Plenary Themes
ISA Program Committee has designed four themes for Semi-Plenary Sessions. Each theme will be developed in two sessions. The semi-plenary sessions will be held parallel at 14:00-15:20 on Monday through Thursday, July 14-17, 2013
Not open for submission of abstracts.
Theme I
Dimensions of inequality
Session Organizers
Sari HANAFI, American University of Beirut, Lebanon
Tina UYS, University of Johannesburg, South Africa
Elena ZDRAVOMYSLOVA, European University, Russia
Session I.1
Configurations of Structural Inequalities
What combination of inequalities’ dimensions is most prevalent in different parts of the world? Economic, race/ethnicity, gender, location or space, urban/rural, the body, health, disability, vitality, social citizenship and substantive citizenship (access to rights). Exclusion, discrimination, exploitation. Inter-sectionality of these patterns.
Session I.2
Inequalities and Structures of Power
Concentration of decision making. Power concentration on financial oligarchy (global/transnational, regional, national, local). Impact on different inequalities. Issues of democracy. War and violence.
Theme II
Dynamics of Inequality
Session Organizers
Chin-Chun YI, Academia Sinica, Taiwan
Margaret ABRAHAM, Hofstra University, USA
Edgardo LANDER, Venezuela
Session II.1
Production and Practice of Inequality
Processes and mechanisms of production and reproduction of inequality. What are the processes of disempowerment, disentitlement and their legitimation? Rise of merging countries.
Session II.2
Conflicts on Environmental Justice and Sustainable Future
Science and technology: opportunities, risks (shared, distributed, ignored, mitigated), benefits, losses. Unsustainability. Global unequal exchange. Toxic imperialism. Responsibilities and impacts. Displacements. Distributive justice and access to world´s commons. Indigenous peoples/forest conservation. Tensions between social and environmental justice?
Theme III
Justice and Inequality
Session Organizers
Göran THERBORN, University of Uppsala, Sweden
Kalpana KANNABIRAN, CACIR-ASMITA, India
Esteban CASTRO, Newcastle University, United Kingdom
Session III.1
Conceptions of Justice from Different Historical and Cultural Traditions
What are the key issues in the debate about justice today? Universal human rights, just rule and good society, first nation conception of good life.
Session III.2
Justice and Social Systems
Limits to equality in capitalism. Contemporary social critiques and equality. Difference and inequality (gender/feminist and pluri-cultural perspectives).
Theme IV
Social injures of inequality and social resistance
Session Organizers
Markus SCHULZ, New York University, USA
Raquel SOSA, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico
Session IV.1
Social Injuries of Inequalities
In a world of inequalities, does inequality trigger social struggles? Can extreme inequality inhibit social resistance? Can we explain social resistance or political dissatisfaction without considering inequality? Social injuries of inequality: scars, traumas.
Session IV.2
Overcoming Inequalities: Actors and Experiences
Everyday life practices, citizen initiatives, social movements, labor unions, and political parties challenge existing modes of inequality. How do these and other social actors attempt to realize and imagine alternative futures? What opens or limits the horizon of the possible?
