'Session papers would explore the political economy of higher education. What privileges and resources are provided by higher education? What are key patterns of inequality? How are colleges and universities implicated in the construction and protection of social control, social hierarchy and wealth in a society? Internationally compared, what are important cross cultural and culture- specific features? If you wish to present a paper in the session "The Political Economy of Higher Education", send an abstract of no more than one page to Walter R. Allen: wallen@ucla.edu.
'More than ever people with chronic mental
health problems are living in the community following processes of deinstitutionalisation
and the rize of community mental health services. This evolution augments
the relevance of social context and the organization of the community
for their well-being. Furthermore, the effectiveness of service delivery
for persons with multiple personal and social problems, more and more
depends on the social services' and mental health services' ability to
cooperate and coordinate their activities. Networks of relations of cooperation
and conflict develop and structure the way these services are delivered.
Finally, a consensus is growing about the need for theory driven mental
health and social services research. Biomedical research methods are of
limited use when investigating actual service deliverly programs.
These, and numerous other observations, confirm that both the context
of service delivery and the theories and the methodes used to study the
effectiveness of mental health services and social services programs are
changing. By studying the social organizational context of social processes
hindering or augmenting the effectiveness of programmes aimed at specific
social problems, sociologists can contribute to the development of this
emergent field of realistic evaluation research.
If you wish to present a paper in the session "Sociological Contributions
to Mental Health and Social Services Research", send an abstract
of no more than one page to Piet Bracke: Piet.Bracke@UGent.be.
'The Swedish academic Torsten Hagerstrand
called attention to the importance of time space geography but it is a
call that sociologists have singularly failed to rise to. The scheduling
of social activity has been relatively underproblematised. The purpose
of this session is to correct this neglect in line with current activities
in the field of transport and society and mobilities research now taking
place. We are looking for papers that will open up the relationship between
time, travel and empowerment and for the papers that address the role
of new scheduling technologies such as cell phones in the changing frontiers
of daily routines. If you wish to present a paper in this session "Accessibility,
mobility and connectivity: changing frontiers of daily routines", send
an abstract of no more than one page to Margaret Grieco: m.grieco@napier.ac.uk.
'The intention is to try to push forward theorisations
of the social world as comprising bio-material as well as socio-cultural
things, processes and relations. Papers are welcome to address this theme
through studies of food, nature, biodiversity, or any other relevant topic.
If you wish to present a paper in the session "'Hybrids' and 'Co-constructions'
Can Sociological Frontiers Encompass Nature?", send an abstract of
no more than one page to Hilary Tovey: htovey@tcd.ie.
'Family forms and fertility patterns are changing
in ways affecting and affected by the gender and class systems of modern
societies. This session explores these dynamics and patterns. If you wish
to present a paper in the session "Cohabitation, Marriage Markets,
and Fertility", send an abstract of no more than one page to Paula
England: pengland@stanford.edu.
'In the 1990s a new paradigm emerged in sociology to conceptualize the
contemporary world: the concept of multiple modernities. The protagonists
of the new paradigm share a number of key assumptions about the modern
world, as well as a common aversion against the modernization theory of
the 1950s and 1960s which they claim provides an oversimplified, empirically
incorrect and normatively questionable view of this world. The main point
of contention is the theory's premise that modernization is a homogenizing
process, ultimately leading to the convergence of the societies undergoing
it; another its alleged proclivity to equate one particular variant of
modernity - that of "the" West or, narrower still, North America
- with modernity itself. Against both views, the critics emphasize modern
societies' diversity. Not only are there, according to these critics,
several paths to modernity, but different historical trajectories and
socio-cultural backgrounds also give rise to highly distinct forms of
modernity in different parts of the world. In fact, even Europe itself,
where it all began, exhibits a great deal of cultural and institutional
diversity. But is that really a new insight - and if it is, does it justify
to speak of modernity in the plural? If yes, then how much diversity (of
what kind and profundity) must exist to do so? What makes some (and which)
differences social theoretically more significant than others? And what
are the future prospects of whichever differences may presently exist
among different societies, world regions, civilizations? Are they more
likely to persist, to withstand further social change ("globalization"),
perhaps even to deepen as a result of (resistance to) it, or do we have
reason to expect that they will diminish in the long run? Finally, how
do we deal with empirical observations of actual homogenization processes
going hand in hand with the modernization of societies - such as the isomorphism
of institutions claimed to be a worldwide trend by the world polity approach
of John Meyer; the streamlining of economic policies around the world
noted by many economists; the growing convergence of everyday cultural
dispositions found by studies based on Ronald Inglehart's World Values
Survey; or common patterns of demographic and behavioral change seen in
all societies undergoing thorough modernization? These are some of the
questions we wish to discuss in this session. If you wish to present a
paper, please send an abstract of no more than one page to Volker Schmidt:
socvhs@nus.edu.sg.
'Sociology has always been critical of social inequality, viewed it as
a disturbing reality in need of change; not only as a social pathology
threatening the integration of society but also as normatively questionable,
as illegitimate, as a phenomenon that cannot be justified or that is at
least in need of a strong justification. Neither of these views is (sociologically)
self-evident. The former appears to be invalidated by the observation
that (modern) societies are capable of tolerating remarkable degrees of
inequality without seriously endangering their stability. The latter view
is problematic even at the conceptual level as sociology, qua sociology
(i.e., through being an empirical discipline), lacks the very means by
which it could be theoretically supported. Furthermore, there are many
inequalities, not all of which can be addressed simultaneously, because
doing so would require resources that may be limited and because trade-offs
often exist between reducing one form of inequality as against another
which need be no less serious and may in fact grow as a result of tackling
the first. Thus, even if there was a sound basis for sociology's critical
stance toward (some forms of) inequality, we would still have to set priorities,
to rank the various inequalities according to their relative significance
vis-ˆ-vis others in order to know what comes (or should be done) first,
which concessions have to be made (and accepted) at the price of what
kinds of improvements and benefits. The sociological literature on inequality
rarely acknowledges such difficulties. Instead, it keeps discovering ever
more inequalities and, focusing on each of them individually, demanding
that they be reduced without considering the consequences for "the
rest", including other societal concerns which, once more, may stand
in the way of pursuing the requisite policies. So if sociologists want
to make a serious contribution to the debate about (in )equality, they
must address their own limitations and weaknesses, as well as come to
terms with the priority problem. Proposals are invited for papers dealing
with these problems. If you are interested, please send an abstract of
no more than one page to Volker Schmidt: socvhs@nus.edu.sg.
'All welfare states must ration health care because no public system is
able to finance the entire (theoretically boundless and largely supply-driven)
demand for health care arising within such a system. As a result, they
face a growing number of hard choices at different levels of decision
making. At the macro level, it has to be decided which amount of a given
Gross Domestic Product is to be used for medical purposes as against other
societal concerns and interests. At the next lower meso level, it has
to be decided how the medical budget as a whole is to be distributed among
the various branches and sub-divisions within medicine. And finally, at
the micro level of concrete physician-patient interaction it has to be
decided who shall receive (or be denied) which kinds of treatment. All
of this involves serious, at times even tragic, trade-offs. Among the
most difficult problems to which the inevitability of rationing gives
rise is the need to select recipients for lifesaving medical procedures
and services for whose receipt more patients are medically indicated than
can be served with the available resources. Essentially, what has to be
decided in such situations is "who shall live when not all can live"
(Childress). But even though their incidence is increasingly becoming
an everyday phenomenon in medicine, very little is known about how such
decisions are actually made. What considerations and criteria guide them,
who benefits and who loses out, why they and not others? Are there systematic
policies for the allocation of life and death - patterns cutting across
medical subfields and local contexts - or do the respective practices
vary from culture to culture, nation to nation, hospital to hospital,
physician to physician? How are these policies (if any) and practices
accounted for, how are they explained and justified to those concerned?
And what do the policy takers think, the clients and tax payers who are
directly or indirectly affected by them? Are they aware of the dilemma?
Do they have strong views about how it is - or ought to be - resolved?
Or are they largely ignorant and/or indifferent? Proposals are invited
for papers addressing some of these (or related) questions empirically
and from a sociological perspective, rather than normatively, as does
the bulk of the existing literature on medical triage. If you are interested,
please send an abstract of no more than one page to Volker Schmidt: socvhs@nus.edu.sg.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session
"Labour World Transformations In Europe - Towards A Fragmentation
Of The Situations? Lessons From The South", send an abstract of no
more than one page to the session convener Christian Azaïs: christian.azais@u-picardie.fr.
'This session aims to examine and analyse
some of the key contemporary changes in and challenges to professional
work and workers, which are extensively related to classical sociological
questions about mechanisms of social order and control in work and of
workers. These include:
* the challenges to professional work from organizational logics including
new forms of regulation and control, target-setting and accountability;
* the changes in conditions of trust whereby expertise, discretion and
competence have to be renegotiated and demonstrated;
* new restructuring of services and user/provider, expert/lay divisions
and the growing powers of consumers and consumer organizations;
* the influence of state policies and funding arrangements;
* EU directives and the globalization of occupational markets. Those wishing
to present a paper in this session should send an abstract of no more
than one page to the session conveners Julia Evetts: julia.evetts@nottingham.ac.uk
and Lennart Svensson: lennart.svensson@sociology.gu.se.
'The session will be open to paper presentation
that address health disparities from a sociaological perspective. Presentation
adressing health disparities by race, ethnicity, class, gender, globalization,
and other are welcome. If you wish to present a paper in the session "Frontiers
of Sociology: Disentangling Health Disparities", send an abstract
of no more than one page to P. Rafael Hernandez-Arias: phernan8@depaul.edu.
'This session will focus on social complexity
research using simulation techniques, especially multi-agent based modeling
methods. Papers on a range of social processes and issues are welcome.
If you wish to present a paper in the session "Social complexity
and dynamics: Multi-Agent Based Modeling Techniques", send an abstract
of no more than one page to the session conveners: Tom Burns: tom.burns@soc.uu.se
and Jin Wang: wangjinxt@hotmail.com.
'The idea that globalisation means that the national
state has been rendered archaic by the increasing intensity and velocity
of global flows, passing through urban nodes, poses a challenge to fields
like political sociology. Theoretical work of human geographers on the
politics of scale/rescaling offers the possibility of developing a more
nuanced perspective. Our session would explore the insights which the
work on scale has to offer into classic areas of concern to political
sociologists such as state (especially welfare state) restructuring, social
movements etc. How do scale and interscalar arrangements figure in the
strategies of collective actors? How does rescaling intersect with processes
of welfare state restructuring? What are the implications of changes to
interscalar arrangements for citizenship and democracy? Those wishing
to present a paper in the session "Rescaling States, The Politics
of Scale" should send an abstract of no more than one page to Rianne
Mahon: rmahon@ccs.carleton.ca.
'The literature of ethnic conflict has exploded since the early 1990s,
as a result of the end of the Cold War and the outbreak of large-scale
ethnic conflicts in Yugoslavia, Somalia, and elsewhere. Although this
literature has contributed to an increased empirical knowledge - and although
there has been several innovative theoretical and synthetical contributions
as well - a more detailed understanding of semi-general mechanisms involved
in processes of ethnic conflict is still warranted. Of particular importance
is the question how the micro and macro levels are linked. Today the social
psychological literature on stereotyping and prejudice, and group behavior
more generally, is largely detached from social science approaches for
understanding large-scale ethnic conflicts. Can something be gained from
connecting them? Or are there better ways to link micro and macro? Here
mobilization (e.g., is there anything specific in the ethnic aspect that
facilitate mobilization?) and diffusion and escalation would be key concepts.
The papers should be based on theory-driven empirical research or be pure
theoretical in a way that points out new directions for further empirical
research. Empirically, they could discuss anything from large-scale ethnic
conflicts to more mundane conflicts between ethnic neighborhoods in urban
areas, to mobilization of ethnic parties and social movements. If you
wish to present a paper in the session "New Directions in Theory-driven
Research on Ethnic Conflict", send an abstract of no more than one
page to Jens Rydgren: jens.rydgren@sociology.su.se.
'Mediterranean countries have lately reached
a generalized plural experience of modernity. This session is aimed to
discuss the emergent forms of educational processes observed in the Mediterranean
context, mobilizing the contribution of social sciences. Besides the sociological
approach, we welcome other points of view, particularly those with an
historical or anthropological perspective. Those wishing to present a
paper in the session "School in the frontiers of modernity - the
Mediterranean space" should send an abstract of no more than one
page to the session conveners: Jose M. Resende: josemresende@mail.telepac.pt
and Maria M. Vieira: mmvieira@ics.ul.pt.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session
"American Hegemony, Globalization and the Third World", send an abstract
of no more than one page to S.K. Kuthiala: kuthiala@comcast.net.
'This session is particularly interested
in papers examining the issues of leftwing anti-Semitism, Islamic anti-Semitism,
the relationship between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, the uniqueness
of German anti-Semitism and/or the role of the papacy in the Holocaust.
If you wish to present a paper in the session "Anti-Semitism: Unfinished
Issues", send an abstract of no more than one page to William I. Brustein:
brustein@ucis.pitt.edu.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session
"Art and social structure: The challenges of globalization",
send an abstract of no more than one page to Marta Herrero: marta.herrero@plymouth.ac.uk.
'This session deals with the near future (present)
of sociology. Papers are invited on the place of sociology and sociological
theory in the transdisciplinarity research environment. Some questions
we might explore include: How does sociology fit into the transdisciplinary
environment? How is sociology inherently transdisciplinary? What becomes
of sociological theory and method in the transdisciplinary, that is, transsociological
world? It is 50 years since C. W. Mills: What is the Sociological Imagination
to do with the transsociological, or was it already there? Those wishing
to present a paper in the session "At the Frontiers of Transdisciplinarity:
Into the Transsociological" should send an abstract of no more than
one page to Gerry Coulter: gcoulter@ubishops.ca.
'Population aging, changes in the family, and
other social conditions are creating policy issues concerning care for
a growing elder population, such as the role of the state versus the individual
and the family, public versus private insurance plans, and the role of
NGO's and the informal volunteer efforts in providing care. Countries
vary in the balance of the public and private roles, and some countries
are engaged in innovative efforts to develop partnerships between the
public and private sectors. This session will focus on how political and
economic forces as well as cultural concepts of public versus private
responsibility affect approaches to these issues in different countries.
If you wish to present a paper in the session "Balancing Public and
Private Roles in Care for the Elderly", send an abstract of no more
than one page to Eldon L. Wegner: wegner@hawaii.edu.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session
"Challenges of Demographic Changes, Environmental Sociology, Community
Development Strategies, Economic and Social Development, Women's Studies",
send an abstract of no more than one page to Ashraf R. EL-Ghannam: el_ghannam_ashraf@hotmail.com.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session "Classics
in Symbolic Interaction", send an abstract of no more than one page
to Jan Trost: jan.trost@soc.uu.se.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session
"Contemporary Childhoods", send an abstract of no more than
one page to Robert van Krieken: robertvk@usyd.edu.au.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session "Decentralisation
and Specialisation of Labour and Entrepreneur Associations: Changes in
the Way They Negotiate?", send an abstract of no more than one page
to the session convener Christian Azaïs: christian.azais@u-picardie.fr.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session "Economic
Sociology", send an abstract of no more than one page to Patrik Aspers:
patrik.aspers@sociology.su.se.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session "English
and Cultures: Frontiers and Crossroads", send an abstract of no more
than one page to Daphne Romy: drm@ip-worldcom.ch.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session "Ethnic
Minorities and the Criminal Justice System", send an abstract of
no more than one page to Renford Reese: rrreese@csupomona.edu.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session
"The Ethnographic Imperative in French Critical Sociology: Durkheim
to Bourdieu", send an abstract of no more than one page to Michele
Richman: mrichman@sas.upenn.edu.
'If you wish to present a paper in this session "The
Future of Sociology and the Sociology of the Future", send an abstract
of no more than one page to Anne Seitz: ASEITZ@swin.edu.au.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session
"Globalization and Changes in Social Inequalities in Modern Societies",
send an abstract of no more than one page to Hans-Peter Blossfeld: soziologie1@sowi.uni-bamberg.de.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session
"Health and Society", send an abstract of no more than one page
to William C. Cockerham: wcocker@uab.edu.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session
"The Holocaust in Popular Culture", send an abstract of no more
than one page to Lynn Rapaport: lrapaport@pomona.edu.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session "Individual
Autonomy vs. Collective Responsibility: How to Deal within a Flexible
Labour World?", send an abstract of no more than one page to the
session convener Christian Azaïs: christian.azais@u-picardie.fr.
'Studies of relationships between generations
within families have not had a strong place in knowledge about family
change in contemporary societies. Demographic developments with increased
longevity increase the potential for active relationships within kin regarding
material and social/emotional support as well as of experiences and values.
On the other hand the growth in social mobility across boarders over the
world and the growth in other kinds of family ruptures might decrease
such support over generations. The social security nets of the welfare
state might also bring changes in the ways in which support links work
within families in contemporary society. The proposed session has the
purpose of bringing comparative analysis on theoretical aspects and of
empirical data regarding transfers between generations in different family
settings and welfare contexts. If you wish to present a paper in the session
"Intergenerational Transfers of Material and Social Resources in
Different Family and Welfare Concepts", send an abstract of no more
than one page to Ulla Bjšrnberg: Ulla.Bjornberg@sociology.gu.se.
'This session will explore the role of human reflexivity
in mediating structural and cultural influences upon agents and determining
different outcomes in terms of the modi vivendi that they establish for
themselves in society. The main focus will be upon exploring how people,
viewed as active agents, have 'ultimate concerns' in their lives that
they seek to realise in the social contexts in which they find themselves
or are available to them. The subjective capacity to think about one's
personal concerns in a social context is obviously quite different from
viewing 'dispositions' as simply reflective and reproductive of social
'positions'. The dynamics of such processes, often known under various
terms such as 'internal conversation', 'self-talk' or 'rumination', is
what papers should address, although this could be approached in various
ways. Of equal interest are the life-practices to emerge from such inner,
yet contextualised, deliberations. If you wish to present a paper in the
session "The Internal Conversation: Mediating Between Structure and
Agency", send an abstract of no more than one page to Margaret S.
Archer: M.S.Archer@warwick.ac.uk.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session "Knowledge
Work and Knowledge Workers", send an abstract of no more than one
page to Harri Melin: harri.melin@utu.fi.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session
"Legal Frameworks: What has Changed in Labour Market Policies?",
send an abstract of no more than one page to the session convener Christian
Aza•s: < a href="mailto:christian.azais@u-picardie.fr">christian.azais@u-picardie.fr.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session
"The Long Term Effects of the 1960«s Labour Migration", send
an abstract of no more than one page to Gunnar Olofsson: Gunnar.Olofsson@svi.vxu.se.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session
"Meritocracy and Mobility", send an abstract of no more than
one page to Kazimierz M. Slomczynski: slomczynski.1@osu.edu.
'The mutual influence between relations on one hand, and individual behavior,
performance, or attitudes on the other hand, is two-sided.
(1.) The networks - to - behavior influence can generally be understood
from the crucial social opportunities and constraints inherent in networks
of relations between social actors, and which can be influential for the
behavior and performance of the actors. E.g., the well-being of individuals
in their social context is conditioned not only by their individual characteristics
and behavior but also by their social ties; attitudes and behavior of
individuals often are influenced by their peers; the economic production
of goods and services is conditioned by the networks between firms as
well as by networks between individuals inside the firms. Empirical analysis
is complicated because this influence leads to dependencies between actors
which should be expressed in some way in the statistical model.
(2.) The behavior - to - network influence means that the selection of
others as interaction partners depends strongly on characteristics (such
as perceived abilities and attitudes) and behavior of the actors involved,
homophilous selection being just one example. This influence can be understood
from the differential costs and benefits of different ties, depending
on actors' characteristics. Empirical analysis is complicated because
selection of interaction partners often also depends on the existing network
structure. The most fruitful way to study this mutual feedback between
relational networks and individual performance is in dynamic settings.
This will - hopefully! - contribute to explanations of collective phenomena
such as clustering of behavior and attitudes in cohesive groups of various
kinds, various types of collective action, or the genesis and maintenance
of norms. For longitudinal (panel-type) data on complete networks and
actor attributes, recent developments in statistical methodology have
been incorporated in the SIENA program, which enable the statistical analysis
of such types of data. The aim of the session is to have papers treating
questions of the following type, preferably in combination: How do characteristics
(including abilities and attitudes) and behavior of individual actors
influence choices concerning transaction and relation partners, and thereby
the network structure? How do the network of relations between actors,
and the transactions embedded within this network, influence the actors'
characteristics (attitudes, etc.) and behavior? What are the consequences,
at the collective level, of this feedback between individual characteristics
and behavior and network structure? The session is meant to be on the
interface between mathematical modeling, statistical modeling, and empirical
sociology, and papers are requested to combine empirical data with mathematical
or statistical modeling. Researchers who are interested to present in
this session are requested to send me an abstract, or contact me, before
November 30, 2004, by email. If you wish to present a paper in the session
"Networks and Behavior", send an abstract of no more than one
page to the Tom A.B. Snijders: t.a.b.snijders@ppsw.rug.nl.
'What is the added value of organizational commitment to organizational
performance and work satisfaction in era of new technologies, globalization
and dramatic downsizing and decline in the importance of stable work communities?
Until a couple of decades ago, employers made efforts to foster organizational
commitment among their employees in order to secure stay and continuance
of contributions to the organization in face of work alienation, frustration,
anger, disappointments and temptations to exit and move to other employers.
However, recently the taken-for-granted assumption that organizational
commitment is crucial for the survival and success of work organizations,
has been eroded. Downsizing, outsourcing of labor activities and restructure
organizations to be lean and agile, left organizational commitment as
undesired liability. For example, the well-known finding of a reverse
correlation between organizational commitment and absenteeism and turnover
has become less worrisome in economic sectors with high risk for loosing
jobs.
Even older public organizations, which continue to employ a large core
of their own full-time workforce, turned to use what are variously termed
atypical, non standard, flexible jobs (by which is generally meant part-time
work, temporary employment, including agency employment). All these employment
forms contain weaker elements of organizational commitment.
Therefore, it is about time to reassess the concept of organizational
commitment and to explore the relevance and importance of this behavior.
If you wish to present a paper in the session "Organizational Commitment
in the Era of Global Escape From Responsibility", send an abstract
of no more than one page to Aviad Bar-Haim: aviad@openu.ac.il.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session "Perception,
Intersubjectivity, and Social Theory", send an abstract of no more
than one page to Edmond Wright: elw33@hermes.cam.ac.uk.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session
"The Search for Explanatory Mechanisms in Contemporary Sociology",
send an abstract of no more than one page to Filippo Barbera: filippo.barbera@libero.it.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session
"Social Rationality: Is Individual Rationality a Social Product?",
send an abstract of no more than one page to Siegwart Lindenberg: S.M.Lindenberg@ppsw.rug.nl.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session
"Sociology at the Frontiers of Psychology", send an abstract
of no more than one page to Gwyn Øverland: gwyn.overland@sshf.no.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session "Varieties
of Globalization: Structures, Processes, Movements", send an abstract
of no more than one page to John Boli: jboli@emory.edu.
'Video recorded data provides us with a lot of information.
In this session the main object is to present various methods and tools
in analysing the video recorded data, both qualitative interpretation
and quantitative assessment. If you wish to present a paper in the session
"Video Recorded Data - Interpretation or Assessment?", send
an abstract of no more than one page to Kari Vik: kari.vik@sshf.no.
'Sociology of law has developed new conceptual
tools to analyse rapidly changing social and legal structures of a world
society. New approaches such as law as communication or law as discourse
are being tried out while new paradigms such as legal pluralism or legal
poly polycentricity have been proposed.
The session will welcome any paper, whether theoretically, empirically,
or methodological oriented trying to analyse emerging socio-legal forms
of ordering in world society.
If you wish to present a paper in the session "Borderless Law: New
Forms of Ordering Global Society", send an abstract of no more than
one page to Thora Margareta Bertilsson: margareta.bertilsson@sociology.ku.dk.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session
"Collective Memory and Cultural Politics", send an abstract
of no more than one page to Victor Roudometof: roudomet@ucy.ac.cy.
'In spite of much recent work, consumer behavior
is still a rarity in sociological analysis. Disciplinary interests are
more concerned with production than consumption. As a consequence, there
is a strong and persistent bias away from understanding consumer behavior.
Too few sociologists have examined consumers, and fewer still have considered
the vast retail market where the joys, passions, fantasies, and indulgences
of humans come into play. This panel invites contributors interested in
expanding the frontiers in the sociological understanding of consumer
behavior. The hope is to gather insights into consumer behavior from different
areas across the world order. Any and all theoretical vantage points are
welcome, including research on status and fashion, observations on the
retail industry, or ethnographic work on commodities and their use in
the presentation of self. If you wish to present a paper in the session
"Consumer Behavior in The Contemporary World Order", send an
abstract of no more than one page to Joel Nelson: nelsonj@atlas.socsci.umn.edu.
'Family demography is the study of the composition
of families and households and of the transitions individuals make into
and out of various types of families and households. Such life events
as cohabitation, marriage, separation and divorce, childbearing, home-leaving
and death produce variation in family and household experience over the
life course. This session invites papers focusing on family change from
a demographic perspective. Interdisciplinary studies, combining family
demography with family sociology, are especially welcome. Those wishing
to present a paper in this session "Demographic aspects of family
change" should send an abstract of no more than one page to Elizabeth
Thomson: elizabeth.thomson@sociology.su.se.
'The session will be open to paper presentation
that address health disparities from a sociological perspective. Presentation
addressing health disparities by race, ethnicity, class, gender, globalization,
and other are welcome. If you wish to present a paper in the session "Disentangling
Health Disparities", send an abstract of no more than one page to
P. Rafael Hernandez-Arias: phernan8@depaul.edu.
'If you wish to present a paper in this session
"Economy and Social Theory", send an abstract of no more than
one page to Risto Heiskala: heiskala@yfi.jyu.fi.
'Writings on embodiment have occupied an increasingly
important role in sociology since the 1980s, and this 'rise of the body'
has prompted a number of attempts to reconstruct the discipline in order
for it to account more adequately for the embodied nature and consequences
of its subject matter. These reconstructions have been based on a variety
of theoretical perspectives and research agendas, however, and we have
yet to come to terms with the actual changes they have effected in sociological
theory, methodology and research. This session will address how this focus
on embodiment has transformed/transgressed the boundaries of sociology
and established 'new rules' for the pursuit of theory, methodology and
research. Papers are invited which address the significance of 'the body'
for sociology in any of these areas, and it is intended that these will
provide a foundation for discussion and reflection into both theoretical
issues and empirical social research into the body. If you wish to present
a paper in the session "Embodying Sociology: Enfleshing Theory, Methodology
& Research", send an abstract of no more than one page to Chris Shilling:
chris.shilling@port.ac.uk.
'Recent world events have raised new questions of "empire"
and "American empire". What insights does sociological research
and theory offer for understanding empire, imperialism, and colonialism?
While papers relating to American empire are especially desirable, papers
on any empire or dimension of empire, in any historical period, are welcome.
If you wish to present a paper in the session "Empire in Context:
Sociological Approaches to Empire, Imperialism, and Colonialism",
send an abstract of no more than one page to Julian Go: juliango@bu.edu.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session "Ethnic
Segregation - Causes and Consequences", send an abstract of no more
than one page to Magnus Bygren: magnus.bygren@sociology.su.se.
'This session will examine whether Europeans
from the countries that became the new EU members and from the non-EU
members share some common basic values. If you wish to present a paper
in the session "European Values East and West: Search for Unity without
Unification", send an abstract of no more than one page to Larisa
Titarenko: larisa166@mail.ru.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session
"Frontiers of Memory: War and Identity/East and West", send
an abstract of no more than one page to Harvie Ferguson: H.Ferguson@socsci.gla.ac.uk.
'Since the end of the global competition, characteristic of the era of
the cold war, processes of international competition have played a lesser
role as democratic institutions in the South are often weakly developed
and elites tend to confront each other on ethnic grounds, which often
occasion violent conflicts. Nevertheless, with the increase of global
modernity during the last decade, the breakdown of most of the communist
states and the spread of the neo-liberal credo, the notion of competition
began to be discussed again in our field. The discussion has tackled the
issue whether the economic ideology brought about by global modernity
would have an impact on countries socially and culturally very different
from the western core countries. As there seems to be no real alternative
to the western economic competition ideal, economists and sociologists
have asked whether the notion of competition could be integrated into
the social, cultural and economic systems of Asia, Latin America and Africa.
The answer has largely depended on the social structure of societies in
different world regions. It seems now obvious that some cultures are better
positioned to become active participants in the global modernity than
others. Perhaps, such positioning would be better conceptualised by the
notion of cultural life-worlds than mere socio-economic and political
constellations. If so, then a reflection on the cultural construction
of social life-worlds in global modernity seems to be a precondition for
the analysis of discourses on economic globalisation in non-European civilizations.
Global players exert pressures for adaptation and efficiency on local
and regional cultures. The world market defined by competitive capitalism,
the importance of private propriety and the virtue of individualism have
become the dominant world system, introduced by colonial and postcolonial
processes in non-western societies during the last centuries and in more
recent years. Civilisations have become defined by their adaptability
to global economic processes. The culture as a place for capital investment
and capital use has become the criterion of selection. According to global
players, a competition on social systems, which permit the highest profits,
has become established around cultural values. Societies which are capable
to learn receive higher scores than societies, which resist to changes
required by the capitalist logic. This approach, which intends to reunite
economic interests, cultural preferences and political institutions in
one logical system permits to analyse why some societies are more able
to confront world market conditions than others. Within this theoretical
framework, we look for empirical case studies of different civilizations
or cultures describing situations of intertwining of local life-worlds
and global economic modernity. Papers may also address elites' tendencies
to change or to avoid changes of local social institutions in order to
render them more acceptable to global modernity. If you wish to present
a paper in this session you should send an abstract of no more than 200
words in rich text format (rtf) to ulrike.schuerkens@caramail.com.
'Health inequalities persist in all societies;
they are reproduced in each new generation, even in advanced welfare states,
in spite of improved health, falling mortality and modern medicine. Which
social and biological mechanisms contribute to the social structuring
of health? Cross-disciplinary and sociological approaches are explored.
If you wish to present a paper in the session "Inequalities in Health",
send an abstract of no more than one page to Denny Vågerö:
denny.vagero@chess.su.se.
'If you wish to present a paper in this session
"Knowledge Politics", send an abstract of no more than one page
to Nico Stehr: nico.stehr@t-online.de
and Reiner Grundmann: r.grundmann@aston.ac.uk.
'Developing countries have come under considerable pressure in recent
years to liberalise their economies through what is commonly referred
to as Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAP's). The inspiration for these
policies emanates largely from neo-liberalism that guides economic and
social policies in many countries today. Countries that have taken measures
to implement SAP's have seen many significant changes in their economies.
Many local industries, in particular those owned and managed by the state
have been either privatised or closed down. They have been replaced by
more labour intensive, export oriented light industries like readymade
garments. Agricultural production has either stagnated or declined in
the face of competition from cheaper imports, making the countries increasingly
dependent on food imports. Private investment in services such as health
and education coupled with little improvement in publicly provided services
have led to a wide gap between the private and public sectors in terms
of access and quality of service, forcing more and more people to rely
on private providers. Steadily declining value of local currencies has
devalued local wages, forcing more and more people to migrate to other
countries, creating a labour shortage in traditional sectors like agriculture
and rural industries, making such activities unattractive to youth. Declining
or stagnant real incomes of a majority of locally employed people at a
time of increasing cost of living have led to widespread poverty, while
those who are dependent on overseas incomes or lucrative private sector
employment have been able to adopt modern western consumption patterns.
Private cars imported by the latter have taken up much of the road space
in urban areas, making public transport inefficient and unprofitable,
not only making life more difficult for low income groups but also increasing
the dependence on imported oil. Increasing casualization of employment
and the continuing reliance of a large mass of younger workers on overseas
contract employment pose a real threat to long term social security of
workers, particularly when they reach the age of retirement. Yet the continually
worsening balance of payment situation compels the state to encourage
labour migration. What is outlined above may be applicable to different
developing countries to varying degrees. In other words, developing countries
vary in terms of the nature and extent of the impact of economic liberalisation.
Nevertheless, the main question is whether this situation endangers social
and political stability in the developing world? If we go by crime statistics,
indicators of social and personal disorganization and political trends,
we have to answer the question in the affirmative. If this is so, is there
a way out of the present situation? If so, what is it? The organizer of
the session invites paper, proposals that deal with the issues in terms
of both empirical evidence and conceptual analysis. If you wish to present
a paper in this session "Neo-liberalism, social Injustice and Growing
Socio-political instability", send an abstract of no more than one
page to Siri Hettige: sthetti@webmail.cmb.ac.lk.
'Professional philosophers who wish to present
a paper in the session "Philosophical Ideas in Sociology" may
submit their papers to Rhonda Hadassah Kotzin: kotzin@msu.edu,
and social scientists may submit their papers to Hans Zetterberg: hlzetterberg@chello.se.
'Western societies are now increasingly "orientalising",
while those of the Near, or Far, East are adopting certain characteristics
of the Western pattern. The contribution of the religious aspect is certainly
not foreign to this change. A simple description of current changes does
not, however, seem adequate for a reasonable, scientific understanding
of current trends. A profounder, but also future-oriented, knowledge is
needed, in such a way as to forecast possible developments. The compiling
of overall statistics concerning the size of the different groups, movements
and institutions itself involves immense problems, both as regards the
interconnected diffusion of the various confessions and because of their
countless internal subdivision. However the novelty lies in growing territorial
and social mobility, linked both to phenomena of migration and to socio-political
changes. This gives rise to a considerable, unparalleled mixture of faiths
and religious practices, where previously one observed the almost exclusive
dominance of a single church or affiliation. If you wish to present a
paper in the session "Religions Without Frontiers", send an
abstract of no more than one page to Roberto Cipriani: rciprian@uniroma3.it.
'If you wish to present a paper in this session
"Rural Development and Change in the Globalising World", send
an abstract of no more than one page to Ugrasen Pandey: us_pandey123@yahoo.com.
'If you wish to present a paper in this session
"Shifting Boundaries of Knowledge: Creating Spaces for Social Science,
Law and Humanities in South Africa", send an abstract of no more
than one page to Tessa Marcus: tessa@nrf.ac.za.
'What is the social basis of lifestyle and cultural
consumption in contemporary societies? Is there a homology between class
and culture as suggested by Bourdieu? Or has such homology been eroded
by the process of postmodern individualisation? Are we witnessing the
emergence of a group of cultural omnivores in modern societies? If you
wish to present a paper in the session "Social Class, Social Status
and Lifestyle", send an abstract of no more than one page to Tak
Wing Chan: tw.chan@sociology.oxford.ac.uk.
'A basic sociological premise is that individual
action must be understood as a part of its social context. The idea that
social interaction and interpersonal influence play a crucial role in
explaining social problems is also firmly anchored in existing research.
There is a growing body of research analyzing the importance of the socio-economic
composition of neighborhoods, schools, and work places for various behavioral
outcomes, such as educational attainments, labor market outcomes, crime,
et cetera. Researchers interested in the area of contextual effects are
invited to send an abstract of no more than one page to Ryszard Szulkin:
ryszard.szulkin@sociology.su.se.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session "Social
Network Analysis", send an abstract of no more than one page to Christofer
Edling: christofer.edling@sociology.su.se.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session
"Sociology, Ecology and Economy of Sustainable Development",
send an abstract of no more than one page to Ernie R. Gonzales: E.R.Gonzales@lse.ac.uk.
'The family is a resource for the integration
of immigrant groups and a source of cultural continuity, while being a
site for tension both between the generations and between men and women.
The proposed session focuses on the ways in which generational relationships
(between parents and children) and gender relationships (between spouses
or between partners) shape changes and continuities among immigrant groups.
A particular focus of the session will be on studying family processes
comparatively, using various methodologies, including demographic, qualitative,
and survey strategies. If you wish to present a paper in this session
"Studying Immigrant Families: Intergenerational and Gender Dimensions",
send an abstract of no more than one page to Eva Bernhardt: eva.bernhardt@sociology.su.se.
'How can we understand the relationship between new
political economies of scapes, flows, mobilities and "Empire";
emerging industries such as biotechnology, information technology, industrial
ecology and environmental change? How are accelerated capital accumulation,
policy developments, technological and social change affecting the contemporary
"production of nature", ecological modernising projects, the
development of hybrid forms and the spaces and places of diverse ecologies?
How can we generate more productive engagements between political economy,
political ecology, "new ecology" and STS to understand emerging
"hybrid natures", "social natures" and "technonatures"?
If you wish to present a paper in the session "Technonatures III,
Session I : Technonatural Political Economies and Political Ecologies",
send an abstract of no more than one page to Damian White: whitedf@jmu.edu.
'How are modern bodies, subjectivities and cultures
being constituted, produced and transformed in technonatural times? To
what extent and in what ways are bodies taking on hybrid and cyborg forms?
Are such developments generating new subjectivities and/or opening up
new possibilities for colonization, patenting, surveillance and commodification?
Are the relationship between humans and other species or humans and other
machines becoming less clear? How are perceptions, experiences and cultures
of "nature" being altered in media saturated societieties? Is
the search for hybridity a empirical endeavor? An ethically inflected
political strategy? An aesthetic obsession? In this session, we would
like to hear from colleagues interested in mapping and debating the transformations
of bodies, subjectivities and cultures occuring in technonatural worlds.
If you wish to present a paper in the session "Technonatures III,
Session II: Technonatural Bodies, Subjectivites and Cultures", send
an abstract of no more than one page to Fletcher Linder: lindergf@jmu.edu
or Chris Wilbert: c.wilbert@apu.ac.uk.
'How are urban worlds being affected by rapid environmental
and technological change? How are diverse urban natures, spaces and places
being transformed to meet the challenge/rhetoric(?) of "sustainability"
Do projects espousing "sustainable urbanism", green architecture,
"cyborgs urbanism" and green cities provide the basis for alternative
urban "productions of nature"? Can approacpproaches to the city
which view the urban through discourses of networks, flows, scapes and
mobilities generate more productive understandings of environmental displacement
and environmental (in)justice? Alternatively, could cities and "the
urban" offer "spaces of hope" for alternative technonatunatural
worlds?
If you wish to present a paper in the session "Technonatures III,
Session III: Technonatural Urban Worlds / Sustainable Urban Futures?",
send an abstract of no more than one page to Damian White: whitedf@jmu.edu
or Chris Wilbert: c.wilbert@apu.ac.uk.
'How is socio-technological change affecting environmental
social movements, their political cultures, ethical commitments and discursive
strategies? To what extent do digital media, industrial ecology and other
diverse information/green technologies open up possibilities for new forms
of social movement mobilisation? To what extent does the rise of "technonatural
times" indicatedicate that many forms of environmentalism are presently
in deep intellectual/political crisis? To what extent can literatures
on the "production of nature", "social nature", cosmopolitics,
viridian ecology, trans/posthumanism, activist technology and the open
source movement open up/reframe environmental ethics and politics?
If you wish to present a paper in the session "Technonatures III:
, Sesssion IV: Environmental Politics in Technonatural Times: Exhaustion
or Renewal?", send an abstract of no more than one page to Damian
White: whitedf@jmu.edu or Chris Wilbert:
c.wilbert@apu.ac.uk.
'Since the sociology of human rights is in its
infancy, the chair of the session would be happy to consider any proposals
that could plausibly be so classified, regardless of whether they are
historically, theoretically, empirically, or methodologically oriented.
If you wish to present a paper in the session "Towards a Sociology
of Human Rights", send an abstract of no more than one page to Anthony
Woodiwiss: a.woodiwiss@city.ac.uk.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session "Transformation
And Convergence: Armed Forces And Society In The New Security Environment",
send an abstract of no more than one page to Leena Parmar: leenaind@datainfosys.net.
'Papers could cover a range of topics, from society-wide
psychological impact to the problems of post-war reconstruction, related
to the ways in which war (or armed conflict more generally) affects society.
Papers could be oriented around large scale empirical analyses of the
impact of war on socio-economic development to more qualitative examinations
of the impact of war on affected peoples. If you wish to present a paper
in this session "War's Impact on Society", send an abstract
of no more than one page to Steve Carlton-Ford: steve.carlton-ford@uc.edu.
'We typically study welfare by focusing on the
activities performed by institutions that are "obviously" relevant
(e.g. unemployment benefits, child benefits). We thus use the contingencies
of existing practices to define or circumscribe a concept. What happens
to our ideas, then, when we consider public subsidies more generally under
the heading of welfare? For example: what are the similarities between
child benefit payments and subsidies (including price supports) for farmers?
What implications might such comparisons have in relation to debates on
workfare, self-sufficiency, need, etc.? If you wish to present a paper
in the session "Welfare, Public Subsidies, and Non-traditional Recipients",
send an abstract of no more than one page to David Bartram: d.bartram@reading.ac.uk.
'Even though visual aspects of society were early
acknowledged by social scientists, especially anthropologists, now that
visual cultures have grown and permeate society, there is a visual turn
in social and cultural analysis. Originating in visual sociology, the
interdisciplinary field of visual studies is rapidly gaining ground. This
session aims to bring together critical papers on visual cultures around
still and moving images in an interconnected world, also in relation to
methods. On one hand much data is collected and analyzed through watching,
observing, on the other we save data by way of visual methods primarily
photography and film that often are used also to illustrate talks and
texts. With the interest in the visual comes an awareness of visual worlds
as units for study, and of alternative ways of seeing. An educated eye
is useful in many modern contexts, not least because of the recent rapid
development of new media and technology. Contributors are also invited
to address issues such as visual arts (paintings, adornment, sculpture,
installations etc) as well as visual expressions from theatre and dance
performances to fashion, design and architecture. If you wish to present
a paper in this session "Visual Culture", send an abstract of
no more than one page to Helena Wulff: helena.wulff@socant.su.se.
'If you wish to present a paper in this session
"The Failure of Romani Studies to Impact on the Social Sciences",
send an abstract of no more than one page to T.A. Acton: T.A.Acton@gre.ac.uk.
'The session will focus on the changing frontier
between religiosity, semi-religiosity and atheism in post-communist states
taking into account age and gender differences. If you wish to present
a paper in the session "The Moving Frontiers Between Religiosity
and Atheism in Post-Communist States: Gender and Age Differences",
send an abstract of no more than one page to Larisa Titarenko: larisa166@mail.ru.
'Papers on any aspect of post-communist/post-soviet
societies would be welcome, theoretical as well as empirical. If you wish
to present a paper in the session "The Sociology of Post Communist
Societies", send an abstract of no more than one page to Pamela Abbott:
p.abbott@gcal.ac.uk.
'We welcome theoretical, empirical, and experimental
papers that focus on the evolution of social phenomena and social behavior.
In particular, we seek theoretical papers utilizing game-theory or computer
simulations and empirical studies and experimental approaches studying
social evolution. If you wish to present a paper in the session "Evolutionary
Sociology", send an abstract of no more than one page to Charlotta
Stern: lotta.stern@sofi.su.se
and Christofer Edling: christofer.edling@sociology.su.se.
'The aim of the session "Integrating Quantitative
and Qualitative Research Methods in Sociology: Problems and Pitfalls"
is to consider issues in the integration of different research methods
within a single study, and the extent to which the use of different research
methods can strengthen an approach to sociological research. There is
a strong tendency for studies to rely upon a single method. What is gained
by adopting a multi-method approach? What is involved in such designs?
What does triangulation amount to? How are the training requirements of
multi-method studies met? The session is intended to illuminate the grey
area between different methodological approaches. Is integration possible,
and if so how? Those wishing to submit a paper should send their proposal
to: Martin Bulmer, Dept of Sociology, University of Surrey, Guildford
GU2 7XH, UK. E-mail: m.bulmer@soc.surrey.ac.uk.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session "Women
in Grass Root Governance in South Asian countries", send an abstract
of no more than one page to G. Satyanarayana: gattusatyanarayana@yahoo.co.in.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session "Voluntary
Effort in Weaker Community Development", send an abstract of no more
than one page to G. Satyanarayana: gattusatyanarayana@yahoo.co.in.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session
"Collective Memory and Commemoration", send an abstract of no
more than one page to Vered Vinitzky-Seroussi: msvini@mscc.huji.ac.il.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session
"Quality of Social Capital, Governance and Inclusion in a Global
World", send an abstract of no more than one page to George Tsobanoglou:
g.tsobanoglou@soc.aegean.gr.
'The purpose of this session is to examine the
consequences of the multiple modernities approach, which postulates a
diversity of models of modernity, for institutionalist theory, a corollary
of which is the expectation of institutional convergence among societies.
Both theoretical and empirical contributions are welcome. If you wish
to present a paper in the session "Institutionalism and Multiple
Modernities", send an abstract of no more than one page to Carlos
H. Waisman: cwaisman@ucsd.edu.
'"Public intellectuals" is a vague notion, but in this session
focus will be on sociologists who have become public intellectuals, e
g the Myrdals (Gunnar Myrdal was a public intellectual on three continents).
"Sociologist" is to be understood in a broader sense. Max Weber
and Gunnar Myrdal both qualify, despite having academic chairs in economics.
Alva Myrdal had no academic position at all, yet played an important role
in a formative phase of early academic sociology in Sweden.
Ever since Machiavelli public intellectuals have had various relationships
with the political powers (decision makers, popular mass movements) in
society and their role in the public sphere has varied with context. Some
have pursued double careers, such as Gunnar Myrdal and Thomas Masaryk.
It appears as increasingly relevant to problematize the concept of public
intellectuals and to diversify their function in policy formation. East
of the Elbe we find a "Stunde Null"-situation with an open future,
in which sociology appears as less prophylactic and therapeutic and more
policy oriented, like in Sweden half a century ago.
"Rationalizing intellectuals" during the days of social engineering/piecemeal
reform (in Sweden 1932-1974) had a tight relationship to political actors.
Today's public intellectuals, only to mention Giddens, Bourdieu, Dahrendorf,
Beck, Habermas; display a diversified pattern in the public sphere. If
they have political influence their function might appear as ideological
and their position arguably as schizophrenic (role conflict).
West of the Elbe public intellectuals tend to provide "interpretive
schemes", to relieve the pain and frustration of post-Modern disorientation;
East of the Elbe basic social engineering still has a market, in classical
fields of social reform, such as health care, nutrition, education, employment
policy, housing, etc.
If you wish to present a paper in the session "The Types and Roes
of Public Intellectuals" send an abstract of no more than one page
to Sven Eliaeson: seliaes@ceu.edu.pl.
'This session, to be led by Dr. Barney Glaser,
Ph.D., Hon. Ph.D., will feature papers on grounded theory methodology,
its roots in sociology and its application to traditional sociological
research as well as to fields as diverse as management, marketing, technology,
education, journalism and health sociology. We invite experienced grounded
theorists to submit papers on their own research and various perspectives
regarding the methodology.
In addition, we invite novice grounded theorists (especially Ph.D. students)
wishing to use the methodology to submit brief papers regarding their
research including questions and issues that they wish to offer for "troubleshooting"
by a panel of experienced grounded theorists, led by Dr. Glaser.
If you wish to present a paper in the "Grounded Theory Methodology"
session or if you wish to participate in the troubleshooting session with
experienced grounded theorists, send an abstract of no more than one page
to Judith Holton: judith@islandtelecom.com.
'Today, in the age of globalization, it is important
and urgent issue to explore and examine common ethics or values with real
universality, which may regulate and rule human conduct in these emergent
global spheres. Various global standards of contemporary societies originated
mostly in Western societies, because the main factors of globalization
have closely connected with modern capitalistic economy system and scientific
technology of Western origin.
The purpose of this session is to explore and investigate the possibility
of other alternative values with more promising universality which are
based on non-Western societies. For this purpose, in this session, I'd
like to consider the common elements of cultural traditions of East Asian
societies. If you wish to present a paper in the session "Common
Values and Global Culture in East Asian Societies", send an abstract
of no more than one page to Tetsuo Maruyama: maruyama@bukkyo-u.ac.jp.
''Path Dependency' is a catchword that nowadays
seems to pop up in all social scientific discussions about social transformations
and institutional change. Not long ago some historical sociologists claimed
that what makes sociology historical is apprehension of path dependent
nature of social processes. In recent times there have been both attempts
to systematize the ideas behind the notion of path dependency and also
critiques of them. The concept of path dependency is in many ways in the
frontier of sociology. After all, it was first used by economists, found
then its way to historical institutionalism in political science, was
adopted in a somewhat watered-down form by historical sociologists. Potentially
it, or rather the ideas that connect with it, may contain seeds of a historical
social science that transcends disciplinary boundaries. Whether this is
the case would be the topic of the proposed workshop. If you wish to present
a paper in the session "Path Dependency and Sociological Analysis",
send an abstract of no more than one page to Hannu Ruonavaara: hanruona@utu.fi.
'Social movements engaged in solidarity activities
directed to distant others display a distinct rationality. They are moral
actors whose participants do not stand to benefit directly from goal accomplishment.
The session will discuss a variety of issues springing from this argument,
for example: Why do people engage in solidarity work? What is the relationship
between globalization and solidarity? When do solidarity movements succeed
in attracting attention and sympathy from the public? What are the media
and framing strategies of solidarity movements? What is the relationship
between solidarity and modernity? Papers may include a number of different
sociological perspectives, for example social-psychology, historical sociology,
globalization sociology, media and communication sociology and, of course,
social movement theory. If you wish to present a paper in the session
"Social Movements, Globalization and Solidarity", send an abstract
of no more than one page to Thomas Olesen: tho@ps.au.dk.
'Two sets of very important changes are underway
in most countries of the developed world: major shifts in gender relations
(including an increase in women's employment, increased male unemployment,
rise of dual-earning families, challenges to patriarchal authority forms,
changes in parenting practices etc) and the evolution of what is often
called the 'new economy' (dominance of service sector, centrality of ICT,
growth in financial and culture industries, new occupational structure,
new forms of employment contract, further globalisation of the division
of labour). We invite papers that explore the linkages between these two
sets of processes. Topics might include: gendering and regendering of
the occupational structure; gender, ICT and jobs; renegotiating household
work; the 'work-life balance'; household strategies and the new economy;
the impact on parenting and childcare; new family forms. If you wish to
present a paper in the session "Changing Gender Relations and the
'New Economy'", send an abstract of no more than one page to Harriet
Bradley: Harriet.Bradley@bris.ac.uk
and Esther Dermott: Esther.Dermott@bris.ac.uk.
'This session provides an opportunity to discuss
the theoretical problems of modern sociological systems theory as well
as its usefulness as a framework for the empirical analysis and explanation
of complex social phenomena. Papers that focus on theoretical and empirical
issues concerning particular social systems, such as politics, the economy,
science, education, the mass media, art, etc., are also welcome. If you
wish to present a paper in the session "Sociological Systems Theory:
Limits and Possibilities", send an abstract of no more than one page
to Vessela Misheva: Vessela.Misheva@soc.uu.se.
'If you wish to present a paper in this session
"Islam and the West: Boundaries and crossroads", send an abstract
of no more than one page to Hossein Godazgar: hg11@york.ac.uk.
'In the last decade mental illness has been seen
as a result of a biological disposition combined with psychological and
sociological factors. Furthermore, we have experienced a growing emphasis
on the process of "recovery" understood as a process in which
social support can contribute to the profound rehabilitation of even severe
forms of mental illness such as schizophrenia. In the same period we have
seen a growing optimism linked to rehabilitation programmes for people
with severe brain injuries. In both instances recent research in the field
has focused on the combined process of transforming identities, coping
strategies and the social context.
This is where sociology must come in. We can label the process "recovery",
"rehabilitation" or just "habilitation", but whatever
we call it, we have to underscore that personal development never turns
back and reassumes its own tracks. The process always includes a complex
construction of identities, coping strategies and the transformation of
symbolic interaction with consanguineous, social network, peer groups,
professionals and institutional settings. It is time for sociology to
contribute to the theoretical understanding of the elements of this process.
We ask for contributions which address this theoretical challenge from
different points of view. The approaches might be cognitive, communicative
and systemic or derived from symbolic interaction theory. The empirical
field might be people with severe mental illness, severe drug addiction,
or severe traumatic brain injuries. All contributions sent as abstracts
or drafts will be judged by their ability to explain different aspects
of the process and thereby contribute to a general sociological theory
of rehabilitation.
If you wish to present a paper in the session "Towards a Sociology
of Rehabilitation", send an abstract of no more than one page to
Kjeld Hogsbro: KEH@akf.dk or AKF, Institute
of Local Government Studies, Nyropsgade 37, DK-1602 Copenhagen V.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session "Environment
and Society", send an abstract of no more than one page to Mona Mårtensson:
mona.martensson@sociology.su.se.
'This session continues and contributes to
the interest, awaken in the frame of the Beijing IIS Congress, for questions
relating to the study of language in social and cultural contexts. It
intends to bring together theoretical contributions to the study of language
in society and empirical investigations of specific cases and aspects
of language uses. Relevant to this session are presentations that focus,
at the theoretical level, on questions like language and identity, immigration,
nationalism, globalization or postmodernity. Aspects to be presented by
the means of empirical studies may be the creation, retention and attrition
of community codes, language contacts and the dynamics of society and
culture, the spread of languages of worldwide communication and its impacts
on cultural uniformity and social differentiation, bilingualism and stratification.
In the frame of the general theme of this Congress, it is the intention
of the organizers to leave time for in-depth discussions of the convergences
of sociology and sociolinguistics.
If you wish to present a paper in the session "Language in Society",
send an abstract of no more than one page to Roland Terborg: rterborg@servidor.unam.mx
or Eliezer Ben-Rafael: saba@post.tau.ac.il.
'If you wish to present a paper in this session "The
Future of the Labour Movement", send an abstract of no more than
one page to Gregg Olsen: olsen@cc.umanitoba.ca.
'If you wish to present a paper in this session "Power,
Social Inequality and Poverty in the 21st Century", send an abstract
of no more than one page to Gregg Olsen: olsen@cc.umanitoba.ca.
'It's common to classify rich countries into
two or more groupings (e.g. Hall and Soskice's Varieties of Capitalism).
One of those groupings is always comprised of the Anglo-American countries.
However, there is considerable variation in labour market and social policy
within that group. The purpose of this session is to explore that variation
and its importance for testing some of the larger claims of contemporary
political economy. If you wish to present a paper in this session "The
Anglo-American Model of Labour Market and Social Policy", send an
abstract of no more than one page to Michael R. Smith: michael.smith@mcgill.ca.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session "Mortality:
Sociological Approaches", send an abstract of no more than one page
to Jon Anson: anson@bgumail.bgu.ac.il.
'The session "Media and Representation"
aims at discussing the role of the media in defining social representations
in contemporary societies. If you wish to present a paper in the session,
send an abstract of no more than one page to Antonio V. Menendez-Alarcon:
amenende@butler.edu.
'If you wish to present a paper in this session "Social
Change & Organisational Democracy", send an abstract of no more than
one page to György Széll: gszell@uni-osnabrueck.de.
'If you wish to present a paper in this session "Social
Change & Participation", send an abstract of no more than one page
to György Széll: gszell@uni-osnabrueck.de.
'If you wish to present a paper in this session "Global
Democratization", send an abstract of no more than one page to Azril
Bacal: Azril.Bacal@soc.uu.se.
'If you wish to present a paper in this session "Changing
Paradigms in the Sociology of Sport", send an abstract of no more
than one page to Kevin Young: kyoung@ucalgary.ca.
'If you wish to present a paper in this session "Sociolgy,
Methodology and Health: Challenges of Disciplinarity, Interdisciplinarity,
Multidisciplinarity and Transdisciplinarity", send an abstract of
no more than one page to Sandra Kirby: kirby@uwinnipeg.ca.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session
"Racism and Xenophobia: A European Dilemma", send an abstract
of no more than one page to Gerard Delanty: delanty@liv.ac.uk
or Masoud Kamali: masoud.kamali@multietn.uu.se.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session "For
a sociology without frontiers", send an abstract of no more than
one page to Barry Smart: barry.smart@port.ac.uk.
'Abstracts welcome from scholars pursuing analysis
of social practices, processes and institutions which interpret and govern
sexual relations, identities and health in Third World/developing countries,
particularly those engaged in critical analysis of 'race'-racism. If you
wish to present a paper in the session "Sexual Dissidence in the
'Developing' World: Configurations of 'Race', Gender and Desire",
send an abstract of no more than one page to Andil Gosine: andil.gosine@gmail.com.
'European unification on the institutional level
is progressing fast. An important question in the present frame is, how
far the developments on the macro-political level correspond to parallel
developments on the level of citizens' attitudes and sentiments. Are we
moving to a surpanational political system comparable, to some extent,
to the historical multi-ethnic empires? Or is stable European integration
presupposing the creation of a 'European nation'? What inferences can
be drawn from comparable historical cases of state and nation building?
In particular, the questions to be explored in this session are firstly,
whether the stability imperatives of the European macro-political system
do in fact require in the long run the creation of a common sitixens'
identiy or whether a moderate level of acceptance on the part of the citizens
could be sufficient. Secondly, the competing forces will be explored which
work, on one side, in a pro-European direction and, on the other side,
towards the conservation of the existing nationaal identities. Thirdly,
and closely related to the previous issue, is the multi-facetted problem
of the competition between the national elites in the member states and
the supra-national elites in the European center. Fourthly, the crucial
role of the education systmes in this process deserves a cleser look.
And fifthly, the question shall be addressed, will the equalizarion of
social opportunity, as a main factor producing pro-European sentiments,
be reached in the emerging European society? If you wish to present a
paper in this session "A New 'European Identity'? Anchoring European
Unification in Citizens' Attitudes", send an abstract of no more
than one page to Michael Kelpanides: kelpanid@edlit.auth.gr.
'Sociology's object of study is 'society', that
of demography is 'population'. Both disciplines face difficulty in moving
from the general to specific 'societies' or 'populations' and frequently
simply take the frontiers of actually existing states as the basis of
their empirical study and theoretical reflection.
Since the 'baby boom', sociology has virtually ignored the subject of
fertility in affluent societies, paying more attention to the reproduction
of social structures than the individuals who are to fill them. This is
now changing with the arrival of the 'baby bust' in Europe. What can sociology
learn from demography, and from earlier explorations of sociology into
this field?
Demographic study, insofar as it centres on the construction of various
forms of life table, frequently takes a longitudinal rather then transversal
perspective in its analyses. Methodological and survey research technology
innovation have facilitated the development of longitudinal studies and
repeated cross sectional studies. What theoretical and analytical innovations
and improvements can be gleaned from such a perspective?
Many sociological topics have a considerable demographic component (e.g.
population ageing, sociology of the family, migration etc). How close
are the analyses of sociology and demography, or do these two disciplines
still tend to base themselves on mutually exclusive simplifying assumptions?
Is the current disciplinery division of labour a fruitful one, or can
each discipline learn from the other?
If you wish to present a paper in the session "Sociology and Demography",
send an abstract of no more than one page to John MacInnes: john.macinnes@ed.ac.uk.
'Increasing global mobilities of people - whether
migrant workers, tourists, refugees, undocumented, or business travelers
- do not necessarily imply that territorial boundaries have been weakened.
For some types of mobilities, boundaries have been made invisible and
their movements easy. For other mobilities, boundaries are reinforced
and recreated. Out of this movement across territories and institutions
that endeavor to regulate it arise simultaneously practices of differential
control and ever new strategies to confront, negotiate, or avoid this
control. Theoretical and empirical papers from any perspective are welcome.
If you wish to present a paper in the session "Territorial Mobilities:
Control, Order, Counterstrategies", send an abstract of no more than
one page to John Torpey: torpey@interchange.ubc.ca.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session "Whistleblowing:
Theoretical Issues and Practical Implications", send an abstract
of no more than one page to Tina Uys: jmu@rau.ac.za.
'If you wish to present a paper in this session
"Power, Conflict, Negotiations: Individual Strategies in Negotiated
Exchange Networks", send an abstract of no more than one page to
Kinga Wysienska: uswysien@cyf-kr.edu.pl.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session
"Social Psychology and Cultural Attitudes in Post-colonial Societies",
send an abstract of no more than one page to Mahmoud Dhaouadi: mthawad@yahoo.ca.
'If you wish to present a paper in this session
"Shifting Urban Identities in a Globalising World", send an
abstract of no more than one page to Simon Bekker: sb3@sun.ac.za.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session "Social
Psychology and Emotions", send an abstract of no more than one page
to Robert Shelly: shelly@ohiou.edu.
'In an era marked by accelerating environmental
change and deepening battles over eco-technological and biotechnological
transformations, the nature of "Nature" and the politics of
n/Nature are increasingly up for grabs. Technonatures is an onrunning
series of conferences and symposia concerned with investigating the "power
geometries" of emerging hybrid worlds and discussing future trajectories
and possibilites.
Technonatures is organised as an interim conference at the World Congress
of Sociology in association with Research Committee 24 (Environment and
Society) of the International Sociological Association. In this meeting,
we would like to draw environmental sociology, into conversation with
urban political ecology, STS, environmental geography/anthropology, advocates
of cyborg studies/ANT and the new political economy of networks, flows
and mobilites. The aim will be to grapple with the dilemmas posed by "technonatural
times" and to reflect on the possibilites that exist for supporting
socially andenvironmentally just futures. We are interested in hearing
from colleagues who could present papers in the sessions: Technonature
III, Sessions I-IV.
'We are living through a period of economic dislocation
and re-structuring, but one whose profound impact on social identities
and work cultures has yet to be fully understood in detail and depth.
In recent history the connections between education and work have become
fractured and confused. The transition from the old economy of industry
and manual labour to the new, where service and high-technology employment
has assumed greater importance, has posed challenges that policy-makers
and educators have as yet failed to meet. Official discourse holds that
urban education and training must equip both the young and the older worker
with the dispositions of flexibility, self-invention and life long learning.
Workers frequently hear that they will need these qualities to make successful
transitions to the new identity and work practices associated with the
post-Fordist economy. In the past much vocational training was on-the-job,
but in recent times the state has assumed a greater responsibility in
preparing workers to participate in the "Knowledge Economy".
The organisers of this session invite those conducting relevant research
around work, education and economic restructuring to submit abstracts.
We are particularly interested in papers drawing on ethnographic/life
history research.
If you wish to present a paper in the session "Work, Education and
Narratives of Aspiration in the 'Knowledge Economy'", send an abstract
of no more than one page to George Morgan: george.morgan@uws.edu.au.
'Articles are welcome on a range of topics related
to transitions to parenthood, including but not limited to decision-making
about childbearing, pronatalism, infertility, medical and other encounters
before, during and after pregnancy, pregnancy taboos, the assuming of
new identities, parental leave, new parents' experiences at work, and
respective parental involvement with newborns.
If you wish to present a paper in the session "Transitions to Parenthood",
send an abstract of no more than one page to Jacqueline Adams: adams@hkbu.edu.hk
or Dr. Jacqueline Adams, Department of Sociology, Hong Kong Baptist University,
Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong.
'The Chinese North American academic Yi-Fu Tuan
called attention to the importance of place, understood as acquainted
space, as an essential notion for social sciences but it is a call that
met a limited response of sociologists, who have rather referred to the
traditional notion of homeland. The purpose of this session is to develop
the idea of place by research being in progress now. Papers are looked
for that will open up the relationship between homeliness and alienation
of space, the mechanisms for the acquaintance of space, spatial indifference,
perceptual chaos, territorial indoctrination, as well as symbolic profanation,
violence and conquest. Also those which develop the symbolic conquest
in relation to the process of spatial and social colonisation, colonial
mentality, social and mental decolonisation vis-à-vis the development
of territorial identity and the autochthonisation of the pioneers would
be welcome.
If you wish to present a paper in the session "Place, Homeland and
Colonisation", send an abstract of no more than one page to Zbigniew
Rykiel: gniew@list.pl or post: Al.
Solidarnoœci 49/19, 03-402 Warsaw, Poland.
'The field of higher education is rapidly
expanding to become not only a place for the cultivation of humanity but
also for the promotion of national and transnational technology development
and business ventures. The function of ‘higher learning’ as an important
momentum of development and as a response to a changing climate for knowledge
‘production’ is emphasized with the advent of the so called ‘knowledge
society’ where we see ‘knowledge’ in the role of being commoditized and
as a tool for conquest, of countries, knowledge areas and people’s life
span, pretty much like its role in earlier phases of European colonization
and the liberalization of markets.
There are plenty opportunities for a renewed interest in higher education
from the sociology of education and cultural sociology to analyze the
changing agendas, functions and roles of higher education in a globalizing
world. One of the major characteristics of contemporary higher education
is the embracement of conquest and the crossing of frontiers or boundaries
associated with ‘rigid’ and ‘backward’ scientific disciplines. Curricular
reform, in undergraduate education as well as in graduate schools, is
becoming consolidated as a perpetual tool for quality assessment and market
adjustment. The breaking of old rules and borders seems to be a strong
current trend in the advancement of interdisciplinarity and the crossing
of boundaries. Interdisciplinarity is quite well studied within research
but very little within higher education. The emergence of the fields of
‘environmental studies’ or ‘cultural studies’ as a panacea for the assumed
‘rigidity’ of disciplines are well known cases in point. But there are
several other examples of new attempts at setting alternative visions
within the humanities, the social sciences and the natural sciences.
In this session we invite empirical and theoretical analyses of higher
education with a particular interest in the critical understanding of,
for instance, the logics of ‘curricular logistics’, the imperative of
interdisciplinary mobility and the gist of excavation, prospecting and
adventure in the contemporary cultures of ‘higher learning’.
If you wish to present a paper in the session "Crossing Frontiers
in Higher Education", send an abstract of no more than one page to
Per-Anders Forstorp: forstorp@kth.se
or Jörgen Nissen: jorgen.nissen@ituf.liu.se.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session "Women
of Peace", send an abstract of no more than one page to Tova Benski:
tbenski@colman.ac.il.
'Abstracts are solicited from theorists and research
analysts working on all aspects of the problematic of terrorism, including
the political of discourse of 'terrrorism' and its functioning in a variety
of social contexts and antagonisms; power relations and assymetry in the
practice of warfare; the U.S. War on Terrorism; the ethics and legal aspects
of political violence etc.
If you wish to present a paper in the session "Terrorism", send
an abstract of no more than one page to Michael Blain: mblain@boisestate.edu.
'If you wish to present a paper in this session "Global
Governance, Multiple Modernities and Local Politics", send an abstract
of no more than one page to Willfried Spohn: willfried.spohn@iue.it.
'The Urban population of developing countries
is predicted to rise from one third in 1990 to over 50% by 2025. In 1950
the world's total urban population was 734 million, of whom 448 million
were living in developed countries and remaining 286 were in developing
region. By 1980, the world's total urban population had increased to 1.8
billion of whom the majority, 958 million were living in developing countries.
The corresponding figures for the year 2000 are expected to be 3.2 billion.
On the basis of these figures and other global trends, it would appear
that Africa and Asia will have the highest share of world's urban growth
in next 25 years, resulting consideration rise of large number of metropolitan
cities. Over the next generation of greatest increase in population, in
production and in poverty will occur in cities causing the social, economic
and environmental problems in these cities. Due to this rapid urbanization
and industrialization, the problems of urban development, which often
includes, management of different urban services, natural resources management
and financial resources mobilization for sustainable urban development
and environmental management will need special attention, therefore it
would be necessary to study the public policy and governance for socio-economic
and environmental management through process of urbanization and its impacts
on the social life and also on the economic development of the region.
The EU has already identified this issue and major programs are implemented
in South Asia along with partnerships in European institutions on this
subject. Asia- urbs and EU-India economic cross cultural programs are
examples of increasing co-operation between south Asia and EU.
The session aims to explore the nature, role and relevance of the urban
development and its impacts both in theory and in practice in south Asia
and in the EU region and to highlight approaches and methods for improving
local environment, having particular regarding to the range of interests
and actors involved and the nature of the socio- economic development
process. The session will examine the current status of urbanization in
developing regions of both, in industrialized region of EU and developing
countries in south Asia with special reference to India and different
actors involved in this process. It also evaluate the changing role of
the government in empowering the private and non governmental institutions,
through public policy and good governance to play more active role in
sustainable socio-economic and environmental development and management.
Challenges for urban environmental management in developing countries
are enormous in terms of both investments requirements and managing capabilities.
The proposed session will focus on institutional efforts for sustaining
socio-economic development process without adverse impacts on environment.
If you wish to present a paper in the session "New Partnership Between
European and Asian Institutes for Socio-Economic-Environmental Development
and Management", send an abstract of no more than one page to Anand
Govind Bhole and Lalit P. Chaudhari: clkp123@yahoo.com.
''Figurational Sociology' is the term that has
come to be applied to the research tradition stemming from the work of
Norbert Elias (1897-1990), especially his concern with civilising and
decivilising processes, state formation, and long-term processes in general.
In recent years, 'new directions' have included the application of figurational
ideas in criminology and the study of violence, to organisations and financial
institutions, and to the broader world order, including the American empire
and the 'war on terror'. But the session organisers will be pleased to
receive proposals on a wide range of other topics.
If you wish to present a paper in the session "New Directions in
Figurational Sociology", send an abstract of no more than one page
to Barbara Evers: figurations@globaldial.com.
'The panel will examine the impact of financialization
on social unequality. Financialization is loosely defined as a socio-economic
process whereby financial relations, instruments and conventions have
acquired a central role in the reproduction of various capitalisms, transformed/impacted
the institutional structure of economies and the intentionalities of significant
social actors (individual and collective). The panel would question how
this process affects the distribution of social power, prestige and income
in different advanced capitalist societies, focusing on the upper levels
of the social stratification systems. Empirical and theoretical papers
would be welcome.
If you wish to present a paper in this session "Rethinking Elites
and Social Class in the Context of Financialization", send an abstract
of no more than one page to Eric Pineault and William Karel: pineault.eric@uqam.ca.
'In the age of globalisation the whole society of
the world wants peace and security. This session will find out the problems
and prosects of the conflict and violence in reference of South Asia and
Southeast Asian society.
If you wish to present a paper in the session "Armed Conflict and
Violence in South Asia and Southeast Asia", send an abstract of no
more than one page to Raj Kishor Singh: dr_rksingh1@rediffmail.com.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session "Methods
of Social Research and Social Politics", send an abstract of no more
than one page to Massimo Ampola: m.ampola@dss.unipi.it.
'Some suggestions for themes for this panel include:
Reshaping the Self in Post-Communist Societies
Theoretical and ethnographic papers are invited that deal with the reconfiguration
of selfhood and identity in any of the post communist countries.
Themes for consideration might include:
A critical appraisal of the relevance of the concept of cultural trauma.
A reassessment of trust and "civilizational incompetence"
Pathologizing post-communist societies
An analysis of aspirations for "normality".
Techniques for the westernization of selves
Contradictions between ideologies of unlimited possibility and social
and economic realities.
The role of the psychopharmacological companies in reshaping the self.
If you wish to present a paper in this session "Reshaping the Self
in Post-Communist Societies", send an abstract of no more than one
page to Vieda Skultans: V.Skultans@bristol.ac.uk
or Department of Sociology, University of Bristol, 12 Woodland Road, Bristol,
BS8 1UQ.
Or by fax: +44 117 954 6609.
Telephone queries: +44 117 9289022.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session
"Nations and Institutions: Reflections on Macro-Level Organizational
Dynamics", send an abstract of no more than one page to Connie L.
McNeely: clm@gmu.edu.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session
"Social Mobilizations, Citizenship and Processes of Globalization",
send an abstract of no more than one page to Benjamín Tejerina: cjptemob@lg.ehu.es.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session "The
Boundaries of Local, National and Global Mobilization: Different Logics,
Identities and Emotions", send an abstract of no more than one page
to Helena Flam: flam@sozio.uni-leipzig.de.
'In this globalized world, theories of modernities
- not modernity - in comparative perspective are needed to close reexamination
from various new theoretical points of view. In this Session, scholars
from all over the world who represent respectively western European, central
European, USA, Japanese and Asian perspectives present their views from
their own background but in a comparative perspective. Varieties of theoretical
view points such as social evolution, Parsonian modernization, notion
of time,history and memory, specialist on comparative civilizations, values
and religions will be talked about in the course of the presentations
and the discussion. In doing so, we can exchange with the audiences the
ideas of comparative perspective on East and West and their different
modernization process. To reorient the discussion course of globalization,
not as westernization but really global globalization, we need to reconsider
differences of original modernization process especially of the East in
comparison with the West. This session is a kind of continued attempt
from that of Beijing Congress.
If you wish to present a paper in the session "Comparative Modernization
Studies in the Globalized World", send an abstract of no more than
one page to Kiyomitsu Yui: yui@lit.kobe-u.ac.jp.
'One of the major ways of segmentation in sociological
thinking has been that of Applied or Pure Theoretical. While this way
of thinking tends to be out of fashion, there still is some need for reconsidering
current subject matters in contemporary applied sociology in relation
to theory formation of sociology.
In this Session under the heading of Sociology of Body and Communication,
we pick up some of the most promising fields of the contemporary applied
sociology, such as sociology of medicine, sociology of emotion, sociology
of disability, sociology of communication, and the sociology of culture.
Giving these presentations we can get the opportunity not only reviewing
what contemporary sociology can do for those current hot social issues
in this world but also renewing the theoretical formation in contemporary
sociology by exchanging the ideas from both of the presenters and participants
in the Session. This session is a kind of countinued attempt from that
of Beijing Congress.
If you wish to present a paper in the session "Contemporary Applied
Sociology: Body and Communication", send an abstract of no more than
one page to Kiyomitsu Yui: yui@lit.kobe-u.ac.jp.
'The purpose of the session is to show the
research done in the field of sociology of language and sociolinguistics
as well as the impact of a globalized world on minority languages.
If you wish to present a paper in the session "Language Minorities
in a Globalized Era", send an abstract of no more than one page to
Virna Velázquez: vvir71@yahoo.com.mx
or Pauline Moore: pm_kc@yahoo.co.uk.
'Sociology as an inquiry into structures and
processes of modern industrial society emerged in the context of modernist
transition in the Euro-American world. This sociology has become globalized
in the last hundred years as part of the 'colonization', 'modernization',
and now 'globalization' of the world. But in order that sociology can
become a truly planetary conversation there is a need to go beyond some
of its originary and foundational Euro-American assumptions and take part
in a festival of presuppositions about self, other, culture and society.
Such a planetary festival of presuppositions is an epochal challenge now
as sociology is going through a foundational crisis in its very secured
home. One example is the fundamental questioning of the very concept of
society: John Urry and Karen Knorr-Catina challenging us to be engaged
with sociology beyond society and "post-social sociality" respectively,
and both Norber Elias and Zygmunt Bauman challenging us to think of "society
of individuals" and "individualized" society, respectively.
Such self-critical moves from Euro-American sociology challenge us to
look at history of sociology in a contingent rather than a teleological
manner, for example looking into the fluid nature of some of the categories
of modernist sociology such as individual, society, pathology etc. They
also challenge us to beyond prevalent dualism, for example between ontology
and epistemology and to appreciate the work of ontological sociality in
our sociological engagement. Our session explores new horizons of sociological
imagination and practice such as ontological sociality and explores the
way sociology can become part of planetary conversations by responding
to the challenge of building a cosmopolitan sociology though much of the
discourse of cosmopolitan sociology is understandably still more Euro-American.
In our session, "Beyond Sociology", we seek to explore the directions
in which sociology might go in the new millennium in forms beyond those
of its originary foundations in Eurocentric and modernist modes of thought.
These might include Asian and African varieties of social thought (contemporary
Confucian and Buddhist ideas for example and ideas emerging from post-colonial
African philosophy), the implications of post-development theory sociology,
the knowledge contributions of the new social movements and voices from
outside of institutionalized sociology in the arts and deep ecology. While
our objective is certainly to question the anthropocentric, dualistic
and Cartesian presuppositions of much conventional sociology, we hope
to move beyond critique to varieties of reconstructive and transformative
engagement and initiate a conversation about the ways in which our discipline
can become a friend in our efforts to respond meaningfully to the challenges
of both the discursive and structural transformations at work in our contemporary
world.
If you wish to present a paper in the session "Beyond Sociology",
send an abstract of no more than one page to Ananta Kumar Giri: aumkrishna@yahoo.com
or John Clammer: orlando@ace.ocn.ne.jp.
'New Orientations for Democracy in Europe (>node<)
is a European Research Programm initiated by the Austrian Federal Ministry
for Education, Science and Culture. The central questions revolve around
the possibilities and options for the realisation of modern democracy
and the potential actors that could organize and support the European
democratic process. Hereby, one research focus of node is the analysis
of the shifts in the European working society and the structural change
of gainful employment. Innovative forms of co-determination and organizational
democracy have to be devised or integrated in the various new types of
work. Several research projects referring to economic and organizational
democracy or referring to threats of industrial relations and of labor
union mobilization will present their results. We invite further related
projects to contribute their findings.
If you wish to present a paper in the session "New Interdisciplinary
Research in Economic and Organizational Democracy", send an abstract
of no more than one page to Wolfgang G. Weber: wolfgang.weber@uibk.ac.at.
'In his praise of the United States, Alexis de Toqueville
writes of the wondrous impact American social equality and institutionalized
liberties such as freedom of the press have on American civil society.
At the same time, he worries that the American tendency towards individualism
will destroy the civic fabric and cast away the positive impact of equality
on everyday lives. This panel invites scholars to consider how these twin
factors of individualism and equality have shaped civil society throughout
times of civil unrest, civic engagement, hightened nationalism, the current
'crisis' of civility in the US, and other significant moments. Also welcome
are papers that draw upon rigorous empirical work on non-Western civil
society and engage in theoretical discussions relevant to the themes of
the panel.
If you wish to present a paper in this session "Civil Society: Past
and Present", send an abstract of no more than one page to Ming-cheng
Miriam Lo: mmlo@ucdavis.edu.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session
"Globalisation and Sport", send an abstract of no more than
one page to Steven J. Jackson: sjackson@pooka.otago.ac.nz.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session
"Sport and Media", send an abstract of no more than one page
to Steven J. Jackson: sjackson@pooka.otago.ac.nz.
'Papers from scholars pursuing research on varying
aspects of the history of sociology and the social sciences are welcome.
If you wish to present a paper in the session "History of Sociology
and the Social Sciences", send an abstract of no more than one page
to Sanja Magdalenic: sanja.magdalenic@sociology.su.se.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session
"Emerging African Cities: Urbanisation, Governance and Development",
send an abstract of no more than one page to Hugo Noble: noblehr@unisa.ac.za.
'Adulthood holds a paradoxical position in sociology
and social theory more generally. A central category in so far as it constitutes
the unarticulated background to investigations of all manner of social
action, adulthood is defined largely by default: as the phase of life
between the much-researched areas of youth/adolescence and old age. At
the same time, adulthood is taken for granted as the point of arrival
of 'youth transitions'. This session is dedicated to the meaning of contemporary
adulthood, that is, its constitution as a social category. The session
is aimed at facilitating the establishment of a long-overdue research
area in sociology as an alternative and compliment to prevalent psychological
perspectives. The session also seeks to foster the international co-operation
of interested researchers.
If you wish to present a paper in the session "Contemporary Adulthood:
Theorizing an Uncontested Category", send an abstract of no more
than one page to Harry Blatterer: h.blatterer@unsw.edu.au.
'We invite papers proposals for essays on the impact
of religion on political campaign mobilization in various democratic systems.
If you wish to present a paper in the session "Religion and Political
Mobilization", send an abstract of no more than one page to Mark
J. Rozell: mrozell@gmu.edu.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session
"Trust and Social Capital", send an abstract of no more than
one page to Masamichi Sasaki: masasaki@soc.hyogo-u.ac.jp.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session
"Longitudinal Study of Japanese Social Values", send an abstract
of no more than one page to Masamichi Sasaki: masasaki@soc.hyogo-u.ac.jp.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session
"Social Values of East Asia", send an abstract of no more than
one page to Masamichi Sasaki: masasaki@soc.hyogo-u.ac.jp.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session "The
Social Consequences of Information Society", send an abstract of
no more than one page to Atsushi Naoi: naoi@hus.osaka-u.ac.jp.
'The session proposes to discuss theoretical problems
dealing with the necessity to maintain the integrity and consolidation
in social science at the contemporary stage of their exponential growth
and compartmental differentiation.
There are several aspects of Differentiation in Contemporary social cognition,
including institutional, national, cultural, disciplinary, and others.
The session intends to draw the attention of scholars to such tasks as:
- exploration of the consensus in social sciences' methodological axiomatics
within different national scientific cultures;
- exposure of their national traditions and humanistic integrity;
- developing the more universal language of common categories properly
applied for the analysis of the globalising world.
Among the Session major themes there would be:
- Dialectics of Values in the Development of Contemporary Social Knowledge.
- Axiomatic Foundations in Methodology of Social Science.
- Self-reflection of Contemporary Social Cognition.
- Complementarily of Economic, Social and Cultural Factors in Social Analysis.
- The Matrix Approach in Social Sciences; and others.
If you wish to present a paper in the session "Methodological Axiomatics
in Social Science: Integrity and Continuity of Social Cognition",
send an abstract of no more than one page to Vladimir P. Kultygin: kultygin@email.ru.
'The interconnections between law and society have
a long and established tradition in sociological theory and research from
Emile Durkheim to Max Weber to such contemporary authors as Niklas Luhmann,
Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu or Jurgen Habermas. Currently, together
with democratization, globalization, and world-wide encounters of cultures
we see that law and the rule of law wake great social hopes. However,
these new hopes in law lead also to disappointments, to critical rethinking
of the actual role of law in the contemporary world.
Hence, constitutionalism, the rule of law, and legality are seen as factors
of democratization, foundations of civil society and human rights protection,
but also, on the contrary, as purely technical or ideological, but nevertheless
powerful means of subordination and even oppression. Thus, the aim of
this session is to debate the current relationships between law and the
late modern society having in mind the best theoretical traditions of
socio-legal studies, and the current hopes in and challenges to legality
and the rule of law, such as corruption or clientism. These issues would
contribute to the enrichment of the theoretical and the more practice-oriented
debates on law as social phenomenon, as an institutionlization of social
experience and wisdom, but also, influenced by powerful interests.
If you wish to present a paper in the session "Law and Society in
the Contemporary World", send an abstract of no more than one page
to Grazyna Skapska: g.skapska@iphils.uj.edu.pl.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session
"Globalization, Union Involvement and Participation", send an
abstract of no more than one page to Litsa Nicolaou-Smokoviti: lnicola@otenet.gr.
'A session of a broad spectrum of sudden and life-treatening
family problems covering also others than diseases and family participation
in health and social care and in learning and education. If you wish to
present a paper in the session "Family and Health and Social Care
in the Modern Society", send an abstract of no more than one page
to Aino-Liisa Jussila aino-liisa.jussila@oamk.fi
and Paula Lehto paula.lehto@laurea.fi.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session "Family and Marriage: the Value, the Role and the Meanings in Changing Society",
send an abstract of no more than one page to Hiroko Nishimura: hiro@soka.ac.jp.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session "Women in European Parliaments", send an abstract of no more than one page to Marilyn Rueschemeyer: Marilyn_Rueschemeyer@brown.edu.
'If you are interested in showing visual works of sociology, send a VHS cassette of clips (approx. 10 minutes) along with half a page of explanation to: Simon Kagan, Department of Film and Television, Tel-Aviv University, 69978 Tel-Aviv, Israel.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session "Challenging Values and Identities: Youth in the Post-Communist Countries", send an abstract of no more than one page to Larisa Titarenko: larisa166@mail.ru.
'Whitehead and Barrett's estimate that over 500 books on men and masculinities were published in the last decade testifies to the fact that the study of men and masculinities has become a topic of systematic investigation. This session invites both theoretical and empirical papers addressing the multiple issues associated with the study of men and masculinities. If you wish to present a paper in the session "Men and Masculinites", send an abstract of no more than one page to K. Murray Knuttila: Murray.knuttila@uregina.ca.
'If you wish to present a paper in the session "History of Sociological Thought: The Classical Statements", send an abstract of no more than one page to Fabio B. Dasilva: fcuruca@aol.com.
|
