VCSS2026 Overview

International, Intercultural, Interdisciplinary

The Vienna Conference on the Social Sciences (VCSS2026) will be hosted alongside The Vienna Conference on Arts and Humanities (VCAH2026) as a part of the IAFOR European City Conference Series. Registration for either of these conferences will allow delegates to attend any joint plenary session or parallel sessions as desired.

Willkommen in Wien! Welcome to Vienna!

Vienna is a wonderful and vibrant city, and a great central European cultural centre. Previously the capital of the Habsburg Austro-Hungarian Empire and now the capital of Austria, Vienna has a long and storied history reflecting its geographical position at the very heart of the European peninsula. A meeting place of peoples and ideas for centuries, Vienna is today constitutionally and permanently committed to neutrality. The city serves as one of the world’s most important hubs for global diplomacy and multilateral cooperation, and the headquarters to several UN agencies.

Vienna is a global centre for the arts and design, with a diverse and beautiful cityscape, including wonderful examples of Baroque, Secessionist, and modernist architecture. Its world-class galleries boast renowned collections of European art throughout the ages, including those dedicated to the Viennese artists Klimt and Schiele. However, it is for music that ‘The City of Music’ is most famous and celebrated, as it is home to the world’s greatest classical composers, including Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, and Mahler. Vienna continues that musical tradition today, from public street performances and waltzes to opulent performance halls such as the Opera House and the Musikverein, the home of the renowned Vienna Philharmonic.

Alongside its artistic and musical heritage lies a great intellectual and academic tradition, which have influenced and inspired each other for centuries. Home to great and prestigious universities and academies, Vienna is perhaps best known for its coffeehouse tradition; spaces which became informal centres of learning through social and intellectual exchange, and where people engaged across the lines of nation, culture, but most importantly discipline, as the city and university intersected. During Vienna’s golden age, the interplay of politics, philosophy, psychology, and the arts fostered an environment that shaped some of the twentieth century’s most brilliant minds — among them Freud, Adler, Wittgenstein, Popper, Hayek, and Loos — and whose ideas in turn continue to influence and define modern thought.

We look forward to being inspired by the international, intercultural, and interdisciplinary traditions of Vienna, and to contributing to its intellectual life through our conference. This event will bring together hundreds of scholars from around the world to exchange ideas, research, and perspectives as we bring our International Academic Forum to Vienna. Join us!

I look forward to seeing you in Vienna!

For and on behalf of the IAFOR International Academic Board

Dr Joseph Haldane, Osaka University, Japan & University College London, United Kingdom
Chairman and CEO, IAFOR

Professor Jun Arima, University of Tokyo, Japan
President, IAFOR

Professor Anne Boddington, Middlesex University, United Kingdom
Executive Vice-President and Provost, IAFOR

Programme

To be announced

Speakers

To be announced

Conference Committees

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