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First ISA Forum of Sociology
Sociological Research and Public Debate
Barcelona, Spain
September 5 - 8, 2008


Research Committee on
Economy and Society RC02

Main theme
Sociological research and public debate on the economy and society


Programme Coordinator
Sylvia Walby, RC02 President, Lancaster University, UK, S.Walby@Lancaster.ac.uk

Local Host
Julián Cárdenas, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain, juliancardenas@ub.edu

The sessions organised by RC02 address the big themes of Sociology in Economy and Society and addresses them through the lens of their relationship to public debate. Economic Sociology can itself be considered a form of critique of the present structuring of economy and society. The sessions address changing nature of global processes, transnational corporations, interlocking directorates, global plutonomy, the knowledge economy and the variations in the form of gender regimes as well as capitalism. Each panel will address this theme via its own focus, as listed below, including an ‘open’ panel.

Venue of RC02 sessions:

Faculty of Philosophy, Geography and History
University of Barcelona
Montalegre, 6
08001 Barcelona, Spain, map

Session 1: Politics and interlocking directorates

Saturday, September 6, 2008, 11:30-13:30
Organizers: Josep A. Rodríguez, jarodriguez@ub.edu
Globalization and the consolidation of the network society are transforming the old relationship between economic and political powers into a relation between networks (political and corporations) often transcending the old national borders. Papers in this session address the political effects of business executives/directors/owners of large corporations as well as the relations and clashes between political and economic networks, especially at the global level

Session 2: Open session

Saturday, September 6, 2008, 11:30-13:30
Chairs: Alexius Anthony Pereira, National University of Singapore, Singapore
socaap@nus.edu.sg and Sylvia Walby, RC02 President, Lancaster University, UK, S.Walby@Lancaster.ac.uk
This "open" panel is designed to showcase new ideas, and new perspectives of existing ideas, in any field of economic sociology, or involving the macro and micro level analysis of how the economy affects society.

Session 3: Varieties of capitalist gender regime

Saturday, September 6, 2008, 15:30-17:30
Chairs: Karen A. Shire, University Duisburg-Essen, Germany, karen.shire@uni-duisburg-essen.de and Monika Goldmann, University of Dortmund, Germany
The early 21st century has seen both the strengthening of regulations for improving gender-based equality of opportunities as well as a deregulation of protections and the privatization of risks. The outcome has been ambiguous for the integration of women in employment and the transformation from a domestic to a public gender regime. Improved equality between women and men seems just as related to the 'downward mobility' of men, while the advancement of educated women appears to be at the cost of greater inequalities among women. Renewed attention to the 'intersection' of gender-based inequalities with other divisions in the social structure promises a complex analysis of the consequences of political, economic and social transformations, but may too quickly skip over the origins of complex inequalities and how they vary in comparative institutional contexts. Both the promise of gender equality and the privatisation of risk are matters of institutional and regulatory change, related to the future role of the public sphere in securing protections, the balance between states, markets, individuals and other possible 'third sector' actors in sharing the responsibility for economic risks and livelihood security.

Papers in this session take up comparative and gender theories, especially related to understanding institutional change, and may address specific institutions or regimes, ideally in comparison and in relation to supra-national and regional as well as country specific developments, including discourses of gender equality in public debates, comparisons of gender equality regulations, changing employment regulations and their articulation with social policy, issues of social exclusion and the individualisation of social risks, inequalities between women, the social (re-) organisation and regulation of carework, and the interaction between gendered organisations and institutions.

Session 4: The knowledge economy

Sunday, September 7, 2008, 09:00-11:00
Chairs: Joan Acker, University of Oregon, USA, Jennifer Tomlinson, University of Leeds, UK, Susan Durbin, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK, Sue.Durbin@uwe.ac.uk
‘Knowledge economy’ is a developing, contested concept that is used as one explanation for changes taking place in the economy, knowledge having become an important source of production (Castells 2000; David and Foray 2002) and an increasing focus for public debate. What does this transition towards a knowledge-based economy mean politically, economically and socially? The panel will debate the implications of a knowledge-based economy, papers taking a critical perspective and engaging with a range of issues and questions that have been raised by the emergence of the knowledge-based economy.

Session 5: Economic sociology as critique

Sunday, September 7, 2008, 11:30-13:30
Chair: Andrew Sayer, Lancaster University, UK, sayer@exchange.lancs.ac.uk
This session is prompted by a concern that much of economic sociology has come to offer increasingly bland and uncritical analyses of contemporary economic arrangements – ones which fail to identify just how profoundly economic arrangements affect the quality of life. Old ideals of value-freedom may have been replaced by a more sanguine view of the inevitably value-laden nature of social science, but both positions share the questionable assumption that values are beyond the scope of reason or science, and are not forms of reasoning in their own right. More recently, heightened awareness of the dangers of essentialism and ethnocentrism has further blunted the critical edge of sociological inquiry. However, on the other hand, ideas that there are basic elements of human well-being, as argued in the capabilities approach, pioneered by Amartya Sen, imply that what is of basic value is not merely subjective or beyond reason and the scope of social science, nor merely a local cultural judgement. Participants are invited to give their own views on whether economic sociology should be critical of its objects of study, and if so, how, and on what grounds.

Session 6: Transnational corporations: Villains or heroes of globalization?

Sunday, September 7, 2008, 15:30-17:30
Chair: Judith Clifton, Universidad de Cantabria, Spain, judith.clifton@unican.es
Analysis of the Transnational Corporation (TNC) in public debate tends to fall into two main camps. On the one hand, TNCs are portrayed as encouraging worsening labour practices, responsible for a loss of a country´s economic autonomy, and synonymous with the rise of a global capitalist class: TNCs are the "villains" of globalization. Other analysts view TNCs as acting rationally to further international trade, and therefore wealth: they are globalization´s "heroes". Whichever perspective is adopted, TNCs are usually associated with firms in the industrial sector, based in the US. At the beginning of the C21st, TNCs are also in the services, and other regions, including Europe, are becoming more important. This session, combing sociological-political economy perspectives, critiques the traditional view of TNCs as oversimplistic, and enquires which new perspectives are needed to better understand the role of the TNC in the C21st.

Session 7: Responses to the emerging global plutonomy

Saturday, September 6, 2008, 18:00-20:00
Chair: Salvatore Babones, University of Pittsburgh, USA, sbabones@inbox.com
In Fall 2005 a team of Citigroup equity analysts introduced the term "Plutonomy" into the English vocabulary, defining Plutonomies as "economies powered by the wealthy." In Citigroup's analysis, "the earth is being held up by the muscular arms of its entrepreneur-plutocrats, like it, or not," and "the Plutonomy is here [and] is going to get stronger, its membership swelling from globalized enclaves in the emerging world." All of which prompts the sociologist to ask: are they right? Are there bases of resistance? And what are the appropriate public policy responses?

Session 8: Welfare and gender regimes in comparative capitalisms

Saturday, September 6, 2008, 11:30-13:30
Chair: Karen Shire, University Duisburg-Essen, Germany, karen.shire@uni-duisburg-essen.de

Joint Session: The ‘Knowledge-Based Bio-Economy’: Critical perspectives

Saturday, September 6, 2008, 18:00-20:00
Joint Panel of RC02, Economy and Society, RC24 Environment and Society and RC23 Sociology of Science and Technology
Chair: Les Levidow, The Open University, UK, l.levidow@open.ac.uk
Critical perspectives have been developed by a recent report, Taking European Knowledge Society Seriously. The authors ask what knowledges are being privileged or marginalised by discourses of the 'Knowledge-Based Society'. Through master narratives, some possible futures are imaginable, while others are marginalised or excluded (Felt et al., 2007).

Master narratives are illustrated especially by the 'Knowledge-Based Bio-Economy', the topic of a major conference (CEC, 2005). The KBBE concept pervades the Commission's Framework Programme 7, especially its thematic priority on 'Food, Agriculture, Fisheries and Biotechnology'. According to an OECD expert group, 'The bio-economy is made possible by the recent surge in the scientific knowledge and technical competences that can be directed to harness biological processes for practical applications.' Potential benefits may be lost or delayed unless government decision-making procedures are adapted to those rapid advances, argue the group (OECD 2006).

Given current policies for the 'Knowledge-Based Bio-Economy', how can critical perspectives generate public debate, while linking diverse academic approaches and stakeholder groups? How can such debate open up possible futures? Taking up those questions, this Panel aims to involve various Research Committees of the ISA and ESA (e.g. Science and Technology, Environment, Risk, Economy, etc.). Talks will critically analyse assumptions of EU policy.