Call for Papers

Around the world, the achievement of more open societies is being fundamentally challenged by right-wing populist narratives and politics of division. While specific social and political content differs according to local contexts, we are confronted with ideological assemblages made up of fixed ideas about national identity, pre-defined notions of gender roles, belief in natural hierarchies and racial superiority and supported by evocations of threat – both from outside and within national societies. Such ideologies reveal a strong anti-science as well as anti-liberal bias. Although these ideologies offer a drastically reduced and often distorted picture of reality, their political impact is beyond doubt. For example, the UK’s drift to the right is driven by popular perceptions that migration is “out of control” even when factual evidence confirms the opposite, revealing a dramatic drop of over 75 % since 2023.  Similarly, various fundamentalisms and nationalisms promote ideological messages all over the world including the Global South.

Mobility and cultural encounters are major factors in social change and innovation, but how can they be mobilised in response to sentiments that would “freeze” borders and denigrate diversity? Scholars and activists from a variety of backgrounds have been deeply invested in understanding the emergence of populist and nationalist ideologies as well as countering their messages of exclusion and division.  This involves, for example, the investigation of how specific ontologies, different ways of understanding reality, are formed, contested, and reshaped as part of everyday life. How do political discourses and media messaging but also social backgrounds and environments influence senses of reality? What explains the “geographies of discontent” that are reflected in urban-rural ideological divides and political polarization in metropolitan centres? How do the arts respond to and challenge existing discourses?

This year’s Borders, Mobilities and Cultural Encounters (BoMoCult) conference takes place under increasingly uncertain (geo)political conditions and mounting existential threats against democratic societies.  Given this sense of urgency, “Unpacking Ideologies, Challenging Divisions” provides a forum for addressing questions that are relevant to the ongoing struggle over truth, meaning and competing narratives of identity and national belonging. We welcome special sessions and individual paper proposals that offer cross-cutting perspectives on questions regarding the interpretation and countering of divisive ideologies. However, potential topics are not limited to this specific focus, and contributions that broadly address issues associated with borders, mobilities and cultural encounters are also welcome. We particularly encourage submissions that elaborate interdisciplinary approaches from diverse perspectives as well as methodological and geographical vantage points. We also invite members of the BOMOCULT research community to propose workshops devoted to developing collaboration and joint research projects.

Abstracts (max. 200 words and a short bionote) should be sent by email to the organizers by 31 August 2026.

Email: [email protected]

The conference will be an on-site event at the University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu campus.

More information about BOMOCULT Research Community.