The Social Policy Association (SPA) holds an international academic conference each summer. This is a key time for the UK and international social policy community to share current research. The conference regularly attracts up to 250 delegates who are researchers, teachers, students and practitioners of social policy from the UK and overseas. We come together to share research, promote social policy in teaching and learning, and to advance the role of research in policy making, practice and wider public debates.
Upcoming Conferences:
In light of the current pandemic, we will be moving our 2021 Social Policy Association Annual Conference, originally planned for Swansea, online. This year’s theme is ‘Global challenges – national social policy responses?’. The conference invites participants to reflect on local, national and international responses to global challenges such as the Covid-19 pandemic and particularly welcomes contributions which reflect on gendered, ethnic, socioeconomic, and geographical differences.
SPA Annual Conference 2021
Past conferences:
SPA Digital Festival, 2020. Keynote Speakers: Alison Garnham and Gurminder Bhambra.
Programme: Click here to download.
Theme: Securing the Future: the Challenge for Social Policy.
Keynote Speakers: John Solomos, Claire Alexander, Gary Craig, Nasar Meer, Coretta Philips, Ellen M. Immergut, Daniel Béland.
Programme: Click here to download.
Theme: In the Shadow of the 2008 Crisis: Social Policy Ten Years On.
Keynote Speakers: Eftychia Achtsioglou, Bea Cantillon, Hartley Dean.
Programme: Click here to download.
Theme: Social Inequalities: Research, Theory and Policy.
Keynote Speakers: Andrew Sayer, Wolfgang Streeck, Saskia Sassen.
Programme: Click here to download.
Theme: Social Policy: Radical, Resistant, Resolute.
Keynote Speakers:Tess Ridge, Kathryn Edin, David Lewis.
Programme: Click here to read.
Theme: Social Policy in the Spotlight: Change, Continuity and Challenge.
Keynote Speakers: Mary O’Hara, Jane Jenson, Colin Crouch, David Donnison.
Theme: Social Policy Confronting Change: Resistance, Resilience and Radicalism.
If you have a general query about SPA conferences, please get in touch with us via admin@social-policy.org.uk. We are always keen to hear from people in institutions that might be interested in hosting a future SPA conference.