In other respects they have reacted very differently. The theoretical interest of the conference is to look for a new representation of the state of social relations after the sociology of industrial society no longer seems to capture the most important aspects of social life. Ethnicity, Gender, Family and Communication are four key concepts which will be discussed. They are the concepts around which the conference is organised. European societies in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries have not emerged as a result of smooth and linear evolution towards ever higher stages but through recurring crises and tension.
Social protest is one expression of such tension.
Both protests and the attempts to canalise and contain them have been a powerful driving forces in modernisation, at the same time as both of them express the contradictions and conflicts, sometimes irresolvable, of modernity. Crisis has been experienced in various ways and the definition of problems has varied from society to society. Different development trajectories have emerged. Systematic comparison of similarities and differences between different societies would increase our theoretical understanding of these processes, as well as of an ever ongoing process of problem resolution. Each solution is a subject of continuous contest, and, when taken on, pregnant with new unforeseen problems.