The ICSD European Branch is planning its next conference in Assisi, Italy, in June 2027, under the working theme “Peace,  Social Work and Sustainable Social Development.” The theme responds to a global context in which peace has again become an urgent and fragile concern, shaped by war, military escalation, insecurity and growing threats to human wellbeing.

The conference will invite participants to reflect on peace not only as the absence of war, but as a positive and meaningful condition for social welfare, social justice, human rights and social development. In this perspective, peace is understood as both an inner and social process: something that concerns individuals, communities and societies, and that must be built from the bottom up as well as supported through institutions and policy.

For ICSD, this theme connects closely with broader questions of social development, social welfare and social justice. The conference will ask how social work and related fields can contribute to peace, how peace can become a foundation for a renewed social pact, and what kind of society becomes possible when peace is treated as a value in itself.

Further details on the programme, final theme and call for participation will follow as planning progresses.

Hans Kolstad, ICSD European Branch