Conference 2025

Hope and Despair: Crisis and Opportunity

Crisis has become a key term for understanding the affective experience and social-political dynamics of our contemporary psychosocial landscape. We are living through multiple interrelated crises – including increased financial instability, the rise of the far-Right, crises in higher education, brutal conflicts occurring in many parts of the world, and a planet facing ecological collapse. Indeed, the twenty-first century seems to be marked by a permanent polycrisis that has shattered the basis of modernity and de-stabilised the assumptions that support it.

Perhaps this is an important point to reflect on the meaning of “crisis” – originating from the Greek word “krisis,” meaning a decisive moment. In Mandarin, “crisis” (危機, wēijī) combines “danger” and “opportunity,” reflecting its dual nature. It may be that crises can create the conditions for critical reflection and transformation, whether in social, clinical, or personal contexts. Far from being merely breakdowns, crises can offer moments of profound change and insight.

Conference Aim: We aim to create a space to collectively think through the complexities of our current polycrisis, fostering new alliances and understanding the reparative and damaging qualities of the present and future. This conference will provide a platform for reflection, discussion, and the sharing of diverse perspectives on how crises shape our lives and societies.

Submission Topics: We welcome submissions on a variety of crisis-related themes and the societal conditions in which a sense of crisis takes hold or is worked through. These include but are not limited to:

• Climate emergencies and disasters
• War and political and interpersonal violence
• Existential crises
• Stress, depression, anxiety
• Burnout and panic
• Trauma, grief, and loss
• Coping mechanisms and resilience
• Post-crisis healing and transformations
• Group dynamics
• Political and social polarization
• Inequalities and social justice
• ‘Post-truth’ breakdown of trust and civility

Participation: We invite clinicians, practitioners, and academics from various disciplines such as arts, humanities, and social sciences, and other fields to contribute. We welcome submissions for academic papers, poster presentations but also for experiential events and artistic productions.

As well as new thinking and exchange of ideas, our conferences have always stimulated working relationships, partnerships and collaborations. We therefore encourage in-person attendance to foster the engagement of our psychosocial community through social events, interpersonal encounters, meals, and coffee breaks. We will work hard to make this conference an enlivening and convivial experience able to hold and metabolise the anxiety and disquiet that the theme of crisis will provoke. We hope to include an experiential stream of containment, transitional experience and reflexivity in parallel to scholarly and practitioner focussed papers. However, we also offer online participation for those who cannot attend in person due to health, environmental or financial considerations.

Join Us: Help us strengthen our psychosocial community by participating fully, whether in person or online. Share your insights, engage with others, and contribute to a collective understanding of crises and their potential for transformation.