Coordenators:
Silvia Gomes [University of Warwick]
Susana Santos [CIES, Iscte-IUL]
João Paulo Dias [CES-UC]
Cláudia Resende [DGRSP, CICS.NOVAFCSH]
Patrícia André [CEDIS, NOVA / DINÂMIA’CET-ISCTE]
Vera Duare [UMaia]
The Thematic Section of Sociology of Law and Justice of the Portuguese Sociological Association invites the submission of papers for the 14th Portuguese Congress of Sociology, under the theme “Futures Under Construction: Sociology in the Public Sphere”. The Congress will take place at the University of Algarve, in an in-person format from 23 to 25 March 2027. It will also include a dedicated day for online presentations on 22 March 2027.
The general theme of the Congress invites us to reflect critically on the role of Sociology in the public sphere, particularly through its activities of producing and disseminating informed knowledge; its engagement with different groups of citizens and diverse formats of participation; and its problematisation of the conditions under which knowledge is produced, as well as the ethical dilemmas that cut across scientific research.
Within this context, the Sociology of Law and Justice plays an important role in this disciplinary mobilisation by examining, among other issues: democratic institutions, practices of separation of powers, and the interconnections between the political and the legal; the protection and mobilisation of human rights and their diverse conceptualisations; the multiple and often intersectional forms of inequality and their effects on the development of full citizenship and social justice; the conditions, experiences, and impacts of deprivation of liberty (including juvenile justice, prisons, and other forms of confinement), as well as debates surrounding reformism, penal abolitionism, and punitivism as social responses; the use of technology and artificial intelligence in the legal‑penal field and the ethical challenges associated with algorithmic societies, situated between political and legislative choices and everyday practice; and ideological polarisation and its impacts on the public sphere.
Participating in the construction of a shared future is part of the mission of Sociology – and of the Sociology of Law and Justice in particular, especially given its growing relevance across the multiple dimensions of the public sphere.
The Thematic Section of Sociology of Law and Justice welcomes proposals for thematic sessions and individual papers that fall, among others, within the following areas:
- Sociology of Law and Justice within Sociology: epistemological, theoretical, and methodological reflections on the action of the Sociology of Law and Justice, its objects, boundaries, and contributions to sociological debates and to public‑sphere intervention.
- Law, fundamental rights, and democracy in contexts of crisis(es): reconfigurations of the rule of law, challenges to democratic constitutionalism, and the protection and redefinition of fundamental rights in contexts of social, political, and economic instability.
- Legal pluralisms, citizenship, and migration: interactions between state and non‑state forms of regulation, mobility, belonging, exclusion, recognition, and the defence of rights, with a focus on vulnerable populations.
- Juvenile and criminal justice, crime, and social control: processes of criminalisation and decriminalisation, penal policies, purposes of punishment, juvenile justice, prison systems, and other measures of deprivation of liberty, including the experiences of vulnerable individuals and groups in custodial contexts.
- Violence, inequalities, and intersectionalities: symbolic and material forms of violence, social fragmentation, polarisation, and cultural conflicts, with particular attention to gender‑based violence, racism, and other forms of structural discrimination in access to justice and in the application of the law.
- Technology, artificial intelligence, and law: the impacts of new technologies on legal systems, the use of algorithms, emerging ethics, and new social and legal relations.
- Technology, disinformation, and digital authoritarianism: the impacts of artificial intelligence and digital platforms on democracy, addressing informational manipulation, digital populism, and authoritarian tendencies within technological capitalism.
- Actors, institutions, and legal practices: the role of courts, legal professionals, and new actors in the administration of justice.
- Research ethics and interspecies and technological relations: ethical issues, privileges, limits, and ambiguities of research, and legal and ethical challenges in relations between humans, animals, and machines.
Sociologists and other social scientists, Sociology students at different levels of training and in various professional contexts, and professionals working in law and justice are all invited to participate in this broad, plural, and interdisciplinary debate, enriched by diverse professional and research experiences across the multiple domains of the Sociology of Law and Justice.
The submission of abstract proposals based on completed or ongoing research projects, action‑research processes, theoretical and/or methodological reflections, and professional experiences is strongly encouraged.
Proposals will be assessed according to three criteria: (1) relevance of the research question; (2) rigour and coherence in the justification of methodological choices and in the analysis of results; (3) the presumed quality of the foundations of the work presented (which may be of different natures, including empirical research, theoretical discussion, or experiences drawn from professional contexts, among others).
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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