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


Research Committee on
Women in Society RC32

Main theme
Weaving spheres of knowledge and action: Sociological research and women in society


Programme Coordinators
Esther Ngan-ling Chow, American University, USA, echow@american.edu and Margaret Abraham, Hofstra University, USA, margaret.abraham@hofstra.edu

Local Hosts
Maria Angeles Durán, Consejo Superior Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid, Spain and dur@ieg.csic.es and Cristina García, Universidad
Autónoma de Madrid, Spain, cristina.garcia@uam.es

One of the RC32 mission objectives is “to promote the development of theory, methods, and practice concerning women in society and the gendered nature of social institutions.” The chosen theme for The First ISA World Forum, “Sociological Research and Public Debate” offers us a valuable opportunity to accomplish our mission objective by engaging in the production of transformative knowledge in sociological research and theoretical inquiry and by bringing scholarship to the public arena for dialogues, exchanges, debates, and practices.

More specifically, the RC32 program for the First ISA World Forum is dedicated to examine the intricately interwoven relationships between theory and methodology, between research and action, and between structure and agency, on issues relating to women/gender and society. Various sessions have been organized to explore the ways in which scholarship and praxis are intersected, reflecting women’s multiple realities and lived experiences; challenging inequality and injustice due to differences, exclusion, and discrimination; and transforming the society in which we live. The intersectionality of gender, race/ethnicity, class, age/generation, nationality, sexual orientation, and dis/ability is emphasized in these sessions.

Venue of RC32 sessions:

Faculty of Philology
University of Barcelona
Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, 585
08007 Barcelona, Spain, map

Independent Sessions

Session 1: Talking the talk, walking the walk: Feminist research and practice and women and society

Co-Organizers: Margaret Abraham, Hofstra University, USA, margaret.abraham@hofstra.edu and Kalpana Kannabiran, Resource Center for Women, India, kalpana.kannabiran@gmail.com
This session will focus on the role of Feminist sociological research in the production and consumption of knowledge and its transformative potential in challenging patriarchy and shaping social structures within which women are located. It will critically explore the ways in which scholarship and practice combine to address women’s multiple social realities and inequities of power based on the intersections of race, class, gender and citizenship. Papers will address the ways in which feminist sociological research and practice have engaged with key issues such as health, education, violence, poverty, women’s empowerment and agency in mainstream and marginalized communities. It will also address how feminist research has engaged publics beyond the academe, contested power structures, influenced communities, impacted on public policies, changed pedagogical approaches and shaped the world in which we live.
Has feminist sociological research talked the talk and walked the walk? What are its pitfalls and possibilities in a globalizing world?

Session 1 A: Macro contexts and regional trends in feminist research and practice

Saturday, September 6, 2008, 09:00-11:00
Chair: Margaret Abraham, Hofstra University, USA, margaret.abraham@hofstra.edu

Session 1 B: Feminism and research methodologies in action
Saturday, September 6, 2008, 11:30-13:30
Chair: Kalpana Kannabiran, NALSAR University of Law, India, kalpana.kannabiran@gmail.com

Session 1 C: Sociological research and practice in addressing violence against women
Saturday, September 6, 2008, 15:30-17:30
Chair: Margaret Abraham, Hofstra University, USA, margaret.abraham@hofstra.edu

Session 2: Obstacles to and strategies for doing sociology for women

Co-Organizers: Joey Sprague, University of Kansas, USA, jsprague@ku.edu and Lin Tan, Womens's Studies Institute of China, China, Tanlin@nankai.edu.cn
The purpose of this session is to learn from the experiences of academic sociologists regarding activism. Does working within the academy make it hard to create knowledge that is activist-oriented? How well rewarded is sociology that serves social change? If you have tried to be an activist sociologist, what impact has that had on your scholarship and/or activism? If you would like to be more active than you are, what do you see as the main barriers you face? What would make the work of being an activist easier to integrate with the work of being an academic sociologist? The goal of this session is to share experiences so that in our dialogue can learn how to organize our institutions to be places that foster scholarship that is both high quality and promotes justice for women.

Session 2 A: Obstacles to and strategies for doing sociology for women
Sunday, September 7, 2008, 09:00-11:00
Chair: Joey Sprague, University of Kansas, USA, jsprague@ku.edu

Session 2 B: Women, pedagogy and academe: Persistence and change
Sunday, September 7, 2008, 11:30-13:30
Chair: Julia Rozanova, University of Alberta, Canada, rozanova@ualberta.ca

Session 3: Researching women in Africa and the African diaspora: New social science perspectives

Sunday, September 7, 2008, 15:30-17:30
Co-Organizers: Josephine Beoku-Betts, Florida Atlantic University, USA, beokubet@fau.edu and Akosua Adomako Ampofo, University of Ghana, Ghana, adomako@ug.edu.gh
Over the past two decades, feminist and gender studies scholarship on the status and roles of women in African and the African Diaspora has grown exponentially in theoretical and empirical contexts. While some of the broader issues in feminist and gender studies scholarship have been subjects of research in the Global North, such as family, work, social and political movements, transnational migration, health, sexuality, information technology, human rights and popular culture, these issues have been largely ignored or at least marginalized until recently. This panel will explore new theoretical and empirical discourses in feminist /gender studies and social science scholarship on African and African diasporic women and will work within the paradigms of feminism, intersectionality, and transnationalism.

Session 4: Middle Eastern women’s movements and activism in the globalized world: Research and action

Saturday, September 6, 2008, 09:00-11:00
Co-Organizers: Suaad Zayed Al-Oraimi, United Arab Emirates, zayedal@aol.com Nazanin Shahrokni, University of Berkeley, USA, nazanin@berkeley.edu
The focus of this comparative session will be on women’s movements and activism in the Middle East and the ways in which these are shaped by a myriad of local and global factors. The session aims at exploring recent local and global challenges encountered by women when they participate in social movements in the Middle East. We are interested in the interplay between state policies, women’s activism, and everyday life and strategies of women in tackling these challenges.
Moreover the scholarship on women in the Middle East predominantly makes use of binaries such as tradition/modernity, fundamentalism/imperialism, religious/secular etc. The session especially welcomes papers that engage critically with these binaries and investigate their implications for women’s movements and activism in the Middle East.
This session seeks to serve as a forum for sharing experiences, recognizing the common issues, and theorizing new strategies for dealing with these issues. Some of the topics of the papers may deal with but are not necessarily limited to: Women’s movement, definition, challenges and strategies; Women at the intersection of Feminism, Islam, and the State; The interaction between State and women’s movements; Feminism inside Academia and on the field; Public/Private reciprocity.

Session 5: Transnational migration, land and resources sustainability in Africa

Saturday, September 6, 2008, 11:30-13:30
Co-organizers: Oluyemi Fayom, Convenant University, Nigeria, olu_fayomi@yahoo.com and Lotsmart Fonjong, Buea University, Cameroon, lotsmarat@yahoo.cm
Migration across national borders is increasingly being seen as a strategy to alleviate poverty, reduce vulnerability to crises, and support recovery once a disaster like famine, flood, drought, accident, business failure occurs. Conditions in which women are exposed to especially in developing countries are quite volatile. For example, the feminization of migration is a serious gender issue in Africa given that women suffer more. As women and as migrants, they have little access to land, which is the principal source of livelihood for most African poor. And since traditional land tenure systems, colonial, and early post-colonial laws that regulate land rights neglected women; they thus tend to work on land without any secured rights. Consequently, they will not carry out any sound investments that can ensure sustainability on land they do not own. This situation has implications on their productivity and natural resource management. The session seeks papers on: Women and transnational migration; Women and resource sustainability; Women and dimensions of urbanization; Migrant women, land rights and land tenure system; Poverty and struggle for survival; Crises, resource conflict and resolution.

Session 6: Women, work, family

Co-Organizers: Esther Ngan-ling Chow, American University, USA, echow@american.edu and Margaret Abraham, Hofstra University, USA, Margaret.Abraham@hofstra.edu

Session 6 A: Women, work, family
Saturday, September 6, 2008, 15:30-17:30
Co-Chairs: Suaad Zayed al-Oraimi, United Arab Emirates University, UEA, zayedal@aol.com and Laura Alipranti-Maratou, Naional Centre for Social Research, Athens, Greece, lipranti@germanosnet.gr

Session 6 B: Labor force participation and women’s work: Issues and contexts
Sunday, September 7, 2008, 09:00-11:00
Chair: Esther Ngan-ling Chow, American University, USA, echow@american.edu

Session 6 C: Women, migration, civil society and development
Sunday, September 7, 2008, 11:30-13:30
Co-Chairs: Lotsmart Fonjong, Buea University, Cameroon, lotsmart@yahoo.com and Oluyemi Fayomi, Covenant University, Nigeria, olu_fayomi@yahoo.com

Joint Sessions

Joint session 1: Women, intersectionality and diasporas

RC05 Racism, nationalism and ethnic relations and RC 32 Women in society
Co-Organizers: Ann Denis, University of Ottawa, Canada, adenis@uottawa.ca and Sirma Bilge, Université de Montréal, Canada, sirma.bilge@umontreal.ca
Focusing on women living in a Diaspora, this session invites contributions which use intersectional analysis to examine the women’s experiences. Without limiting the range of social positions which are incorporated into the intersectional analysis, gender, ethnicity and the fact of being part of a Diaspora will necessarily be included. Comparative analyses are welcome. Papers may concentrate on theoretical or empirical analysis, or a combination of the two.
This joint session is dedicated to the late Helen Ralston, who was a long-time and active member of both RC05 and RC32. Its theme is informed by interests that she addressed in her own research in Canada on first and second generation immigrant women from India.

Joint Session 1 A. Women, intersectionality and Diasporas: Challenges and resistance
Saturday, September 6, 2008, 09:00-11:00
Chair: Ann Denis, University of Ottawa, Canada, adenis@uottawa.ca

Joint Session 1 B. Women, Intersectionality and Diasporas: Negotiating identity, negotiating family dynamics in the Diaspora
Saturday, September 6, 2008, 11:30-13:30
Chair: Sirma Bilge, Université de Montréal, Canada sirma.bilge@umontreal.ca

Joint Session 2: The Challenges of women's participation/exclusion in public and private contexts

RC10 Participation, Organizational Democracy and Self-Management and RC32 Women in society

Co-Organizers: Esther Ngan-ling Chow, American University, USA, echow@american.edu and Michal Palgi, Emek Yezreel College, Israel, palgi@research.haifa.ac.il
This session examines the causes, the barriers, the challenges and the facilitating factors in women’s participation and exclusion in public and private contexts at different life stages and in various societies. An emphasis is given to how intersectionality of gender, age, race/ethnicity, and class (or other differences) matters in shaping or hindering various forms and outcomes of women's participation. Their activism and resistance against social exclusion in the public and private domains ranging from the family, organizational structure, and global governance will be explored.

Joint Session 2 A: The challenges of women's participation/exclusion in various contexts
Saturday, September 6, 2008, 15:30-17:30
Chair: Esther Ngan-ling Chow, American University, USA, echow@american.edu

Joint Session 2 B: The challenges of Women's participation/exclusion in socialmMovements
Sunday, September 7, 2008, 09:00-11:00
Chair: Michal Palgi, The Max Stern Academic College of Emek Yezreel, Israel, palgi@yvc.ac.il

Joint Session 3: Transformation in communication and work: The cultural construction and reconstruction of gender

Saturday, September 6, 2008, 18:00-20:00
Faculty of Philosophy, Geography and History, University of Barcelona
RC14 Sociology of Communication, Knowledge and Culture, RC30 Sociology of work, and RC32 Women in society
Co-Organizers: Christiana Constantopoulou, University of Macedonia, Greece, konstant@uom.gr, Diane Gabrielle Tremblay, Tele-Université, Canada tremblay.diane-gabrielle@teluq.uqam.ca, Margaret Abraham, Hofstra University, USA, margaret.abraham@hofstra.edu
New communication technologies have led to several transformations in work (and “leisure”) with implications on existing notions of the public and private space and changing notions of gender. Work at “home”, until recently associated with women, often precludes “normal labor rules” such as security, standard hours of paid work, syndicalism and conviviality at the work place. These issues related to work at home are becoming of increasing concern to more and more people, particularly women and youth. The ongoing transformations in communication and work are reflected in the roles of institutions and the ideas disseminated by the press. For instance, in the absence and inefficacy of social services, the mass media has become an important vehicle whereby issues of poverty, employment opportunities and “special” appeals for help are addressed. Today, TV acts as a “social mediator”, both locally and globally in culturally constructing and reconstructing the way we communicate, our attitudes to work (both at home and the workplace), and in shaping our notions of gender.

Joint Session 4: Biographical and feminist methods in a global framework

Sunday, September 7, 2008, 15:30-17:30
RC38 Biography and Society and RC32 Women in society

Organiser: Marilyn Porter, Memorial University, Canada and Fatimah Daud, Malaysia, fatimahd@iiu.edu.my
Please send abstracts to: Marilyn Porter: mporter@mun.ca and Fatimah Daud, Malaysia, fatimahd@iiu.edu.my
This joint session (RC38 and RC32) will bring together different perspectives on how feminist thought has influenced biographical methods and vice versa. In particular it will focus on the problems of how theory can sometimes get in the way of understanding how people (women and men) understand their own lives and how they communicate that understanding in biographical interviews.

Joint Session 5: Gender and leisure: Emerging patterns

Saturday, September 6, 2008, 15:30-17:30
RC13 Sociology of Leisure and RC32 Women in society
 Co-organizers: Ishwar Modi, iiiss2005modi@yahoo.co.in, Esther Ngan-ling Chow, echow@american.edu and Margaret Abraham, margaret.abraham@hofstra.edu
This session examines the relationship not only between leisure and gender but also explores the status of leisure in the context of women from different cultural backgrounds. The issues of Women's Leisure may also be examined in the context of "Pleasure and the Pains of Gendered Leisure."

Session 6: Gender, science, technology, innovation, and the future

Monday, September 8, 2008, 11:30-13:30
Faculty of Communication Blanquerna, University of Ramon LLull
Joint Session of RC07 Futures Research, RC23 Sociology of Science and Technology, and RC32 Women in Society
Organizers: RC32: Solange Simoes, Eastern Michigan University, USA, ssimoes@umich.edu and RC23: Radhamany Sooryamoorthy, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, sooryamoorthyr@ukzn.ac.za

Session 7: Business Meeting

Monday, September 8, 2008, 09:00-11:00