We are pleased to invite researchers who work on societal resilience in the Baltic Sea Region to submit abstracts for the upcoming conference entitled “From Societal Resilience to Obscurantism in the Baltic Sea Region: Social Cohesion, Populism and Everything In-Between”, to be held on 10-11/11/2025

Societal resilience describes the ability of communities and institutions to withstand shocks and continue functioning under high-security threats. In the immediate aftermath of the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the focus was on short-term societal resilience and state’s survival. More than three years later, concerns about long-term resilience and strategies have emerged.

The situation is exacerbated by the increasing erosion of trust in democratic institutions, growing socioeconomic inequalities, and misperceptions about liberal democracy. They provide fertile ground for the dangerous narratives that challenge the very foundations of liberal democracy, and often target the most vulnerable groups of society. These are forces of obscurantism – the intentional suppression of knowledge and understanding. Fuelled by populist movements and digital disinformation, such forces pose an existential threat to the principles of reason, evidence and accountability that underpin modern democratic governance.

Plenty of useful research addresses governance mechanisms that may enhance resilience and policy-making against disinformation, propaganda and infrastructure attacks. In addition, however, the evolving geopolitical and social landscape necessitates a deeper exploration of emerging challenges, their causes and their consequences. By illuminating the complexity of societal resilience and long-term security, this conference will contribute to the understanding of how to ensure societal resilience in times of geopolitical, institutional and social crises.

Therefore, the central questions of the conference are the following.
• How to protect democracy? How can governments, civil society and academia sustain societal resilience in the face of contemporary challenges, ensuring that communities not only withstand hybrid threats but also retain their belief in democratic values and institutions in an increasingly dark and uncertain era?
• How to address emerging security risks in the Baltic Sea region, drawing lessons from Ukraine?
• How to build long-term European co-operation, ensuring lasting peace and stability in the region and on the entire European continent? Is the existing co-operation architecture enough or does it need new structures? If so, what tasks are such new structures to serve?

One of the key dimensions of the conference is the interregional dialogue between the Nordic-Baltic Eight (NB8: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, and Sweden) and Ukraine and other Eastern European countries, which recognises that the resilience of one country affects the security of all in the region. Therefore, we would like to ensure a sufficient representation of the participants from the different countries, through a rigorous selection process based on the salience of research interests and potential contribution to the common publication in a special issue.

We welcome papers that address the following topics in the Baltic Sea region and broader Europe:
1. Governance for societal resilience (institutional frameworks fostering resilience/adaptability)
2. Social cohesion and trust in institutions - government, media, academia
3. Addressing information cynicism
4. How radical populism and obscurantism exploit social grievances
5. Regional co-operation in the NB8 and European “frontier countries” (Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova) and the EU “one voice problem”.

The conference aims to bring together scholars and practitioners to engage in debate on societal resilience, as well as enable a multidisciplinary dialogue between established and early-career scholars and more senior researchers.

The goal is to cultivate a diverse yet coherent group of speakers who will be motivated to collectively contribute to a special issue on resilience in turbulent times. Whilst the format of the conference will be on site, we leave the option of presenting remotely for those motivated participants who nevertheless cannot attend in person.

The conference organisers will select participants based on the quality of their abstracts and the goodness of fit to the conference’s theme. Conference funds will cover costs directly related to the conference, including travel, accommodation and meals.

Please complete and submit the following form, including a 300-word abstract and a 100-word bio, by 31 August 2025. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by 15 September 2025.

Organisers:
• Nicholas Aylott (Europe Programme, Swedish Institute of International Affairs; Södertörn University)
• Joakim Ekman (Centre for Baltic and East European Studies, Södertörn University)
• Dmytro Iarovyi (Department of Social Science, Kyiv School of Economics, KSE, and Vytautas Magnus University)
• Olena Podolian (Centre for Baltic and East European Studies, Södertörn University)
• Karina Shyrokykh (Department of Economic History and International Relations, Stockholm University, and Hromada’s network – a Baltic-Nordic knowledge-based network to the rebuilding of Ukraine)