7th Annual Conference

Sustainable transformation of the economy
A challenge for socio-economic research, education and teaching

The Department of Social Sciences with a focus on Economic Education at the Faculty of Human Sciences at the University of Cologne cordially invites you to this year’s conference of the Association for Socioeconomic Education and Research.

The 7th annual conference of the Association for Socioeconomic Education and Research will take place on September 26/27 2024 at the University of Cologne.

We are pleased to announce Prof. Dr. Jens Beckert, Prof. Dr. Insa Theesfeld and Prof. Dr. Axel Ockenfels as the keynote speakers of the conference!

The keynote by Prof. Dr. Jens Beckert (Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne) is titled “Sold future – an economic-sociological perspective on the challenges of climate change” (german: Verkaufte Zukunft – eine wirtschaftssoziologische Perspektive auf die Herausforderungen des Klimawandels) and will take place on Thursday, September 26, 2024, 16:10-17:10 PM in room IBW H111.

Prof. Dr. Insa Theesfeld (Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg) will introduce us to the namesake of our young talent award with her keynote speech “The life and work of Elinor Ostrom.” The prize will be awarded following her keynote speech.

On the second day of the conference, we look forward to the keynote by Prof. Dr. Axel Ockenfels (University of Cologne (Universität zu Köln)) with the title “International climate cooperation – an economic perspective on global sustainable development” (german: Internationale Klimakooperation – eine ökonomische Perspektive auf globale nachhaltige Entwicklung), also in room IBW H111 from 10:00-11:00 PM.

The programme, abstracts and further information on the conference can also be found here.

Registration for the 7th annual conference is now open.

Many of the challenges that societies are facing in the context of climate change and biodiversity loss are not historically new. However, they are becoming increasingly urgent with a simultaneous increase in multiple socio-economic crises and dwindling confidence in political organisation and global cooperation. Are there realistic ways out of an unsustainable society? What are suitable instruments at the national and global level to address the challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss that do not overlook either the consequences of failing to take action or the impositions of transformation in terms of socio-economic inequality? Are system-compliant reforms sufficient or is a fundamental reorganisation of a capitalist economic system based on growth required? Does this also require new sustainability-didactic concepts of socio-economic education that provide orientation, the ability to make judgements and help shape a sustainable consumer, working and economic world without overwhelming individuals, without individualising responsibility, without diffusely blaming ‘politics’ or ‘the capitalist system’, but also without reinforcing resignation and hopelessness?

The following focal points are suitable for the interdisciplinary dialogue of social science economic research and the exploration of joint research perspectives between subject-specific sciences and subject-specific didactics:

The conference will focus on the following topics: 

Concept and objectives of sustainability and SDGs 

Sustainability between society, market and state 

Glocalisation – sustainability between globalisation and localisation 

Socio-economic education and sustainable transformation of the economy 

Organisational details

Registration form:
Registration for the 7th Annual Conference is now open.

Submissions for the thematic volume:
Submissions for the thematic volume should be sent to the above-mentioned address by October 31, 2024. They will be subjected to a double-blind review process (with at least two reviewers).
The thematic volume will be published in summer 2025 under the conference title in the book series ‘Socioeconomic Education and Science’ (Sozioökonomische Bildung und Wissenschaft), which is published at Springer VS by Nicole Ackermann (Zurich), Tim Engartner (Cologne), Christian Fridrich (Vienna), Silja Graupe (Koblenz), Udo Hagedorn (Bielefeld), Reinhold Hedtke (Bielefeld) and Georg Tafner (Berlin) on behalf of the Association for Socioeconomic Education and Research (AS*EER).
The contributions are to be submitted in anonymised form; the abstract is to be written in German and English (incl. keywords max. 300 words).
They comprise a maximum of 45,000 characters (including spaces) or 6,000 words.
The contributions are to be submitted in Harvard citation style.
The ‘Rules for Manuscript Preparation and Editing’ can be requested here: Cfp-gsoebw2024@uni-koeln.de
Graphics, tables and the bibliography reduce the available word count.

Criteria for the selection of contributions and reviews are:
Does the abstract fit the call thematically?
Does it make a relevant contribution to socio-economic research?
Is the national and international state of research taken into account?
Does the article fulfil the usual scientific standards (e.g. research question, theoretical context, methods, argumentation, verifiability)?