SASE Bordeaux 2026 – Fighting Divisions: Conflict and Power in a Post-Globalisation Order
38th Annual SASE Conference
Location & Date: Sciences Po Bordeaux, France 1-3 July 2026
Virtual events: 22-24 June 2026
Important dates:
● Mini-conference theme submission deadline: September 18, 2025
● Regular Submission deadline: December 12, 2025
● Registration deadline: April 30, 2026 (early bird discount: March 19, 2026)
Conference theme:
Fighting divisions: Conflict and power in a post-globalisation order
Conflict and power are two basic concepts and features of all socio-economic and political systems and thus of their analysis. Institutions play an important role in regulating conflict and defining the legitimate forms of power and the proper ways to exercise it. At times of crisis, that is, of a paradigm shift in the existing social, economic, and political order, we would expect an increase in the visibility of conflicts, possibly because new lines of divisions arise and existing institutions are no longer able to contain them. Social actors may then try to unconditionally use their ‘power’ – rooted in their economic, social, political resources – to achieve their goals, thereby fueling further conflicts. We may have reached this kind of historical juncture, as there are signs that point to a possible shift toward a ‘post-globalisation order’, where national borders regain importance for the separation of economies and polities, for defining interests and solidarities, and for characterising collective identities and goals, while, at the same time, specific interests within national borders gain visibility and demand protection.
This inward-looking stance now actually appears to be one of the unexpected outcomes of the previous ‘globalisation order’. The liberal consensus that progressively consolidated during what we could call the trente glorieuses of the market-driven chase for prosperity, between the 1980s and the 2000s, accompanied the remarkable and significant growth of certain countries and regions, especially China and Asia. More recently, advanced economies have started to consider such reshuffling of the relative importance of national economies, to the benefit of emerging countries, and their growing (inter)dependence within a tightly integrated world economy, as a strategic weakness. At the same time, the promises of inclusive growth advanced by the supporters of globalisation were not met: while there was a partial reduction of economic differences across countries, inequalities within countries remained wide and rose in most cases. Many protective institutions, such as industrial relations and the welfare state in the Global North, have weakened; the living and working conditions of migrants are almost invariably poor and their basic rights often threatened, as their social and economic inclusion remains difficult; gender still influences life chances in a significant way, like all the traditional drivers of social and economic inequalities, such as social background and educational levels.
Moreover, new fractures have been exposed by more recent developments: the demographic transition and ageing populations point to intergenerational conflicts over the establishment and funding of social policies (like labour market policies, pensions, health); climate change and the push towards a greener economy highlight the diverging interests of different economic sectors and their respective actors (intensive agriculture and livestock farming, traditional car manufacturing, renewable energy), as well as a clash between specific short-term interests and long-term collective interests; digitalisation and the diffusion of algorithmic management can disguise and objectify an unbalanced distribution of benefits in the employment relation but also significantly affect everyday life in many pervasive and intrusive ways.
The wars in Ukraine and Palestine, with thousands of lives lost and towns and communities destroyed, have made the atrocities of warfare visible beyond the thousands of women, children, and men directly affected by the many conflicts which have marked the world over the past decades and have shown, once again, that international organisations and cooperation encounter significant limits in containing the use of power and violence by nation-states. In quite a different manner, the confrontational attitude of the new US administration, both in domestic and in international affairs, points to the continuing importance of power, conflicts, and their regulation in shaping our times and future.
The SASE 2026 Annual Meeting aims to investigate theoretically and empirically the nature of conflict and power in the current and changing socio-economic and political environment. Which factors are driving the transformation of national political economies and their integration at a global level? Are we effectively entering a ‘post-globalisation order’? Is the state still the key actor of recent and current developments? What are the prospects now for regional cooperation and transnational entities, such as the European Union? How can we describe and explain the socio-economic effects of recent developments in international relations? What will happen to trade, finance and value chains in a ‘post-globalisation era’? What is happening to conflict in employment relations? What kinds of ‘powers’ are mobilised by workers and employers to support their interests? Are industrial relations or other institutions capable of mediating and regulating conflict? What are the specificities of conflict in the Global North compared to the Global South, in terms of its origin, types, and forms of regulation? How can we explain them?
The transdisciplinary and multi-method SASE community is particularly well-suited to address the issues and questions raised by this proposed theme in the multiple areas covered by its diverse research networks. The 2026 Annual Meeting will take place in Bordeaux, France, from the 1st to 3rd of July, 2026 (virtual events 22-24 June 2026), where we intend to further our knowledge and understanding of the current state and future perspectives of national and international socio-economic systems in the Global North and Global South, based on theory, cumulative knowledge, and evidence.
The 2026 SASE Annual Meeting welcomes submissions for mini-conferences and papers that engage with its general theme from multiple perspectives and encourages proposals addressing other relevant topics – in our tradition of open scholarly investigation and analysis. We look forward to welcoming a diverse community of international scholars to join our SASE community in Bordeaux.
SASE President: Roberto Pedersini