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


Research Committee on
Social Transformations and Sociology of Development RC09

Main theme
Social transformations and societies


Programme Coordinators
Ulrike Schuerkens, EHESS, France, uschuerkens@gmail.com and Nina Bandelj, University of California, USA, nbandelj@uci.edu

Local Hosts
Margarita Barañano, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain, ecso303@sis.ucm.es and Elena Casado ,Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain, s97@cps.ucm.es

Venue of RC09 sessions:

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

Session 1: Public sphere and capital cities in Asia: Competing claims over religious and democratic space

Friday, September 5, 2008, 15:30-17:30
Organizers: Emma Porio, Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines, eporio@ateneo.edu and and Habibul Haque Khondker, Zayed University, UAE, habib.khondker@gmail.com
This panel will explore the role of selected capital cities in Asia as an arena for competition between religious use and democratic practice. Historical development of cities and the use of city space provide valuable clue to understanding the process of democratization in Asia. Historical understanding of city development and the use of public space also provide a glimpse of the colonial articulation.

In the nationalist struggles, cities like Manila and Dhaka played critical roles in developing a public sphere, paving the way for secularism and democratization in the Philippines and Bangladesh respectively. The exploration of the capital city and the public sphere drawing upon the colonial history and its influence on contemporary political developments will add an important and new dimension to the understanding of contemporary debates in Asia with regard to democratization.

The papers in this panel will touch on the public sphere in terms of the layout of public space in so far as the political use of space is concerned with competing classes and political parties as well as religious groups. Tensions between representations of regime power versus representations of democratic power over public spaces will also be explored. Various political regimes have used the national capital region as their platform for articulating representations of power before the nation and the world, while the opposition to hegemonic
power has contested the same public space.

The papers in this panel will concentrate on democracy and nationalism in the post-colonial and post-authoritarian era. Various papers and discussions in the panel will also touch on a comparative understanding of Asian city spaces as centers of influence both culturally and economically.

Session 2: Transformations of social inequality and globalization. Part I

Saturday, September 6, 2008, 09:00-11:00
Organizer: Ulrike Schuerkens, EHESS, France, uschuerkens@gmail.com
In development and transformation studies, the classical model of center-periphery is waning, as there are now new forms of global socio-economic inequality between countries of the geographic South and/or Eastern European countries. Some East Asian countries have known in recent decades economic and social developments that are unknown on the African continent. Thus we would like to ask several questions that may be tackled in the abstracts to be submitted for this session.

Does economic globalization lead to more socio-economic inequalities and, if so, at which scales? The answer may depend on local socio-cultural situations, especially if viewed from an historical perspective. Are globalization discourses used in order to justify and uphold inequities between different economies and/or is it possible to avoid inequality at the global scale? Do we need a global policy, which readjusts social and economic inequalities? Or should the market be allowed to balance these processes?

Why does wide inequality between rich and poor countries, between rich and poor people within countries, and between men and women continue despite strategies, resolutions, and policies? Are we currently confronting inequalities linked to the form taken by capitalism in the global era? Authors may consider that the market society is a competitive society with winners and losers at all levels and unless states take actions to influence market outcomes, the increasingly open trade may change the form of inequalities but may not resolve uneven development.

We invite papers that present challenging case studies within the theoretical perspective outlined here and ask authors to discuss the topic in particular geographic regions or by comparing several regions.

Session 3: Transformations of social inequality and globalization. Part II

Saturday, September 6, 2008, 11:30-13:30
Organizer: Ulrike Schuerkens, EHESS, France, uschuerkens@gmail.com

Session 4: Human rights paradigms and movements: Third World perspectives and challenges. Part I

Saturday, September 6, 2008, 15:30-17:30
Organizer: Peter Chua, San Jose State University, USA, pchua@sjsu.edu
Papers may examine problems of discourse on universalism/relativism, basic needs (from overcoming poverty to providing shelter and cultural/legal rights to women, sexual minorities, and indigenous groups), civil liberties, and institutional protection in varying Third World and other transforming societies.

Session 5: The state and development. Part I

Sunday, September 7, 2008, 09:00-11:00
Organizer: Wade Roberts, Colorado College, USA, wroberts@coloradocollege.edu
The role and significance of the state and public institutions in development processes has received considerable and growing attention in the literature over the past two decades. State-building and "good governance" are now primary components of national development projects and the international development paradigm. This session invites papers that examine the multi-faceted relationship between the state and development. Among other topics, papers may address such issues as the causes and impact of failed and weak states, the institutional design of developmental states, and state-building and good governance as development.

Session 6: The state and development. Part II

Sunday, September 7, 2008, 11:30-13:30
Organizer: Wade Roberts, Colorado College, USA, wroberts@coloradocollege.edu

Session 7: Human rights paradigms and movements: Third World perspectives and challenges. Part II

Sunday, September 7, 2008, 15:30-17:30
Chair: Peter Chua, San José State University, USA, pchua@sjsu.edu

Session 8: Postsocialist transformations and international influences

Friday, September 5, 2008, 15:30-17:30
Organizers: Nina Bandelj, University of California, USA, nbandelj@uci.edu

Session 9: Migrant organizations in the transnational era

Saturday, September 6, 2008, 09:00-11:00
Organizer: Eric Popkin, Colorado College, USA, epopkin@coloradocollege.edu
Scholarly interest in transnational migration has emerged in the context of the massive population movements that have occurred in the current era of globalization. Immigrants pursue either individual or collective relationships with the country of origin for a variety of reasons including the difficulty in obtaining economic security in either sending and receiving societies, racial and ethnic discrimination in the host society, and/or a desire to assist in the socioeconomic development of communities of origin often neglected by home governments or destroyed by civil conflict.

Migrant-led transnationalism includes maintaining kinship and social networks across borders, sending or receiving remittances, and the establishment of hometown associations that engage in collective community projects in the home region among other activities. The elaborate linkages between migrant sending and receiving areas that emerge lead some analysts to conceive of transnational migration as a phenomenon that may go beyond individuals and households, incorporating entire communities (migrant and non-migrant members) into the globalization process.

For this session, we would like to encourage theoretically orientated case studies or theoretical reflections based on empirical facts that focus on the emergence and development of migrant organizations that maintain linkages with their communities of origin. In particular, we are interested in papers that examine the commonalities and differences between migrant associations (either from the same or different national groups)in one host community (country), compare migrant organizations from the same national group in several receiving contexts, or assess how different migrant groups shape socio-economic development processes in one community (country) of origin.

Session 10: Understanding economic transformations in Postsocialism

Saturday, September 6, 2008, 11:30-13:30
Organizer: Nina Bandelj, University of California, USA, nbandelj@uci.edu
Since 1989, the Central and East European countries and the former Soviet Union have experienced significant change. Although many social scientists focus on the gradual nature of transformations and strong path-dependency, it is undeniable that the social, political and economic orders in this region are starkly different from the communist times. This session welcomes papers that investigate the role of new economic, social and political actors in facilitating the postsocialist transformations in East/Central Europe and the former Soviet Union.

We are interested in understanding how politics, discourses and legacies shape the new institutions and new (or reconstructed) actors, whose activity constitutes the postsocialist order. We welcome single country studies that specify the detailed mechanisms of change for individual cases or comparative studies that examine cross-national differences in these institutionalization processes.

Session 11: Understanding postsocialist transformations: The role of new actors and new institutions

Saturday, September 6, 2008, 15:30-17:30
Organizer: Nina Bandelj, University of California, USA, nbandelj@uci.edu

Session 12: Constructing the cultural wealth of nations

Sunday, September 7, 2008, 09:00-11:00
Chairs: Nina Bandelj, University of California, Irvine, USA, nbandelj@uci.edu, and Frederick Wherry, University of Michigan, USA, ffwherry@umich.edu

Session 13: Converting cultural wealth into economic capital

Sunday, September 7, 2008, 11:30-13:30
Chairs: Nina Bandelj, University of California, Irvine, USA, nbandelj@uci.edu, and Frederick Wherry, University of Michigan, USA, ffwherry@umich.edu

Session 14: Business meeting

Sunday, September 7, 2008, 18:00-20:00

Joint Sessions

Joint Session 1: Multiple modernities, sociology of development, and postcolonial studies I

Sunday, September 7, 2008, 09:00-11:00
Joint Session of RC09 Social Transformation and Sociology of Development and TG02, Historical and comparative research

Organizers: Ulrike Schuerkens, EHESS, France, uschuerkens@gmail.com and Willfried Spohn, Catholic University of Eichstatt, Germany, willfried.spohn@ku-eichstaett.de
Sociological approaches to the non-Western world are still moving in separate traditions. The sociology of development is, broadly speaking, based on revised modernization and Marxist approaches, having moved from structural-functional and evolutionist to more agency-oriented forms of neomodernization and neo-Marxist analysis. Post-colonial studies originated from a postmodernist critique of modernist and Marxist approaches to colonial and post-colonial societies, but having their home more in literary criticism and anthropology than sociology. The multiple modernities perspective has developed as a neo-Weberian alternative to modernist approaches to non Western societies, but more with regard to other world-civilization and world centres rather than peripheral or post-colonial societies.

Joint Session 2: Multiple modernities, sociology of development, and postcolonial studies II

Sunday, September 7, 2008, 11:30-13:30
Joint Session of RC09 Social Transformation and Sociology of Development and TG02, Historical and comparative research

Organizers: Ulrike Schuerkens, EHESS, France, uschuerkens@gmail.com and Willfried Spohn, Catholic University of Eichstatt, Germany, willfried.spohn@ku-eichstaett.de

Joint Session 3: Leisure, social transformations and development

Sunday, September 7, 2008, 09:00-11:00
Joint session of RC09 Social Transformation and Sociology of Development and RC13 Sociology of Leisure
Organizers: Frederick F. Wherry, University of Michigan, fwherry@umich.edu and Ishwar Modi, India International Institute of Social Science, iiiss2005modi@yahoo.co.in
The fast changing socio-economic and political systems in different parts of the world - e.g. Latin America, Eastern Europe, South Africa, Asia - due to factors such as urbanization, economic globalization, privatization, colonial heritage, religion, large scale migrations etc., have caused significant changes and modifications of traditional leisure practices, and have given rise to new forms of leisure. The intertwining and mutual impacts of these transformations of leisure practices linked to high level consumerism require more scholarly analyses in order to focus on the long term changes of these practices and also to understand how and in which directions these transformations are shaping and influencing the contemporary patterns of leisure. The situation we find today is as much a matter of concern for the members of RC 13 as those of RC 09. The way recent political and economic developments in many parts of the world have influenced the wider society is today a matter of scholarly and popular concern. The objective of this joint session is to focus on empirical case studies from different parts of the world: from Southern as well as Northern countries. These case studies should also consider recent theoretical discussions on the change in leisure practices.