The deadline for submitting proposals is 30 January 2017

Young people shape the futures of their society. They envision, plan, challenge practices and present new perspectives. Youth as actors face however many challenges. This international conference will explore how do youth and other actors enhance youth capabilities to pursue the change they envision within a context of social and political repression, sociopolitical instabilities. Further, it will look into ways in which youth emerge as actors and become more influential in policies, and shaping the current and future alternative of their societies; How do youth and other actors sustain their collective action and sense of agency with increase repression in societies; how would they move from the focus on the individual to a focus on a greater commitment despite all the challenges they face. Youth resiliency the experiences of youth and other actors with regards to enhancing youth engagement.

This Bethlehem University, ISA RC34, and ISA RC47 conference will be an opportunity to enhance a mutual learning between scholars in Palestine, Arab countries, and the international community.

We particularly welcome papers on the four axes of the conference:

The main themes to be discussed in the conference are:

• Youth as actors of change, transformation from the individual to the collective commitment
• Repression: How to create and sustain a commitment with a context of repression
  • A sub topic will be with regards to the development of tools and techniques by youth and other actors to face repressions and online repression.
• Youth resiliency and engagement: how to move forward in time of conflict and instability. Engagement as a tool for community rebuilding
• Youth in Palestine: collective action and change intersection of development and liberation

1. Youth as actors of change, transformation from the individual to the collective commitment

Since 2011, young people, participating in movements in the Arab world and USA and across Europe, have proven to be major actors of social and political change, as much the ones that strike mainstream media headlines as those that discreetly transform politics or daily life. They have developed specific forms of commitment and activism that connect individualization with strong social commitments, protests and alternative, online and offline activism. This conference will gather analyses of young people’s contributions to socio-political change in the Arab countries and around the world. We particularly welcome analyses of youth cultures of activism, and youth visions of social change.

Transformation from a focus on the individualized self to the common and public good is one of the aspects in which youth, organizations, political parties, and others have tried to develop. Various forms of social and political commitment were developed and promoted by different actors. This ranged from voluntary work to participating in online and offline activism.  Currently, in many parts of the world there are two competing spheres in which collective identity and commitment to the public good is emerging and evolving:  the formal and informal. In the informal sphere, initiatives are generally youth-led, with young people working on developing their own structures, groups, and cultures for social and political engagement. Within the formal sphere it is organizations, policy makers, and political parties that are constructing interventions concerned with creating opportunities for young people to demonstrate their social and political contribution as active citizens. Both spheres are increasingly affecting the current and future frameworks of young people’s lives as they shape youth identities, and cultures, styles and forms of engagement.

2. Repression

Repression is another factor that impact youth ability to form a collective action. Repression affects the willingness to participate in collective action, the forms of engagement. Repression affects the possible available actions to be taken by various actors, and the tools that these actors own and access. Youth and other actors try to manipulate a system of repression- political or social- to push for changes they envision. Yet the risk needed for engagement under repression is high and accordingly decreases the possibilities of engagement and sustaining it. For example, Restriction applied on online engagement is only one example of how surveillance limits the space of young activists; framing the actions to support the local community as civic while under colonization is another approach to avoid risks of being subjects to surveillance.  How to enhance Youth participation in collective action during such restrictions varies from one context to another, what are the factors that are encouraging youth to get engaged despite of the risk that they will face is one of the questions that will be tackled by this conference. Another will how do youth and other actors navigate the space available to achieve the change they envision. It will look into the techniques and strategies used by various actors to build a sense of agency and create a sustainable change in a society

3. Resiliency

Resiliency is another aspect that is vital for engagement, agency, and change especially in societies that lives in conflicts and wars. Social and political engagement is an indicator of resilient youth and their societies. Engaged youth prove to be more able to face pressures in their lives, and arguably possess or develop the social capital that helps them to navigate the personal and positional change they want. In a context like Palestine, engaged youth showed better signs of agency, and more capability to face the challenges resulting from a life under colonization, and within a society with high level of unemployment among youth, and political division that lasted around ten years. Youth resiliency is interlinked with the collective resiliency of their society. . Resilient young people are seen to be able to step forward to build the change they envision: they have access to resources provided by their social network, and they have a strong sense of agency. How do social networks and structures enhance youth resilience and prospectively shape and sustain youth engagement. How do programmes and policies directed towards youth affect youth inclusion within their communities and society, and push the boundaries and spaces available for youth as social actors.

4. Understanding youth in Palestine. Contributions for and from research in Palestine in a global context

In Palestine, where one third of the population is between the ages of 18 and 30 years old, young people’s ability to affect the change on policy levels, political parties, and organizations is limited. This is despite a nation’s history in which a strong youth movement shaped the resistance movement against the occupation, and formed the current political parties. The youth movement, similar to other collective actions efforts in Palestine, has dissipated as a result of socio-political changes that have shaped the Palestinian society since signing the Oslo Accord twenty years ago. Currently in Palestine young people are now shaping new spaces for their engagement, usually focused on their local community. Still young people participated in a smaller scale in national movements such as BDS,  stop the wall, and the teachers’ movement.. This situation, although in some respects distinct for Palestine, shares many similarities with other countries in the world.

Venue

The conference will take place in Bethlehem University, Bethlehem, Palestine from April 26^th to 28^th 2017. The conference will be followed with encounters with local actors on April 29^th in the cities of Bethlehem, Jerusalem, and Hebron. Interested participants will notably meet with organizations that support young people and foster their agency in the three cities. Program to visit organizations working with youth and collective action will be arranged during the conference.

For Information about how to get to Bethlehem, accommodation and life in Bethlehem please check the conference page https://bethlehem.edu/conferences/yc-conference-2016/home . Please note that Easter holiday is one week earlier than the conference, Easter celebration in Palestine is a unique cultural as well as religious experience for many.

Submission of proposals

Proposals should be submitted in English or Arabic; abstracts should not exceed 300 words and may be submitted by January 30^th 2017 either through the conference website or through the following email address youthandchange@bethlehem.edu. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact   Abeer Musleh Abeerm@bethlehem.edu,  Geoffrey Pleyers Geoffrey.Pleyers@uclouvain.be ; and Ani Wierenga wierenga@unimelb.edu.au

Conference Time line:

Deadline for receiving proposals will be January 30^th.

People will be informed about being accepted in the conference by February 15^th

Final paper to be received for the conference is 20^th of April

Conference date is 26^th of April

The University of Bucharest organized on May 11-12, 2015 the International Sociological Association regional conference “Social Movements in Central and Eastern Europe” with the support of Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Romania. The Research Committee 47 (ISA 47) intended to evaluate the current status of research on collective action in the former communist countries to asses the capacities of research centers to generate valid knowledge in an highly competitive European and global environment and to encourage young scholars to make research on the new forms of social participation in Central and Eastern Europe.

As stated by the ISA 47 President, professor Geoffrey Pleyers, the social movements are important triggers for consolidating democracy and market economy in the region. As such, new forms of social participation shall be developed in the next period of time.

There were registered 96 scholars that represented some 25 countries. Additionally, some other 40 Romanian researchers and students took part in or assisted to specific panels or plenaries. 21 panels, 4 semi-plenaries, 2 plenaries and a concluding plenary were organized during the two days of workings. A group of well known scholars supervised these sessions. (Among them professors Jim M Jasper from the City University of New York, Kerstin Jacobsson from Gothenburg University, Sweden, A. Ishkanian from London School of Economics, Tova Benski, the ISA 48 President from Tel Aviv, Israel, Carine Clement from Russia. The keynote speakers were the well-known French sociologists Alain Touraine and Michel Wieviorka.)

An e-Book is published by the University of Bucharest Publishing House. Many thanks to volunteers Georgiana Popescu, Ana Popa, Cristian Chira, Sergiu Velesniuc and Adelina Nedelcu.

Social movements in Central and Eastern Europe

ISA-RC 47 regional conference University of Bucharest,

11-12 May 2015

The 2015 Conference on Social movements in Central and Eastern Europe is organized by the University of Bucharest and the ISA Research Committee 47 “Social classes and social movements” with the support of Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Romania.

The conference will provide a platform to share and develop perspectives on, and analyses of, current and recent social movements and protests in Central and Eastern Europe – including the ones that attain mainstream media headlines as well as those that discreetly transform politics or daily life.

25 years ago, citizens successfully mobilised for freedom and democracy in Central and Eastern Europe and social movements played a key role in dismantling the iron curtain and in establishing democratic regimes in these countries. A quarter century later, both the context and social movements look very different. Most CEE countries have turned to market economies and political democracy and many have joined the European Union. Institutional democracy is well grounded in Central and Eastern Europe but low participation rates in elections suggests a sort of discontent with liberal democracy. Currently, with the exception of the 2011-2012 protests in Russia, the “EuroMaidan revolution” in Ukraine and recent Hungarian protests, Eastern European social movements have not made global news headlines and are rarely considered by worldwide social movement scholars. A closer look at protests and civil society in the region provides another panorama. On one side, mobilizations oriented towards deep social transformation have echoed global movements (e.g. the Occupy movement in Bulgaria). On the other, social movements are focused on the environment, cultural change, daily life, alternatives within local contexts or citizens’ participation. Moreover, these social movements combine online and offline forms of participation, all major issues in democratic societies.

Protest, activism and a more active citizenship have often emerged from concerns in daily life. Some citizens have taken over the streets and occupied city squares or rural areas to oppose policies or infrastructure projects, often combining concrete claims with more general preoccupation for a more democratic society and a more transparent and less corrupt political arena. More recently, initiatives for critical consumption have emerged, connecting consumption choices with the support of local farmers as well as environmental, health and political concerns. Similarly, rural movements have found new impetus in various countries.

We also hope that this conference will advance theories of social movements by highlighting the micro-level mechanisms that drive recruitment, mobilization, decision-making, the construction of friends and foes, and other dimensions of strategies and meanings, in order to develop a more dynamic and contingent view of political processes. We hope to observe a variety of players engaging one another in various arenas (Jasper, 2014), as well as gathering analytical and empirical elements to bridge the gaps between micro and macro perspectives on social movements and social change.

Following ISA, RC47’s mission to develop a sociology of social movements as a general sociology and the combination of fieldwork data with analytical perspective on social movements and major social challenges, this conference particularly welcomes contributions that show how the study of social movements contributes to a better understanding of both specific social actors and society as a whole.

ISA-47 aims at promoting teaching and research on social movement studies, as well as networking among social movement scholars both in Rumania and among the Central and Eastern European region. We insist on promoting research agenda, approaches and perspectives rooted in fieldwork in Rumanian and CEE and taking into account local, national and regional challenges faced by social scientists scholars and citizens of that region. Social scientists are called to identify the movements that will eventually shape the future of Central and Eastern Europe and of Europe as a whole. The conference will pay attention to both progressive and conservative movements, as the latter tend to become particularly vibrant and powerful in some CEE countries and raise some important challenges to democracy. Contributions may also underline commonalities and differences among movements and mobilizations in different CEE countries, in a specific sub-region and/or with their counterparts in Western Europe or the rest of the world. A specific panel will be dedicated to analytical overviews of civil society or social movements in a particular country, a set of countries or CEE as a whole. Finally, we also welcome panel and paper proposals on theoretical contributions, notably on cultural approaches of social movements and personal subjectivity; the outcomes of social movements (both political outcomes and cultural change) as well as theoretical contributions with original insights on social movement studies, Central and Eastern Europe studies or general sociology.

Our keynote speakers include James M. Jasper (City University of New York & ISA-47) & Michel Wieviorka (Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, Paris & ISA-47)

The thematic sessions will be organized around 4 axes.

Axis 1: Democracy and Europe

What future for European democracy? Social movements, notably those arising in Central and Eastern Europe, have a fundamental role to play in coping with this challenge and finding ways to deepen democracy, to “democratize democracy”. This challenge includes: welfare reform discontent, disappointment with liberal democracy and the free market, low participation rates, but also young people who protest on the street claiming a deeper, more accountable and more participatory democracy, notably in Hungary, Romania and in Russia.
Stances towards the EU among citizens and activists in Central and Eastern Europe. Some movements and campaigns directly target European institutions, such as the ACTA campaign in which Polish activists had a clear impact on EU trade policies. Others target domestic governments that are inefficient and corrupt. The issue of corruption is particularly salient in CCE countries as different protest sites have recently proved.
Movements of the squares in C&EE. While protests in Moscow, Kiev or nearby Istanbul were echoed in international media, most city square occupations in the region were ignored, in spite of the fact that they featured large and passionate crowds in some cities and countries (such as Bulgaria and Hungary). We welcome contributions with analyses of these movements, including their main claims, internal organization, use of social media as well as papers focused on the outcomes and further development of city square movements. In Western cities many activists have joined four sectors of movements: local movements, resistance and solidarity groups; critical consumption initiatives or solidarity economy; expert activists’ networks and anti-austerity protests. To what extent are the city movements in Central and Eastern Europe similar to those in Western Europe? What is different when thinking about the environment, anti-fracking, anti-corruption and grassroots movements in CEE?
Social movements and social media. The massive use of social media in politics and social movement represents a considerable change. We particularly welcome empirical contributions with nuanced analysis that bridges the online/offline divide.
Social movements and mainstream media. Mainstream media continue to play a major role in democratic societies. How do they cover social movements? When do they become the targets of social movements? As the Internet expands in Central and Eastern Europe, what role is there for Facebook in social activism and mobilization?

Axis 2: Conservative, populist, far right and racist movements

Populist and nationalist movements. Among the trends that are European and democracy oriented, there are collective actions that represent a fundamental shift of preferences. The Conference tries to evaluate the influence of radical movements that contest the achievements of liberal democracy and promote extreme attitudes towards immigrants and ethnic or sexual minorities. Over the last few years the so-called Nationalist Autonomists have adopted anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist stands mixed with xenophobic, homophobic and racist rhetoric. These groups often are also becoming the base for newly emerging political parties (such as Ruch Narodowy in Poland and before MIEP in Hungary) and also seem to be influencing popular culture (via patriotic rap music or murals). Recently they have also appropriated some of the claims and repertoires of leftist groups. Moreover, parties such as the Golden Dawn in Greece, Ataka in Bulgaria and Jobbik in Hungary won between 10% and 25% of the vote in various elections.

According to media reports: anti-Semitism, xenophobia, racism and extreme nationalism are often associated with such movements. The Conference assumes that they represent a serious challenge to a united and free Europe. It will therefore be important to reveal the inner fabric of extremist movements and the potential they have for political and social disturbances.

Religious movements. Some Central and Eastern European countries have experienced an increased religious participation after the fall of communist regimes. The conditions to translate religion into politics have increased in countries such as Russia and Hungary. The Conference encourages social scientists to evaluate the extent to which religious participation could turn into social or political activism.

Axis 3: A renewal of green movements

Green as a lifestyle, Green as resistance. As in other regions of the world, many CEE countries are experiencing a revival of green movements that take shape in a wide array of concrete actions, protests and practices in daily life. Green movements include resistance and protests against infrastructure projects or extractivist industries; critical consumption, the questioning of mass consumption, local food, and campaigns to change consumer habits; rural movements; NGOs strategies to bring environmental concerns to the national policy agenda or international negotiations. In countries such as Poland and Romania, antifracking movements suggest a mobilization of the middle class which is a novel development. In Romania, the “Uniti Salvam” movement has attracted considerable attention as it has mobilized people for various protests. However, what is the future of green movements in Central and Eastern Europe today?

INGOs and the grassroots. Transnational organizations such as the Greenpeace will, in due course, enlarge their social base in Central and Eastern Europe. Indeed, national branches are already operating in most CEE countries. Other European-based movements or forums are looking for local branches and it is therefore relevant to examine the impact transnationalization has in CEE countries. More broadly, we will analyze how NGOs and local or national movements in Central and Eastern Europe address the challenges of the global age, shaped by the increasingly salient finitude of the planet and its resources. And conversely, we explore whether the experiences of development or post-development perspectives in other areas of the world (South East Asia, South America) are relevant for Central and Eastern Europe?

Axis 4: New and old challenges

Youth: Youth are not “citizens of tomorrow in formation”, they are major actors of our democracy. In CEE, young people who protest today have grown up after the fall of the iron curtain, in market oriented and democratic societies. What are the main features, commonalities and challenges of this post-1989 generation? Many young activists get involved through more subjective, personal and cultural forms of activism. What are their cultures of activism? How do they connect daily life with politics?

Inheritance of the 1989 revolutions: What happened to the actors of the 1989 revolutions? How have these actors shaped today’s’ societies and civil society? How do they connect with emerging movements and how do the later relate with them, both as concrete actors and as an emancipation project?

Trade unions and workers movements: How do workers movements and struggle develop in CEE? Are workers’ movements still central actors of CEE civil societies? What are the roles and significance of trade unions and workers movements in CEE democracies? How do different generations of workers collaborate in trade unions? How do they deal with challenges such as precarious nature of work? How do they connect with other movements? What are their contributions to the European Trade Union Confederation and the European project?

Urban movements: This includes: alternative experiments, revolts in the suburbs, intersectionalities, relations between housing and infrastructure in urban areas versus depopulation and demobilization in the rural regions. Do large cities in CEE experience suburban movements? To what extent is development an issue in East Central Europe? If the transformation of urban space is accelerating, what role then for the rural regions?

ORGANIZATION

The practical organization of the conference is oriented by three main aims:

• to foster scholarly exchange between researchers from Romania, Central and Eastern Europe and the rest of the world. (leading scholars as keynote speakers; leading social movement scholars from a wide range of CEE countries, including Romania, Poland, Russia, Estonia, Armenia, Greece, Ukraine, R. of Moldova, Hungary, Czech Rep., Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Macedonia, Turkey);
• to ensure high quality contributions, panels and discussions (strict selection of papers, based on quality; publication of selected papers; a discussant assigned to every panel; RC 47 support for the publication of journal special issues and books);
• a supportive atmosphere and material conditions that favor insightful exchanges (affordable housing will be provided, convivial lunches and dinners).

In addition, the ISA-RC 47 will support the international diffusion of the conference and its outcomes, notably through the recording and life-streaming of various sessions.

The organizers cover accommodation for all participants. The international travel is provided on a case-by-case basis, especially for researchers from non-EU countries. The participants that need travel support are asked to submit a written request.

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

Geoffrey Pleyers, FNRS-University of Louvain, President of ISA-RC 47 Ionel N. Sava, University of Bucharest, Romania

LOCAL ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

Mihaela Lambru, University of Bucharest
Horatiu Rusu, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu
Camil Parvu, University of Bucharest
Ionut Horeanu, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi

Adrian Dusa, University of Bucharest
Cretan Remus, Western University Timisoara

SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE

Allaste Airi-Alina,Tallinn University
Ishkanian Armine, London School of Economics
Tova Benski, Colman Rishon Leziyon, Israel, president of ISA-RC48 Paul Blokker, University of Trento
Paolo Gerbaudo, Kings College London, ISA-RC47
Carine Klement, State University St Petersburg
Kerstin Jacobsson, University of Gothenburg
James M. Jasper, Graduate Centre, City University of New York Lukasz Jurczyszyn, Collegium Civitas, Warsaw
Ioan Panzaru, University of Bucharest
Camil Parvu, University of Bucharest
Grzegorz Piotrowski, Södertörn University
Geoffrey Pleyers, FNRS, University of Louvain, president of ISA-RC 47 Ionel N Sava, University of Bucharest
Buket Turkmen, University of Galatasaray
Maria Voinea, University of Bucharest
Rafal Pankowski, Collegium Civitas, Warsaw
Michel Wieviorka, Fondation des Maisons des Sciences de l’Homme, Former president of the ISA.

PAPER SUBMISSION

We welcome both full panel (4 speakers and a discussant) and individual paper proposals.

Paper proposals are limited to 1,000 words, with a 5-10 line author(s) bio-note.

A panel proposal should include a short description of the scope of the panel (2 paragraphs), 4 papers proposals (1.000 words each) and the bio notes of the speakers. It should also mention the proposed name of the discussant. The organizing committee may suggest a discussant if needed and may change the panel composition, following a review of the number of accepted papers.

Deadline for sessions and abstracts proposals: February 25^th, 2015

A proposal shall include title, name of researcher, affiliation, contacts and a short description of the subject / theme. Please do not exceed 250 words.

The scientific committee will inform participants of selected proposals by the 10^th of March 2015.

Papers should be sent by April 25th and will be published early May as an e-book available for the Conference.

Selected papers and panels will be submitted for publication in collective volumes (Amsterdam University Press and SAGE Current Sociology Monographs) and in journal special Issues.

Proposals should be sent to Ionel N. Sava, Geoffrey Pleyers and the ISA RC 47, with the subject line “ISA47 Bucharest” insava@sas.unibuc.ro, Geoffrey.Pleyers@uclouvain.be, rc47.isa@gmail.com

Following the ISA47 policies, every panel will have a discussant who will provide feedback on each paper, emphasize differences and commonalities among the analyses and case studies, and open the public discussion.

The official language of the conference is English. Two sessions for local scholars, PhD candidates and graduate students shall be organized in Romanian. A session may also be organized in French.

Participants who will present a paper at the conference are invited to join the ISA Research Committee 47. (No affiliation is required to submit a proposal).
Members of the International Sociological Association: please join us on the ISA website.

For non-members, please contact ISA treasurer Paolo Gerbaudo (Kings College London):

paolo.gerbaudo@kcl.ac.uk

Join the ISA47 on Facebook!

To join the ISA47 mailing list, please send an e-mail to Geoffrey.Pleyers@uclouvain.be, anasuzina@hotmail.com
ISA47 global seminar and major events are broadcasted life on our YouTube Channel

Each session will consist of 4 paper presentations (15 minutes each), a discussant (15 minutes) and 2 tabled papers that may be briefly presented to the audience or serve as a replacement for a missing speaker.

The best papers will be selected for publication in journal special issues and a book on social movements in Central and Eastern Europe.

O Seminário Internacional – Global odernity and Social Contestation tem como objetivo central reunir destacados especialistas internacionais (provenientes da Índia, China, África do Sul, Zimbábue, Moçambique, Espanha, Alemanha, Estados Unidos, Bolívia, Argentina, além do Brasil) para discutir as interações entre a teoria crítica e as contestações sociais. Desenvolvidos habitualmente como campos de discussão bastante delimitados e paralelos, suas conexões são pontuais e problemáticas. No entanto, ao mesmo tempo em que presenciamos um período de crise global com profundas transformações sociais, ambos os campos vivem um momento de redefinição e o Seminário pretende discutir até que ponto uma maior interação entre eles pode enriquecer e permitir a construção de uma agenda de pesquisa comum, lançando um olhar bidirecional sobre como se podem reunir e renovar essas correntes, identificando proble­mas e gargalos, disjunções e impasses, bem como possíveis conciliações e soluções. Com isso em vista, a definição das mesas do seminário foi cuidadosamente pensada para instigar o debate, tendo em conta a origem dos convidados, o gênero, suas linhas de pesquisa e os eixos temáticos centrais para o diálogo.

O seminário é uma atividade do Núcleo de Estudos de Teoria Social e América Latina (NETSAL) do IESP-UERJ, grupo cadastrado no CNPQ e vinculado ao Programa de Pós-Graduação em Sociologia desta instituição.  Ele espelha alguns dos temas centrais sobre os quais o núcleo vem se debruçando em suas pesquisas, discussões e publicações.

More info: http://modernityandcontestation.wordpress.com/

Programa

International Conference

9-10 February 2012

Bizkaia Aretoa UPV-EHU, Bilbao

You can find below a link to the conference website. In order to fill out the registration form you will need to use the following code: Bilbao. Mind that every participant (whether main author, co-author or auditor) needs to register for the conference and pay the corresponding fees.

http://www.amiando.com/XYMKXBT

Bilbao offers a wide range of lodging possibilities. A three-star hotel may cost between 50 and 70 euros, with breakfast (and sometimes wireless Internet connection) included. Some recommendable hotels are:

– Bilbao Jardines

– Barceló Hotel Nervión

– Petit Palace Arana Bilbao

– Best Western Bilbao Conde Duque

– Abando

– Ercilla and Hesperia Bilbao

There are, of course, more economical and expensive facilities. We have found the prices provided by the University’s Travel Agency to be higher than those available online. We thus advise participants to make their reservations individually, taking into consideration their possibilities and necessities.

The conference will take place at the Bizkaia Aretoa, a University building located on Avenida Abandoibarra 3, right by the Guggenheim Museum. Please, dial (+34) 94-601-8100 if you need help with directions. Below you can find a link to a Google map with the building’s location and available means of transportation.

http://g.co/maps/zkczr

See you in Bilbao!

Centre for Advanced Studies

National seminar on

Contested cities: voices of the margins

17-18th January 2012

Contemporary urban in India is ever changing. Rapid rate of urbanization, expansion of small and big cities, growing service industry attracting scores of migrants to cities, the government’s focus on the urban centres as ‘engines of growth’  overlap and influence shaping of  the contemporary urban scenario.

One set of debates relating to the urban is about spaces of flows and spaces of places defining the social processes of individuation and sociality. Qualifying and examining urban existence in terms of these seeming bipolarities is a challenging task. Does location in the global north and the global south essentially determine the position in this debate or is the picture much more complex with local political, cultural economic realities shaping the urban? What does contemporary phase of urbanization has in common with earlier phases or is today’s situation uniquely defined by a number of processes? How does it relate to socio-political and cultural changes other than what the rhetorical term globalization denotes?

A second set of debates is about the issues which trigger collective action. Ranging from contemporary meanings of ‘urban’ ness to access and availability of infrastructure, services and entitlements; and citizenship rights- there are formulations about various kinds of collective action. Along with erstwhile class based collective identities there are various forms of identity politics that leads to collective actions. Sometimes collective action is triggered by new policies or demands for new laws. Sometimes it is in the form of a response to existing regimes of values, norms and regulations.

A third set of debates is related to the form of political action. From union politics to platforms and fora emerging for certain causes; from campaigns to agitations; from institutionalized to non-institutional action the range is analytically very rich and varied. We observe creative redefinition of urban politics with new technologies initiating new sites of political action. For example, emergence of social networking sites as new political locations is worth scrutinising.

Another set of debates is about policy reforms. Though in case of India declaration of policies relating to various facets of the urban is welcome given the near total absence of it; what do infrastructural, housing and regulatory policies indicate? What can one say about the position of the state viz. a viz. the urban especially the urban poor? Is it that global agendas for the urban are being replicated in Indian policy documents?  What are various responses of the urban poor to government decisions, and policies?

Alongside there are discussions about various forms of identity leading to articulation of politics and counter-politics in the urban arena bitcoincasinos. Interestingly, new urban imaginaries and new cultural politics of identity is a phenomenon few have engaged with.

This national seminar would include papers on some or all these aspects including-

• Conceptual and Theoretical Issues

• Space, services and infrastructure

• Work, livelihoods and labour

• Movements and Collective action

• Hegemonic and counter-hegemonic urban cultural imaginaries

Submission of Abstracts and Papers

Well researched papers are invited to be presented in the seminar from academicians, activists, policy makers, politicians, planners, researchers and representatives of Government and non Governmental organizations.

         The delegates are requested to send the abstract of their papers on the main theme and sub themes of the seminar along with the duly filled registration form. Each abstract, not exceeding 300 words should reach the coordinator as soon as possible and latest by January 1st, 2012. The full length paper should be about 3000 to 5000 words. A hard copy and a soft copy of the paper in CD should also be submitted at the time of the seminar. We intend to publish the selected papers presented in the seminar in a special volume.

Travel and Accommodation

Boarding and lodging arrangements will be made for all the participants in the university campus. It may be difficult for us to meet travel expenses of all the participants. You are requested to get your TA/DA from your institution. But we will provide travel expenses to some resource persons and selected paper presenters, preferably by 3-tier A/C.

Organizing Committee

Dr. Shruti Tambe, Coordinator of the Seminar
Prof. Swati Shirwadkar, Head of the Department of Sociology
Sanjay Kolekar
Dr. Anurekha Chari

NUI Maynooth, Aberdeen – Scotland

26^th November 2011

deadline 1^st October 2011

conference themes and details at http://sociology.nuim.ie or from theresa.okeefe@nuim.ie Centre for Politics, Power and Society, Dept. of Sociology, NUIM & “Critical Political Thought, Activism and Alternative Futures” research cluster

THEMES

We invite papers addressing one or more of the areas below, but we are also open to other research agendas which you feel deserve more attention. The conference is open to participants from any academic discipline as well as to researchers working within social movements, and welcomes papers relating to movements outside or beyond Ireland as well as those engaging with the Irish situation.

1) Politics, theory and method

What are the purposes of social movement research? How do theories and methods interact? What relationships (should) exist between researchers and movements?  What kinds of knowledge do social movements produce? What theories are generated and used by movement activists? Does movement research have anything useful to say to movements?

2) What are “social movements” anyway?

How can we understand “movement” not just as a type of semi-formal organising, but in ways that allow “social movements” to include micro-level resistance at one end or indeed revolution at the other? How do we relate understandings of social movements in the 19th or early 20th century as trying to create or transform states and institutions to contemporary assumptions about movements as accepting given structures? How can we say something useful about where the
boundaries of one movement end and another begin? How do societies change through collective action, and how can we know?

3) Critical cultural analysis

How do past struggles and inherited traditions shape social movements today? How can we integrate discourse, language and culture into the analysis of social movements? How are movements and their discourses gendered, classed and racialised? What is the importance of emotion and affect; trauma, stress and sustainability in shaping movement dynamics and outcomes? And how can social movement research transform cultural and literary studies which often ask these questions without
asking after the practicalities of organising, strategy and struggle?

4) Understanding social movements in Ireland

Do Irish movements really operate in a context like the US and UK, or should we be looking to movements in Mediterranean societies or Latin America for comparisons and concepts? What kind of “movement society” is Ireland in international comparison – peripheral, post-colonial, conservative? How does the role of (nationalist, Catholic, farmers’, labour) movements in creating the state enable and constrain contemporary movements? What does the Irish case tell us about movements more broadly and how can it help us understand movements elsewhere?

5) Social movements in the 2010s

How has the crisis shaped social movements – themes, actors, relationships between movements, with parties and the state? Will models of social partnership and mainstreaming survive austerity and coercion? What ‘new’ forms of mobilisation are evident – new technologies, new tactics, and new kinds of relationships between movement actors? How are global movements changing (e.g. transnational anti-capitalism; the Arab Spring; anti-austerity mobilisations; diasporic social movements)? Why has the movement response to the crisis in Ireland been so muted?

ABSTRACTS AND PAPERS

We invite abstracts (up to 250 words) on any of the themes above or addressing other themes in social movement studies which you feel deserve greater research. Abstracts should include a title, your email address and institutional affiliation if any (independent scholars and movement practitioners are welcome to submit). Please send abstracts to Theresa O’Keefe by October 1st 2011.

Papers (up to 10,000 words including bibliography) should be submitted by November 14th 2011. Papers which are submitted by the deadline will be included in a CD-ROM for all conference participants, as an immediate “state of the art” collection of who is doing what in Irish social movement studies. (This does not, of course, prevent you using reworked versions of the paper as the basis for articles, book chapters etc.)

Papers which are submitted in time will also be considered for inclusion in an edited volume with an academic publisher.

CONFERENCE INFORMATION

Detailed information will be made available in due course, but this will be a one-day (Saturday) conference at NUI Maynooth. The event is being organised on behalf of the Critical Political Thought, Activism and Alternative Futures research cluster at NUI Maynooth with an organising committee of Dr Theresa O’Keefe and Dr Laurence Cox (Dept.of Sociology, National University of Ireland Maynooth) and Dr Cristina Flesher Fominaya (Dept. of Sociology, University of Aberdeen).

ISA RC48 – Social Movements, Collective Action and Social Change

FROM SOCIAL TO POLITICS. NEW FORMS OF MOBILIZATION AND DEMOCRATIZATION

University of Bilbao – Spain

^9th – 10^th February 2012

Please send your call for papers (deadline 30^th November 2011) proposal to Conference Organisers:

Antimo Luigi Farro – antimoluigi.farro@uniroma1.it

Benjamin Tejerina – b.tejerina@ehu.es

OBJETIVES AND THEME

In the recent evolution of contemporary social movements three phases can be identified.

The first phase is marked both by the labour movement and the systemic importance attributed to the labour conflict in industrial society. A conflict interpreted by Emile Durkheim as a shortcoming of social integration, by Max Weber as a rational conflict by entrepreneurs and workers interests, and a central class struggle for society transformation by the view of Karl Marx.

The second phase of development of social movements takes on new social movements of the sixties and seventies of the XX century, such as students, women and environmentalists movements of post-industrial society. Actions whose sense and meaning are explained mainly by two new analytical perspectives: resource mobilization theory (McAdam and Tilly) that focuses on the study of rational attitudes of these actions and conflicts; and actionalist sociology, which aims to identify new central actors of the conflicts in the post-industrial society, as labour movement was in industrial society.

The third phase emerges in a world framed by the ascendancy of market, the prominent role of financial capital flows, communitarian closure and fundamentalism, and refers to movements of affirmation of human rights and democracy as alternatives to global domination and systemic conditioning of individual and groups.

The objective of this conference is to foster theoretical reflections and to present empirical evidences regarding some of the recent mobilizations that took place in the Mediterranean area and that have two very clearly distinguished threads. On the one hand, there are the mobilizations that reveal the need to open space to democracy by asking for political reforms and democratization processes in countries such as Tunez, Egypt, Morocco, Libya and Syria, among other. On the other hand, numerous discontent displays regarding the political management of economical crisis and the shrinking of the Welfare State in South Europe triggered mobilizations such as 15-M in Spain, “Indignez-vous” in France, Italy and Greece and other protests organized by young people and students in England and Belgium.

Bringing together different networks and orientations around social movements, expressed by the two ISA Research Committees 47 and 48, this conference offers the opportunity to debate around the changes and the meanings of social movements of the twenty-first century. In special, we are interested in analysing the antecedents, the influence of social and political conditions, the movement’s nature regarding organization, forms of protest, claims, causes, protagonists, role of social media and to spot the meaning of these relatively new forms of protest beyond the action repertoire.

ORGANIZATION

The general structure of the Conference has provided different ways for participation. One of them is the organization of academic sessions. Each thematic session will consist of the presentation of a guest lecturer for 20 minutes, four oral communications for 15 minutes each, and five communications presented in poster format.

The final constitution of these thematic sessions will be a posteriori, when all communications are received and the Scientific Committee has made the selection of oral communications and posters. All communications will have the same status for the issuance of participation certificates. A prerequisite for presenting a communication is to be properly enrolled in the Conference. Regarding a possible publication –still in consideration- of the full papers participants must adapt the texts to a model that will be sent later.

SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS

The abstracts of communications should be sent to the organization of the Congress based on the following criteria:

• Length: Maximum 1000 words. It is considered that a minimum of 700 words is required to provide enough information to evaluate the proposal.

• Languages: Communications must be submitted only in English.

• Contents: All abstracts must have the following information:

a) Communication information.

– Title.

b) Author’s information.

– Surname, first name.

– Email address.

– Affiliation.

c) Work content.

– Kind of work: describe briefly if it is a theoretical reflection, an qualitative/quantitative empirical research, a case study or a comparative analysis;

–  3 key words;

– Description of the object and/or main subject of the work;

– Methodology;

– Main findings, conclusions and/or contributions;

– References; bibliography.

d) Other elements which are considered of interest: e.g. if the proposal is framed in a competitive research project or international research project.

PARALLEL ACTIVITIES

We are opening the possibility to organise a parallel exhibition of graphic material related to the congress. Formats admitted are:

–       Photos of manifestations: in case you have been involved or had the chance to observe these movements in person we would appreciate if you could share your materials, like photos, leaflets picked in locus, posters, etc.. Send us your links to Flickr, Facebook, or any other social network in which your photos are posted.

–       Videos of mobilizations that can be posted in Social Networks like Youtube, Vimeo, etc.;

–       Recordings of interviews, direct testimonies (in mp3, mp4) or posted in Social Media Platforms;

–       Interesting websites (webography related to these movements that can be consulted during the conference; like bloggs, movements websites, etc.).

If you have any other ideas relating contents for these parallel activities please feel free to contact us and we will evaluate the possibility of including them.