Dear colleagues,
Please consider submitting an abstract (500-750 words) for an individual presentation or a panel relating to community, democracy, and organizations (or any other submission) to be considered for inclusion in the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE) annual meeting.
The SASE conference submission deadline is Monday, Dec. 12, 2025. Our 2026 annual meeting will primarily be an in-person conference in Bordeaux, France, July 1-3, 2026. For those unable to travel, our network-Network A: Community, Democracy, and Organizations-also will have a very limited number of virtual presentation slots in two sessions to be scheduled for June 22-24.
SASE is an international organization of scholars who study topics related to economic sociology and political economy. Network A is devoted to the examination of alternative, participatory, and/or solidaristic forms of economic enterprise and entrepreneurship, community organizations, third-sector organizations, or political organizations. By alternative, participatory, and/or solidaristic, we mean to encourage the analysis of how communities, enterprises, and societies can be organized around: (1) principles of democratic governance; (2) processes that build social solidarity and cooperation; and/or (3) substantive values and purposes that go beyond calculative self-interest and instrumental relations.
Network A welcomes individual papers and pre-organized thematic panels studying:
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Any organization, community, or economic enterprise that develops participatory/solidaristic forms of organization, i.e., democratic, egalitarian or more cooperative structures/processes of organization in pursuit of pro-social purposes.
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Groups and initiatives, be they formal or informal, that promote change, including explicitly transformative, synergistic or prefigurative organizations and various forms of cooperative or shared ownership.
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Inclusive, solidaristic, liberatory, democratic, equitable, sustainable, or caring communities.
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The ways in which public policies and politics (e.g., electoral, industrial, etc.) can undermine or enhance democratic and community endeavors.
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Relevant phenomena including, but not limited to (alphabetical order): affinity groups; anti-oppressive human services; artistic or cultural collectives (including democratic governance and autonomy-respecting practices in creative organizations more broadly); benefit corporations; commoning and common pool resources; community-based or community entrepreneurship and enterprises; community climate change-related action; community development credit unions; community interest companies; community land trusts; community organizing; community development; community real estate investment cooperatives; community-based economic exchanges; community-run marketplaces; decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs); economic democracy; employee ownership trusts; free schools; giving circles; industrial foundations; limited equity housing cooperatives and co-housing; mutual companies and aid networks; open, commons-based, and inclusive innovation and valuation frameworks; participatory budgeting; perpetual purpose trusts; public-private partnerships that center social or community concerns (public-social or public-community partnerships); radical and democratic models of philanthropy, voluntarism, and giving; social-purpose enterprises; social and solidarity economies; social innovation; social intrapreneurship; tenant unions; worker centers; worker, producer, or consumer cooperatives, including platform cooperatives and union cooperatives; and worker self-directed nonprofit organizations.
To learn more about our network and its history, please read here. To join our Network A listserv, visit https://groups.google.com/g/networka.
How to submit to the 2026 SASE annual conference:
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You can submit an individual paper presentation, a pre-formed panel with multiple paper presentations, a roundtable discussion panel, or book salon (aka Author Meets Critics panels). We would like to encourage you to submit pre-formed panels; we will also give individual papers full consideration.
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Please note that Network A does not require a full paper to be submitted. However, those wanting to apply to the Early Career Workshop must submit a full paper (see below).
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If you are interested in submitting to our network, visit https://sase.org/events/2026-bordeaux/#submissions, click on the appropriate link based on your submission format, and select Network A: Community, Democracy, and Organizations. The deadline is Dec. 12, 2025.
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For more information about the 2026 conference, including their Early Career Workshop (held in person shortly before the SASE annual meeting, with some travel expenses paid), visit https://sase.org/events/2026-bordeaux.
Please consider supporting the growth and sustainability of the Network A community by circulating this call for proposals to listservs and other potentially interested parties. (Or feel free to email the Network A organizers at sase@inthefray.org with your suggestions, and we can email them.)
Please direct any questions or comments about Network A to sase@inthefray.org. We look forward to reading your submissions!
Best wishes from your SASE Network A organizers,
In-person team
Katherine K. Chen, kchen@ccny.cuny.edu
Victor Tan Chen, vchen@vcu.edu
Amanda Barrett Cox, acox@brynmawr.edu
Philipp Degens, Philipp.Degens@fra-uas.de
Paola Ometto, pometto@csusm.edu
Jason Spicer, jason.spicer@baruch.cuny.edu
Orla Stapleton, ostaplet@nd.edu
Virtual session team
Joyce Rothschild, joycevt@aol.com
Marc Schneiberg, schneibm@reed.edu
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Maria Paola Ometto
California State University-San Marcos
Encinitas CA
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