Many comments and theoretical development that followed Robert K. Merton’s work on unanticipated consequences of purposive social actions have focused on ramifying the initial conceptual apparatus. This has developed taking into considerations degrees of nuances in the meanings that are brought when employing such terms as: unexpected, unrecognized, unaware, unforeseen, perverse, in addition to, or instead of, the ones of unintended and unanticipated. The theoretical sophistication has evolved in the sense of depicting the feedback processes from unintended consequences to unrecognized conditions of action (Anthony Giddens), and of listing the unexpected outcomes as one of several alternative sequences to linear purposive actions (Alejandro Portes), just to cite a few contributions. The workshop aims to summarize and revitalize this debate.

On the other hand, the purpose of the conference is to bridge the gap between the discussions on unintended consequences and many discourses that emerged in theoretical circumstances different from, or even opposed to, mertonian functionalism. Similar themes were undertaken by scholars active in fields as different as systems’ theory, post-foucauldian governance studies or neoinstitutionalism. Since terms used in such studies range from risk through contingency to regulatory failures, it is worthwhile to see whether linguistic differences signify speaking of different phenomena.

Thus, the organizers of the workshop welcome all contributions relevant for ‘sociology as an analysis of the unintended’ – 75 years after the original term was coined. The event will take place at Institute of Philosophy, Sociology and Journalism, University of Gdańsk. Papers will be invited for publication in a themed volume.