This conference will showcase the global and international dimensions of social policy and how these continue to shape and be shaped by social welfare challenges as well as policy and practice innovations at the domestic level. By recognising the fundamental role of international policy actors in national agenda-setting and policy transfer, as well as the global impact of domestic economic and foreign aid decisions, Global Social Policy interrogates the politics of global partnerships and equitable access to resources in a world connected by common concerns for “equity, security and solidarity” as highlighted in the 2025 World Social Report

Hot on the heels of the Second World Social Development summit in Qatar (November, 2025), this conference will help take stock of the state of art, highlight new research, and facilitate wide-ranging collaborations for researchers, practitioners and policy makers who are tackling issues of social change and social welfare across and within countries.

■ Global-domestic social policy intersections – engaging theoretically and empirically with Global social policy as a field of scholarship and practice.

■ Global south expansion of social policy practice and scholarship – fostering greater interdisciplinarity and de-colonised study of social policy as it intersects with International Development and International Relations, among other subject areas.

■ Global social policy implications of and for high-income countries – integrating analysis of social and political change in the Global North into Global social policy debates, giving critical attention to the current context of rising security concerns and continuing challenges to equality, diversity and inclusion safeguards.

The organisers (see below) of the 2026 annual conference invite individual papers and panel papers that discuss drivers and challenges of social policies, including but not restricted to the global and international dimensions of social policy.

The annual conference will bring together an active and lively community of scholars from different fields of social policy studies, ranging from PhD students and early- career researchers to established scholars. Beyond the broad theme outlined above, we also invite RC19 members to present their recent work, even if they are not closely connected to that theme.

Abstracts from non-RC19 members are most welcome, but all presenters must be members of RC19 by the time of the conference. To become a member, please contact our treasurer, Hildegard Theobald at hildegard.theobald@uni-vechta.de The conference will follow “Korpi’s rules”, which have made RC19 meetings famous for their intellectual liveliness and seriousness. Walter Korpi, past president of RC19, instituted the following workshop-style meeting format to foster lively discussions during the conference: Full papers are circulated (and read) in advance by all participants of the respective panel. At the conference, a discussant designated by the conference organizers briefly presents the paper and comments on it (12 minutes). The author(s) of the paper has/have a limited time to react to the discussant’s presentation (3 minutes) so as to leave room for a general discussion (15 minutes).

■ Call for individual abstracts and panel proposals opens: 3 November 2025

■ Nominations for the RC19 Social Policy Prize: 31 December 2025 (please email isa-rc19@isa-sociology.org)

■ Deadline for submission of abstracts: 15 January 2026

■ Decisions on abstracts: 27 February 2026

■ Application to RC19 Small Travel Grants closes: 1 March 2026

■ Decisions on RC19 Small Travel Grants: 26 March 2026

■ Registration opens: 20 April 2026

■ Registration closes: 30 June 2026

■ Full paper submission deadline: 31 July 2026

■ Final program circulation: 31 July 2026

For more information on the Research Committee (RC) 19 on Poverty, Social Welfare and Social Policy of the International Sociological Association (ISA), please visit our website (rc19.org)