces).
Evaluation will consider the clarity of objectives, methodological adequacy, relevance of results, and the overall quality of the proposal.
The Congress will take place in person at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Algarve, in Faro, from 23 to 25 March 2027, and may include online sessions on 22 March. At the time of submission, authors must indicate whether they intend to participate in person or online.
All the authors will be invited to submit the full papers for publication in the Congress Proceedings.
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