6th Conference of the Academy of Sociology Celebrating its 10th Anniversary

The Future of Analytical-Empirical Sociology 

University of Mannheim, June 23rd – 25th 2027

Analytical-empirical sociology emerged from the conviction that the social world can be studied systematically without reducing its complexity to opinion, ideology, or impression. It is not united by a single method, but a shared scientific ethos: claims about society should be formulated clearly, confronted with evidence, made as transparent as possible, and revised in light of better arguments and better data. Its tradition includes analytical theory building, rigorous empirical research, comparative social research, survey methodology, experimental designs, social network analysis, and computational social science. 

Today, the ethos of analytical-empirical sociology is both necessary and contested. Sociology is confronted with societies marked by mistrust, technological transformation, political conflict, institutional strain, and rapidly changing forms of communication. At the same time, the discipline itself faces challenges concerning “lege artes” theories and methods, public relevance, skepticism toward science and academic freedom, reproducibility, the growing role of AI-generated research and accelerated publishing, and the training of future sociologists.

The anniversary conference therefore asks: What kind of sociology is needed for the coming decade — and what standards, institutions, methods, and intellectual virtues are required to make it possible?

The conference invites empirical, theoretical, methodological, and programmatic contributions addressing, among others, the following themes:

• Contemporary societal challenges. How can analytical-empirical sociology contribute to understanding polarization, inequality, migration, education, family change, religion, climate change, populism, nationalism, transformations of the international order, digital communication, social cohesion, institutional trust, effects of artificial intelligence, and democratic strain? Which substantive questions should define the research agenda of the coming decade?
• Analytical theory building and explanation. Empirical research without theory risks becoming descriptive accumulation. Theory without empirical discipline risks becoming rhetoric. The conference welcomes work on mechanism-based explanation, formal theory, action theory, social norms, institutions, networks, cultural processes, macro-micro links, and the integration of theory with empirical design. It also invites reflection on the intellectual history of analytical-empirical sociology: what should be preserved, what should be revised, and what new theoretical resources are needed?
• Data, methods, AI, and computational sociology. The expansion of digital trace data, computational methods, and artificial intelligence has opened enormous possibilities, but also raised new questions about validity, interpretation, transparency, and the limits of automated inference. How can machine learning and large-scale data be integrated into sociological research without losing sight of measurement problems, selection processes, and social meaning? What kinds of sociological questions become newly accessible through computational methods, and which remain dependent on surveys, experiments, fieldwork, institutional knowledge, and comparative-historical analysis?
• Scientific integrity, reproducibility, and research practice. The “replication crisis” has sharpened awareness of questionable research practices, publication bias, underpowered designs, undisclosed flexibility, and the temptation to adjust analyses until results become publishable. Yet reproducibility should not become a ritual of formal compliance. Transparency matters because science depends on criticism, correction, and cumulative learning. The conference invites debate on preregistration, open data, open code, robustness checks, replication, model exploration, transparency of AI-based research, the role of commercial publishers and publication strains, and the institutional incentives that shape research quality and organized skepticism.
• Academic freedom, public relevance, and political pressure. Analytical-empirical sociology depends on the freedom to ask uncomfortable questions, test unpopular hypotheses, challenge dominant assumptions, and publish findings that may be inconvenient to political, institutional, or moral expectations. At the same time, sociology operates in a public environment shaped by polarization, moralized conflict, activist expectations, reputational pressures, and demands for political alignment. How can sociology remain publicly engaged without allowing advocacy, partisanship, or moralization to replace analysis? 
• Teaching and the future of sociological training. The future of analytical-empirical sociology also depends on how sociology is taught. Without well-trained students, the intellectual and institutional foundations of the discipline cannot be sustained. The conference therefore also welcomes contributions and panel proposals on teaching analytical-empirical sociology, methods training, theory education, AI in the classroom, research-based learning, doctoral training, and the question of how to attract, educate, and support future generations of sociologists.

The Academy of Sociology invites scholars to submit empirical, theoretical, methodological, and programmatic contributions that help clarify what rigorous sociology can and should be in the age of artificial intelligence, digital data, political polarization, contested expertise, and renewed struggles over academic freedom. The call for paper proposals will open in October 2026.

Image: Stefanie Eichler – Eigenes Werk, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3881181