Concept Note

Across South Asia, social change takes shape through a wide range of everyday practices that individuals and groups employ to interact with authority, institutions, and social structures. Communities and individuals respond to economic uncertainty, environmental pressures, migration, and other social challenges in ways that highlight questions of adaptation, responsibility, and uneven vulnerability. These experiences often lead to the formation of collective networks and shared efforts across class, caste, gender, ethnicity, and region, while also being shaped by social dynamics operating at local, regional, national, and transnational levels.

The conference aims to move beyond single-causal explanations and emphasizes the relational and historically situated nature of social life in South Asia. By bringing together empirical research, theoretical reflections, and methodological discussions, the conference seeks to generate thoughtful conversations about social organisation, economic practices and institutions, literature, human agency, and collective life in the region.

The key objective of the conference is to foster academic exchange, dialogue, and collaboration across institutions and disciplines. By bringing together scholars, researchers, and students from diverse fields and stages of research, the conference aims to facilitate discussion, networking, and the sharing of ideas related to South Asia. 

Some of the key themes of the conference are: 

Political Participation and Everyday Citizenship

Gender, Sexuality, and Social Experiences

Science, Technology, and Pathways of Social Change

Environment, Climate Challenges, and Community Adaptation

Borders, Mobility, and Transnational Connections

Labour, Livelihoods, and Economic Transformations

Art, Literature, and Cultural Expressions

Health, Pandemic Lessons, and Community/Indigenous Knowledge Systems

Media and Public Narratives