ECPR Standing Group on Political Sociology

CALL FOR PAPERS
ESA Research Network 32 – Political Sociology

The European Sociological Association’s Research Network on Political
Sociology (RN32) is pleased to announce its second mid-term
conference, to be held at the University of Milan (Italy), 30 November
and 1 December, 2012:

Political Participation and Beyond: Multi-level dynamics of
inclusion/exclusion in times of crisis

Political participation is a founding theme of political sociology. In
broadest terms, it refers to all forms and activities through which
individuals or collectives express opinions and also exert influence
on decisions that are of common concern. While concerned with apathy,
abstention and “exit”, political sociology has also described and
categorized a broad and ever-changing repertoire of citizen (and non
citizen) voice, i.e. activism and formal or informal involvement
whether individual/ collective, manifest/ latent, institutionalized/
unconventional, direct/ mediated, online/ offline. In an age of
globalization and multilevel (local, national, supranational, global)
networking of collective decision-making processes, in which social
and political boundaries are being reshaped and new dynamics of social
and political inclusion and exclusion are emerging, this scope of
political participation is potentially wider and rapidly changing. One
may wonder if participation is heightened in times of crisis, which
favour more exclusive forms of governance and tend to mobilise new
forms of protest, or on the contrary generates anomie.

The aim of this conference is to explore the extended scope of
political participation in relation to transnational government
arrangements and processes. Within this broad theme, all crucial
concepts of political sociology are embraced. These include:
challenged legitimisation of democratic representative institutions;
changing power relationships between citizens and the state; the
making of a new political order across the interaction of macro- and
micro-level actors; the battle for cultural, social, and institutional
change involving networked individuals and organized groups at local,
national and global levels.

A number of key contemporary political and social phenomena can
therefore be analysed from a political participation perspective:
• Globalizing forms of protest and new forms of political mobilization
• Changing interactions between public opinion, political elites,
mainstream media, and social media
• The plebiscitary nature of leader-followers relationships as regards
populist parties
• Party primary elections and campaigning
• New patterns of electoral turnout and volatility
• Citizens’ deliberations and experiments in participatory democracy
• The emergence of a new political cleavage along the nationalism vs.
cosmopolitanism value dimensions
• The ongoing conflict over norms of citizenship
• Processes of agenda-setting and the role of migrants’ organizations
in key policy areas
• Political dimensions of immigrant integration and the politics of
voting rights
• Urban governance and urban conflicts
Proposals can relate to all levels of – local to global – mobilization
and participation in the polity. Studies employing a European
comparative perspective or EU-wide framework, that address the
multi-level dimension of participation, or discuss more recent
challenges to citizens’ participation and legitimacy in times of
financial and economic crisis are particularly welcome.

Abstract submission: Both panel proposals and individual paper
proposals are encouraged. For panel proposals please submit a short
description of the theme of the panel and at least three individual
paper abstracts.

Deadline: The deadline for panel and paper proposals is Friday April
30th. Please submit abstracts of max 200 words to:
rn32mtc2012@socpol.unimi.it
The conference committee will notify applicants by May 30th.

Conference venue and organization: The conference will be hosted by
the Department of Social and Political Studies, University of Milan
(Italy). The Department is located in the centre of Milan.
Participants are asked to make their own travel arrangements and book
accommodation. We will suggest a list of hotels.

Information will be available at: http://www.socpol.unimi.it
To encourage participation by a broad range of early career
researchers and experienced academics, there is no registration fee.
To register, please write to rn32mtc2012@socpol.unimi.it  with the
following information: name, position, affiliation with postal
address, country, email address and dietary preferences.

Further information: Contact  Mauro BARISIONE at  rn32mtc2012@socpol.unimi.it

CULTURE POLITICS AND CULTURAL POLICIES

VII INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CULTURAL POLICY RESEARCH
Barcelona, 9-12 July 2012

http://www.iccpr2012.org/

Cultural policy has changed significantly, half a century after its invention as a category. The perspective of welfare has been substituted by the perspective of development; the logic of governance has superseded the logic of government. These changes can only be understood in the broader context of the changes that culture and politics have experienced during this time. The globalization of culture, its digital mutation, its enhanced weight in social and economic dynamics – all these factors influence the transformation of relations between culture and politics, and so also the definition and problems of cultural policy. The same happens with the mediation of politics, with its growing complexity (between the global and the local, the public and the private), and with its multicultural problems. The study of cultural policy should thus be opened up today for the consideration of the broader frameworks that constitute this object: culture and politics.
On the one hand, it will examine institutionalized cultural policy in its configurations, orientation and dynamics, as well as its impact, intended or unintended, on the structures that constitute the cultural sphere. Beyond this bounded area, on the other hand, it will also consider the projection of politics in the configuration of the social through culture, whether in the traditional way of symbolic control or the assertion of identity, or through the most recent policies of development, creativity and diversity. Conversely, it will also consider culture – the cultural and artistic action displayed by creators, citizens and civil society – as a tool of political action, mobilization or conflict. The relationship between culture, politics and cultural politics will thus be addressed in its entirety.

The Barcelona conference will involve the participation of reputed scholars from all over the world. It will be an occasion of great interest, both for the high international level of the meeting as well as for the fact that the event will be held in Barcelona, a very accessible and attractive city. The conference is expected to be an academic success. I am inviting you to take advantage of it. The call for papers has already been posted at the conference website.

Call for papers:
What is coalition? Reflections on the conditions of alliance formation with Judith Butler’s work

Dear colleagues,

Several potential contributors to this special issue proposal for the Revue française de science politique on revolts and revolutions in the Arab world have expressed their difficulty to respect the very short deadline that we have imposed on ourselves. We have therefore decided to extend the deadline from November 30 to December 20 2011.

We remind you that papers can be sent in English or French.

Cher.e.s collègues, plusieurs contributrices et contributeurs potentiels à la proposition de numéro pour la Revue française de science politique sur révoltes et révolutions dans le monde arabe ayant exprimé leur difficulté à tenir les délais très courts que nous nous étions imposés, nous avons décidé pour ne pas brusquer les choses et assurer de ce fait une meilleurs qualité des soumissions d’étendre le délai du 30 novembre au 20 décembre 2011.

Nous vous rappelons par ailleurs que les papiers peuvent être rédigés en français comme en anglais.

Révoltes et révolutions dans le monde arabe

Les dynamiques protestataires qui secouent le monde arabe depuis décembre 2010 invitent à poser à nouveau frais la question des phénomènes révolutionnaires, de leurs causes, dynamiques et effets à court et moyen terme. Si la littérature en sciences sociales est plutôt prolixe sur les causes et les conséquences des révoltes et révolutions, elle l’est beaucoup moins sur les processus révolutionnaires eux-mêmes. C’est à ces processus tels qu’ils s’observent aujourd’hui dans le monde arabe que l’on projette de s’intéresser, autour d’un numéro thématique qui sera proposé à la Revue française de science politique.

Les contributions doivent impérativement reposer sur du matériau de première main et sur une enquête in situ. Deux axes non exclusifs l’un de l’autre sont privilégiés. La dynamique des mobilisations, d’une part, soit les configurations dans lesquelles organisations et acteurs individuels « apprennent à être révolutionnaire », pour paraphraser Timothy Tackett ; l’historicité des situations de conflit, d’autre part, soit l’attention au niveau des champs multi organisationnels, à l’épaisseur historique des réseaux de mobilisations activés ou créés dans cette dynamique et au niveau des individus, aux formes de socialisation politique et aux transmissions intergénérationnelles.

Les propositions d’articles, d’un maximum de 70.000 signes, bibliographie/annexes comprises, doivent parvenir par courrier électronique avant le 30 novembre 2011 aux coordinateurs, Mounia Bennani Chraïbi et Olivier Fillieule. Chaque proposition doit s’accompagner d’un encadré faisant état des sources utilisées et des modes de recueil des données ainsi que d’une courte note biographique.

Les papiers en langue anglaise sont éligibles et feront l’objet d’une traduction s’ils sont retenus.

Les propositions retenues par les coordinateurs seront dans un second temps soumises à la revue pour évaluation.

mounia.bennani@unil.ch; olivier.fillieule@unil.ch

The protest dynamics that have hit the Arab world since late 2010 invite researchers to re-question revolutionary phenomena – their causes, dynamics, and effects in the short and long term. While there is a large social science literature concerning causes and consequences of revolts and revolutions, there is considerably less attention on revolutionary processes themselves. This call for papers, which will lead to a proposal for a thematic issue of the Revue française de science politique, focuses on revolutionary processes.

Contributions must use original primary empirical data and build on in situ fieldwork. Two non-exclusionary axes are privileged. The dynamics of mobilization on the one hand – that is the configurations in which organisations and individual actors learn how to “be revolutionaries”, to paraphrase Timothy Tackett. On the other hand the historicity of situations of conflict, that is, an attention on multi-organisational fields, on historically situated mobilization networks activated or created in this dynamic, and on individual actors, their political socialization and intergenerational transmissions.

Article proposals of maximum 70 000 signs (references and notes included) must be sent electronically before November 30 2011 to the two coordinators, Mounia Bennani-Chraïbi and Olivier Fillieule. Each proposition must be accompanied by a short note explaining the sources and methods of data collection, as well as a short biographical notice.

Papers written in English can be proposed and will be translated into French if they are selected.

After a first evaluation by the coordinators, the retained papers will be proposed to the journal for evaluation.

Papers should be sent to mounia.bennani-at-unil.ch and olivier.fillieule-at-unil.ch

(via http://sozialebewegungen.wordpress.com)

Call for submissions: New Feminisms in Europe. A special issue of Social Movement Studies edited by Kristin Aune (University of Derby) and Jonathan Dean (University of Leeds)

What is the state of feminist social movements in 21^st century Europe?

European second-wave feminism – loosely denoting the emergence of feminist activism in the 1960s and 1970s – has been extensively studied, but there is very little work on new and emerging feminist mobilisations.
Several decades on from second-wave feminism, European societies have changed in significant ways, many of them gendered, and many of which might be said to have arisen in response to feminist social movements. Recent years have seen the redrawing of national boundaries, the fall of communism and rise of capitalism in Eastern Europe, the increasing influence of neoliberalism, the development of new information technologies, and the feminization and increasing precarity of the labour market. Although there is now a substantial literature on the gendered aspects of these transformations and the impact of feminism on state institutions, there is little research on how contemporary feminist activist movements respond to, and engage with, these profound transformations in the gender regimes of European societies.

Additionally, many academic and social commentators have said that feminist movements are no longer as vibrant and radical as they once were and that young people are disconnected from feminism and social movement activism more broadly. But it is evident that feminism continues to be a significant social and political force, albeit often in ways that depart from traditional models of movement activism and cut across generational boundaries.

Against this backdrop, the special issue asks: how have 21^st century feminisms responded to the changing gendered realities of contemporary Europe? Is European feminist activism in decline, or is it taking on a renewed visibility and significance? And in what ways do the demands and practices of European feminists converge and diverge in different contexts?

Questions to be explored include, but are not limited to, the following:

• What are the key demands and foci of contemporary feminist activisms, and how do they vary across contexts?
• What kinds of strategies, tactics and organisational structures characterise new feminist activisms in Europe?
• What is the cultural and political reach of “third wave” feminism? To what extent is a wave-based generational metaphor appropriate for making sense of the histories of feminism in different contexts? What are the main (dis)connections between contemporary feminist activism, and earlier waves/generations?
• Is feminism still a women’s movement? What is the place of men and queer, intersex and transgendered people in these new feminist groups?
• How do diasporic communities and the politics of migration interact with the new feminisms?
• What role do new information technologies play within the new feminisms?
• What are the connections between feminist social movements and left-wing politics? What role does feminism play in student protest and activism against austerity measures across Europe?
• In what ways do new feminist movements reflect and contest their different national landscapes? In what ways have democratic transitions (including those from fascism and communism) impacted upon feminist movements? Or is the distinctiveness of nation for feminist movements increasingly eroded in a digitally-mediated world? How do European feminists engage with globalization? Is what ways is the local (e.g. the city, neighbourhood or place) still significant?
• How do social movements relate to the institutionalisation of feminism in national and international politics (e.g. through the EU)? What are the different ways in which feminist movements engage with political parties?
• How do new feminist movements address intersectionality in relation to ethnicity, class, sexuality, health, disability and other related areas?
• How are new feminisms engaging with the changing religious realities, including secularization and the rise of fundamentalisms, of countries in Europe?

The call is open and competitive. Each submission will be subject to the usual (blind) review process. Deadline for submission of articles (maximum 8,000 words including bibliography and notes) is Friday 13^th July 2012. Articles should be formatted according to the Social Movement Studies style guide and submitted to both K.Aune(at)derby.ac.uk and ipijde(at)leeds.ac.uk, to whom any queries should be directed.

It is anticipated that the special issue will be published in early 2014.