How can Romanian sociology contribute to the exit from the current crisis of the country
Cătălin Zamfir

In Romania, the medical crisis has only aggravated a socio-economic and political crisis that seems to have already approached the explosion phase.
Romania’s transition was dominated by two paradigms: the model of developed European countries, close in many ways to the social democratic model, and the neoliberal paradigm, dominated by the confused hope of integration into a globalized economy. The political option for a softer liberalism, open to social and national issues, has been constantly marginalized, being accused, paradoxically, even of communism. As a result of such an approach, Romania has moved away from the successful European pattern, risking occupying a place on the edge of Europe, in a position of underdeveloped European country.
The way out of the current crisis implies a new vision, rethinking its project of socio-economic development.
Romanian sociology is also in a position to rethink its mission in the context of the current crisis.
Institutional affiliation: Member of the Romanian Academy
Director of the the Research Institute for Quality of Life (Romanian Academy)

Wellbeing and Sustainability in the post-covid Era
Filomena Maggino

The recent phenomena and events experienced by the majority of the population have highlighted how the fragility and unsustainability shown by many countries are closely related to the lack of attention to people’s well-being. Failure to put systemic well-being at the center of decisions has led to such a level of fragility as to lead countries to experience a real emergency. In other words, the sustainability of a country (even of a subject) is strongly linked with the level of systemic well-being. More precisely, it is a means to such well-being.
Institutional affiliation:  Professor of Social Statistics – Department of Statistics – Sapienza University of Rome, Italy
Coordinator of the Department for Integral Wellbeing – Pontificia Academia Mariana Internationalis  

Political and Economic Expectations and Reality in Eastern Europe. Three decades of changes of political values and attitudes and their context 
Renata Siemieńska

The societies of the former communist countries have had some conceptions of democracy, free market economy and social equality with which they began to built new political and economic systems. Winners and losers. What happened later? Are their conceptions (and which?) modified or unchanged?  How did societies react to the unexpected reality? Going further, whose conceptions are changed and in which direction?  Do the post-communist differ from others?
Institutional affiliation:  The R. B. Zajonc Institute for Social Studies; UNESCO Chair “Women -Society- Development” University of Warsaw;  M. Grzegorzewska University, Poland

The process of othering through representational naturalization. The example of refugees and the COVID-19 pandemic
Lilian Negură

Lilian Negură will present the process of othering as an intrinsic element of representational naturalization using data from two studies conducted during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Syrian refugee crisis. These crises seem to be at the origin of a process of othering of certain categories of the population, as cases of discriminatory treatment of minority communities have been reported in the media during the both events. Taking into account the similarities and differences between these events, what avenues of research could the theory of social representations offer us to better understand how and why othering occurs in situations of social crisis?
Institutional affiliation:  Faculty of Social Sciences, School of Social Work,University of Ottawa, Canada
Social Sciences of Health Interventions Research Group (SSHIRG)
Centre de Recherche Inter universitaire sur la Vie au Travail (CRIEVAT)

Empowering employees and setting the ground for a new sense of citizenship
Konstantinos Sergakis

In light of the ever-evolving behavioral patterns across generations, legal and cultural traditions and corporate governance systems, the time has come to envisage a new citizenship identity for employees. We argue that employee participation within companies should not be necessarily restricted to participation to unions or boards but should instead become democratized and facilitated via the introduction of advisory panels. We advocate a novel and flexible approach, which will allow for employee training, ongoing improvement of employee relations and governance issues within Romanian companies without disrupting the current status quo. Most importantly, such panels would nurture employee engagement, render them more responsible citizens. In parallel, we advocate for the concomitant introduction of employee share ownership schemes which will contribute to the financial well-being of employees and fight inequalities.
Institutional affiliation:  University of Glasgow, School of Law
Professor of Capital Markets Law and Corporate Governance