Latest news with #5thISAForumofSociology
Ya Biladi
08-07-2025
- Politics
- Ya Biladi
The 5th ISA Forum of Sociology opens in Morocco
The 5th ISA Forum of Sociology opened on Sunday in Rabat under the theme «Understanding Justice in the Age of the Anthropocene», bringing together around 5,000 researchers from over 100 countries. Held for the first time in Africa and the Arab world, the Forum is organized by Mohammed V University (UM5) in Rabat, in partnership with the International Sociological Association (ISA) and the Moroccan Sociological Association. The program features nearly 1,329 sessions led by the ISA's 67 research committees and thematic groups. The event aims to address major contemporary issues, including socio-environmental inequalities, resilience in the face of global crises, and the role of the Global South in shaping international debates. In his opening remarks, Mohammed Rhachi, president of UM5 in Rabat, described the Forum as a fresh intellectual contribution to building a «Mediterranean, African, and universal Morocco», grounded in knowledge as a driver of development, justice as a foundation for stability, and sociology as a tool for understanding and reform. Commenting on the Forum's central theme, Rhachi emphasized the need for universities, research centers, and intellectuals to move beyond classical theoretical frameworks and explore new directions for a sociology that interrogates the relationship between humans, society, nature, and knowledge. Beyond its scientific dimension, he added, the Forum seeks to strengthen ties between peoples and establish an ethical foundation for science in the face of current and future challenges. ISA President Geoffrey Pleyers welcomed the choice of Rabat as host city, calling the gathering a «decisive moment to reaffirm the strategic role of sociology in the face of the planet's multidimensional crises». He stressed that the Forum reflects the ISA's ongoing commitment to «critical, independent, and inclusive research», open to diverse forms of knowledge and experience. Abdelfattah Ezzine, president of the Forum's local organizing committee and national coordinator of the Moroccan Sociological Association, highlighted the inseparable link between knowledge and governance in achieving meaningful social transformation—both, he argued, essential pillars of sociological action. The Forum runs until July 11 and is being held across several landmark venues in Rabat, including the Mohammed V National Theatre, the Faculty of Educational Sciences, the Faculty of Legal, Economic and Social Sciences – Souissi, the Mohammadia School of Engineers (EMI), and the National Institute of Statistics and Applied Economics (INSEA), which is also hosting the first Sociological Film Festival as part of the official program.
Ya Biladi
07-07-2025
- Politics
- Ya Biladi
The 5th ISA Forum of Sociology opens in Morocco
The 5th ISA Forum of Sociology opened on Sunday in Rabat under the theme «Understanding Justice in the Age of the Anthropocene», bringing together around 5,000 researchers from over 100 countries. Held for the first time in Africa and the Arab world, the Forum is organized by Mohammed V University (UM5) in Rabat, in partnership with the International Sociological Association (ISA) and the Moroccan Sociological Association. The program features nearly 1,329 sessions led by the ISA's 67 research committees and thematic groups. The event aims to address major contemporary issues, including socio-environmental inequalities, resilience in the face of global crises, and the role of the Global South in shaping international debates. In his opening remarks, Mohammed Rhachi, president of UM5 in Rabat, described the Forum as a fresh intellectual contribution to building a «Mediterranean, African, and universal Morocco», grounded in knowledge as a driver of development, justice as a foundation for stability, and sociology as a tool for understanding and reform. Commenting on the Forum's central theme, Rhachi emphasized the need for universities, research centers, and intellectuals to move beyond classical theoretical frameworks and explore new directions for a sociology that interrogates the relationship between humans, society, nature, and knowledge. Beyond its scientific dimension, he added, the Forum seeks to strengthen ties between peoples and establish an ethical foundation for science in the face of current and future challenges. ISA President Geoffrey Pleyers welcomed the choice of Rabat as host city, calling the gathering a «decisive moment to reaffirm the strategic role of sociology in the face of the planet's multidimensional crises». He stressed that the Forum reflects the ISA's ongoing commitment to «critical, independent, and inclusive research», open to diverse forms of knowledge and experience. Abdelfattah Ezzine, president of the Forum's local organizing committee and national coordinator of the Moroccan Sociological Association, highlighted the inseparable link between knowledge and governance in achieving meaningful social transformation—both, he argued, essential pillars of sociological action. The Forum runs until July 11 and is being held across several landmark venues in Rabat, including the Mohammed V National Theatre, the Faculty of Educational Sciences, the Faculty of Legal, Economic and Social Sciences – Souissi, the Mohammadia School of Engineers (EMI), and the National Institute of Statistics and Applied Economics (INSEA), which is also hosting the first Sociological Film Festival as part of the official program.
Ya Biladi
06-07-2025
- Politics
- Ya Biladi
Protests planned in Rabat over Israeli speakers at 5th ISA Forum of Sociology
As the 5th ISA Forum of Sociology opens from July 6 to 11, 2025, at Mohammed V University in Rabat, a protest has been announced against the participation of speakers affiliated with Israeli universities. The sit-in, called by the Moroccan Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (MACBI), is scheduled for this Sunday at 5 PM in front of the Mohammed V National Theater. In its call to mobilize, the group (part of the BDS Morocco movement) invites «all students, researchers, academics, and free citizens» to join the gathering and express their «firm rejection of academic normalization and any form of normalization» with Israel. Four days ahead of the forum's opening, the first time it is being held in Africa, MACBI renewed its call for the International Sociological Association (ISA) to reconsider the inclusion of participants directly or indirectly affiliated with Israeli academic institutions. In a statement, the organization noted that the suspension of the Israeli Sociological Society's (ISS) ISA membership on June 29 did not prevent some of its members or associated researchers from taking part in the forum. Their names remain on the program, with at least one presentation explicitly referring to the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, as a «terrorist» organization. This 5th ISA Forum of Sociology comes amid more than 600 days of ongoing war in the Gaza Strip. Against this backdrop, 232 Moroccan and international researchers have launched a petition announcing their boycott of the event, urging the ISA to revise its program.
Ya Biladi
02-07-2025
- Politics
- Ya Biladi
Moroccan campaign urges ISA to rethink Israeli presence at sociology forum
The freezing of the Israeli Sociological Society's (ISS) membership within the International Sociological Association (ISA) has not prevented Israeli researchers from participating in the 5th ISA Forum of Sociology. The event, scheduled to take place from July 6 to 11, 2025, at Mohammed V University in Rabat, still includes contributions from Israeli institutions, one of which explicitly refers to Hamas as a «terrorist» organization, even as the event unfolds amid more than 600 days of war in Gaza. On Wednesday, July 2, the Moroccan Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (MACBI) renewed its call for mobilization, urging the organizers to reconsider their stance. In a written statement received by Yabiladi, the organization—part of the BDS Morocco coalition—affirmed that «the participation of Israeli researchers is indeed maintained at the 5th ISA Forum of Sociology», calling it «an unacceptable form of normalization». It added, «The ISA's suspension of the Israeli Sociological Society does not mean that representatives of universities complicit in genocide will not attend». According to MACBI, the event's program still includes 17 presentations by researchers affiliated with Israeli institutions. «Maintaining their participation, without issuing a statement to cancel it, amounts to a clear act of normalization», the group stated. It also criticized ISA for not addressing key demands raised in the June 24 declaration by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), which was endorsed by Arab and international scholars, as well as the Palestinian Sociological And Anthropological Association. MACBI called on ISA to engage with PACBI's demands, which include ensuring that Israeli participants support Palestinian rights in line with international law, and verifying that they are not implicated in violations such as war crimes or crimes against humanity. The demands also call for ISA to adopt a consistent «land recognition» policy for universities in settler colonial contexts, including Palestine, and to acknowledge the complicity of Israeli universities in their state's actions against Palestinians. The statement follows a similar call by the Campaign to Boycott Supporters of Israel in Lebanon. In light of ISA's unchanged position, MACBI renewed its call to boycott the forum «unless the association meets ethical standards that ensure it does not harm the Palestinian cause, and instead contributes to ending the genocide and dismantling the Israeli apartheid regime». The ISA, for its part, has invoked «academic freedom» to justify the inclusion of Israeli researchers. This renewed call comes just days after the ISA officially froze ISS membership on June 29. In an earlier statement to Yabiladi, MACBI coordinators stressed that Israeli institutional affiliation was not a disqualifying criterion in the selection of speakers, hence the ongoing mobilization. So far, 232 researchers have declared their boycott of the forum until the ISA reconsiders its position.
