Submission Deadline: October 17, 2025

Call for Submissions: Small Group Meeting for Early Career Researchers
Broadening Our Understanding of Alliances for Social Change: Conflict and Cooperation as Independent and Co-existing

Meeting Theme and Focus

Threatened social identities—stemming from economic, cultural, political, or environmental sources—often spur the emergence of cooperation strategies aimed at achieving common goals. These alliances can form between disadvantaged groups (e.g., the LGBT movement and different ethnic minorities confronting prejudice) or between advantaged and disadvantaged groups (e.g., men supporting the gender equality movement).

Traditionally, conflict and cooperation are viewed as opposite ends of a continuum, implying that groups we cooperate with are separate from groups we are in conflict with. However, by treating conflict and cooperation as two independent dimensions of intergroup relations, we acknowledge that an outgroup can be an ally in one domain while remaining an opponent in another. We can simultaneously cooperate with an outgroup while maintaining a salient level of conflict.

The 2026 Small Group Meeting aims to bring together research on the psychological antecedents, processes, and consequences of intergroup alliances. Our goal is to better understand how the interrelation of conflict and cooperation facilitates or hinders social change and collective action, providing novel insights into the development of social movements.

The event will host between 30 and 40 Junior and Senior researchers from diverse countries. We are honored to note that this meeting will also be an opportunity to celebrate the work of Russell Spears, one of the most influential researchers in this field.

This meeting will be held at the University of Granada (UGR), Spain, from February 4-6, 2026.

Target Audience

This call is addressed exclusively to Early-Career Researchers (i.e., pre- and post-doc researchers). We especially invite participation from those coming from historically under-represented groups and contexts.

Fees and Funding

To maximize participation from diverse backgrounds, the registration structure is as follows (food/catering services are provided for all participants):
• Free: For postgraduate EASP members.
• €50 (Euros): For other early-career researchers or those from countries/institutions with economic restrictions. This fee includes food and accommodation services.
A limited number of travel grants will be available for participants with low economic income and funding possibilities.

Submission Details and important dates

Researchers interested in participating are invited to submit an abstract:
• Abstract Length: Maximum of 250 words.
• Content: The abstract must clearly detail the research question, underlying theory, methods, key results, and discussion/implications.
• Submission Deadline: October 17 (Submit via the submission section of the website).
• Notification of Acceptance: November 14, 2025
• Registration Deadline: December 15, 2026
• Meeting: February 4 – 6, 2026

More information, including a list of confirmed speakers, can be found here: https://easpgranadacom.wordpress.com/about/