THE 4TH INTERNATIONAL RSS CONFERENCE, SIBIU, 29 SEPTEMBER – 01 OCTOBER, 2016, CALL FOR SECTIONS 

Societies and social actors constantly face challenges under the impact of many countervailing forces that act within the economic, demographic, political, educational and social realms. In their search for improving their living, people may adopt alternative life strategies and more flexible arrangements that profoundly affect the architecture and fabric of communities.

Some changes are easily discernible or self-evident: international migration permanently increased the stock of migrants, transforming, in various contexts, both immigrants and residents, into visible minorities. New waves of migrants and specific events where migrants are involved raise major questions about the nature and capacity of the security systems across European societies and their axiological foundations.

An increase in number of elderly members of the population creates, in turn, the perspective of new majorities and minorities forming. This raises important challenges to public social security systems and calls into question their sustainability.

In addition to demographic processes and trends, the global economic and financial turbulence of the last decades give salience to the voices of the particular: old minorities challenge the foundation and legitimacy of states almost across all Europe; at a different level both old EU members and new ones interrogate the status and relevance of the Union, its mechanisms, objectives and future.

Digitalization, teleworking, the accelerating pace of business, part time contracts, and job sharing transformed the rules of the labour markets and triggered fractionalization. The dynamics of the labour market (e.g. the creation of new jobs at the expense of other redundant qualifications, segregation of gender, class and race within local and global labour markets), compounded by the limited capacity of the education systems to level the playing field, impact upon long term youth unemployment and raise major social and societal challenges.

Eastern European societies concomitantly experienced democratization, with straightforward changes in the state organization and various civil rights, but also in terms of inequality and social structure, to mention only few areas where changes were almost dramatic. The lesson of democracy was seldom learnt the hard way, starting with the simplistic rule of majority and slowly moving towards receptiveness to minorities. More subtle transformations (such as changes in values) produced deep and long lasting modifications, and also contributed towards the emergence of visible minorities and/or majorities. In addition, ‘counter silent revolutions’ and corruption tended to counterbalance change and, somehow paradoxically, might have actually emphasized the visibility of “minorities”.

Scholars in the social sciences are invited to submit section proposals aiming to debate such themes within the framework of the 4th International Conference of the Romanian Sociological Society (RSS) “New Societies, Old Minorities/ New Minorities, Old Societies?”, hosted by the Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu (LBUS) between 29th of September and 1st of October 2016.

The conference will be preceded by the Midterm Conference of the European Sociological Association RN36, with the topic “Social transformations: new challenges, practices, and critique” (September 28th-29th 2016). Both events will be hosted in the premises of the Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu.

Important details:

Calendar

Deadline for submitting section proposals: 05.03.2016

Announcement of list of accepted sections and call for papers: 15.03.2016

Deadline for submitting paper proposals: 15.05.2016

Announcement of accepted papers: 15.06.2016

Registration deadline: 01.08.2016

Conference: September 29th – October 1st.

The 2016 Midterm Conference of the European Sociological Association RN36 (September 28th-29th) will precede the conference.

Official language of the conference: English.

Participation fees: 60 EUR

SSR members: 45 EUR

Participation fees for convenors: 30 EUR

ESA RN36 participants: 30 EUR