Join us at Södertörn University, Stockholm, 24–25 September 2026, for an interdisciplinary conference exploring how collective action persists and evolves amid political, economic, environmental, and social crises in Eastern Europe and the Baltic Sea region. We welcome abstracts (max. 300 words) on theoretical and methodological innovations, new mobilizations, intersectional alliances, and more. *** Sustaining collective struggles in times of multiple crises:   Theoretical an

A recent article published in Voluntas, titled Periphery in Movement: Struggles Against Extractivist Lithium Mining in Serbia, by Ana Vilenica (SustainAction Project) and Vladimir Mentus, offers a new angle to look at the contemporary struggles in Eastern Europe. The article introduces the concept of Periphery in Movement through the case of resistance to Rio Tinto’s planned Jadar Project for lithium extraction in western Serbia. The struggle around lithium mining emerged in

This paper offers a fresh look at how researchers have written about civil society in Central and Eastern Europe since the fall of state socialism. Drawing on more than three decades of scholarship, the authors show how the field has moved from early Western-centered assessments—often judging the region as “weak” or “lacking”—toward more nuanced and grounded understandings of what civic engagement actually looks like on the ground. The review identifies three main ways schola

Poland has a vibrant history of protests and civil society engagement, including on issues of climate change, but the recent decade (the years between 2015 and 2025) has been marked by repeated confrontations between activists and security forces, as well as tacit state inaction in the face of violence against protesters. Despite the fact that according to 2018  climate survey   conducted for the  European Investment Bank  75%  of Poles declare that they are worried about the

Södertörn University invites applications for a fully funded doctoral studentship in Social Work within the research project “Sustaining Civil Society in the Context of Multiple Crises: Hubs of Engagement in Central and Eastern Europe and Sweden.” As a doctoral student, you will become part of a vibrant, multidisciplinary research environment at the School of Social Sciences, engaging with topics such as welfare, social movements, segregation, and globalisation. Your main tas

How do we produce knowledge that serves social and environmental justice? This newly published article by the Sustain Action Method Lab  takes readers behind the scenes of research and into the “kitchen” where collaboration happens. Written collectively by our extraordinary team, the piece challenges the hierarchies of academic knowledge and proposes a bold metaphor: kitchen-work . Just as cooking involves invisible, relational, and preparatory labour, so does collaborative r

In the last year, we have been working on several collaborative publication endeavors. We have experimented with a more popular content, with accessible articles in the local language (Romanian in this case), working together with an illustrator, and with an editorial team that also signs with a collective name - the Cutra collective. We have written "sister articles" that complete each other and refer to each other - about the interconnection between housing struggles, femin

Researchers from the SUSTAIN ACTION project took part in the 19th National Sociological Congress , the largest sociological conference in Poland, held in Białystok from September 16–19, 2025 . This year’s theme, “Tamed Risks? Contemporary Challenges,”  provided a timely backdrop for discussions on how societies and movements respond to the growing complexity of global crises.   As part of the congress, Elżbieta Korolczuk,  together with Beata Kowalska and Radosław Nawojski fr

What happens when urban development becomes a mechanism not for life, but for death? In her latest article, Ana Vilenica investigates the...

On June 16-18, several of SUSTAIN ACTION members participated in the 30th edition of the international and interdisciplinary conference...

On 15–16 May 2025, Södertörn University hosted the international conference “Justice and Sex Work. Developing and de-centring debate”...

Urban Marginality, Racialisation, Interdependence: Learning from Eastern Europe, edited by Filip Alexandrescu, Ryan Powell, and Ana...

Over the last two decades in Romania, the housing question has received more attention than before, from left-wing as well as, at certain...

The 10th CBEES Annual Conference  titled "Shaping Futures: The Baltics and Eastern Europe in the World" was held between 28-29 November...

International Conference 15-16 May 2025 Södertörn University, Stockholm, Sweden The aim of this conference is to critically examine...

On September 9, 2024 Elżbieta Korolczuk, SUSTAIN ACTION member, was invited to speak at the conference “Społeczeństwo w działaniu, siła...

The 16th European Sociological Association Conference ‘Tensions, Trust and Transformations’ took place from 27-30 August in Porto,...

In September 2024 several of our team members participated in The Common City Conference  at Uppsala University. The conference revolved...

During the first weekend of September 2024, representatives from Czech environmental groups, feminist collectives, the housing and tenant...

Together with Roxana Oprea, Roma feminist activist and researcher from Bucharest, we have started a conversation about the role of care...