The European Sociological Association (ESA) is an academic association of sociologists and a non-profit Europe-wide association made up of over 1900 members.
It was established in 1992, mainly on the Austria Sociological Association's initiative. This idea follows an informal meeting during the Biannual Congress of the Austrian Sociological Association in Graz 1987. After that event, after a lot of deliberations and consultations among sociologists from a diverse range of countries, after the decision for Vienna as the place of the First European Conference of Sociology, also a local Organising Committee was established, consisting of Eva Cyba, Max Haller, E. Jandl-Jager, Rudolf Richter and Ronald Pohoryles.
The First European Conference of Sociology in Vienna in August 1992 attracted 631 sociologists from East, West, North and South Europe, and from a total of 33 countries. The conference was organised by both international and local programme committees with the cooperation of 38 panel organisers from 19 different European countries.
The European Sociological Association (ESA) aims to facilitate sociological research, teaching and communication on European issues, to build networks between European sociologists and to give sociology a voice in European affairs.
ESA is also member of the Initiative for Science in Europe and the International Sociological Association.
1995-1997: Sylvia Walby, University of Leeds, UK
1997-1999: Martin Kohli, European University Institute (Florence)
1999-2001: Jiri Musil, University of Prague, Czech Republic
2001-2003: Yasemin Soysal, University of Essex, UK
2003-2005: J.P. Roos, University of Helsinki, Finland
2005-2007: Giovanna Procacci, University of Milan, Italy
2007-2009: Claire Wallace, University of Aberdeen, UK
2009-2011: Analia Torres, Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, Portugal
2011-2013: Pekka Sulkunen, University of Helsinki, Finland
2013-2015: Carmen Leccardi, University of Milan-Bicocca, Italy
2015-2017: Frank Welz, University of Innsbruck, Austria
Vienna, Austria, 24–27 August 1992: "Sociological Perspectives on a Changing Europe"
Budapest, Hungary, 30 August - 2 September 1995: "European Societies: Fusion or Fission?"
Essex, UK, 27–30 August 1997: "20th Century Europe: Inclusions/Exclusions"
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 18–21 August 1999: "Will Europe Work?"
Helsinki, Finland, 28 August - 1 September 2001: "Visions and Division: Challenges to European Sociology"
Murcia, Spain, September 23–26, 2003: "Ageing societies, new sociology"
Torun, Poland, 9–13 September 2005: "Rethinking Inequalities"
Glasgow, UK, 3–6 September 2007: "Conflict, Citizenship and Civil Society"
Lisbon, Portugal, 2–5 September 2009: "European Society or European Societies?"
Geneva, Switzerland, 7–10 September 2011: "Social Relations in Turbulent Times"
Turin, Italy, 28–31 August 2013: "Crisis, Critique and Change"
Prague, Czech Republic, 25–28 August 2015: "Differences, inequalities and sociological imagination"
Athens, Greece, 29 August - 1 September 2017: "(Un)Making Europe: Capitalism, Solidarities, Subjectivities"
The European Sociological Association has approved 37 Research Networks
RN1 - Ageing in Europe
RN2 - Sociology of the Arts
RN3 - Biographical Perspectives on European Societies
RN4 - Sociology of Children and Childhood
RN5 - Sociology of Consumption
RN6 - Critical Political Economy
RN7 - Sociology of Culture
RN8 - Disaster, Conflict and Social Crisis
RN9 - Economic Sociology
RN10 - Sociology of Education
RN11 - Sociology of Emotions
RN12 - Environment and Society
RN13 - Sociology of Families and Intimate Lives
RN14 - Gender Relations in the Labour Market and the Welfare State
RN15 - Global, Transnational and Cosmopolitan Sociology
RN16 - Sociology of Health and Illness
RN17 - Work, Employment and Industrial Relations
RN18 - Sociology of Communications and Media Research
RN19 - Sociology of Professions
RN20 - Qualitative Methods
RN21 - Quantitative Methods
RN22 - Sociology of Risk and Uncertainty
RN23 - Sexuality
RN24 - Science and Technology
RN25 - Social Movements
RN26 - Sociology of Social Policy
RN27 - Regional Network on Southern European Societies
RN28 - Society and Sports
RN29 - Social Theory
RN30 - Youth and Generation
RN31 - Ethnic Relations, Racism and Antisemitism
RN32 - Political Sociology
RN33 - Women's and Gender Studies
RN34 - Sociology of Religion
RN35 - Sociology of Migration
RN36 - Sociology of Transformations: East and West
RN37 - Urban Sociology