In August 21-24, 2008, the Interim Conference of the International Sociological Association’s (ISA) Research Committee on the History of Sociology (RCHS) will take place at Umeå University, Sweden. The conference will be thematically focused on ”Perspectives from the Periphery”.
In the centre of attention will be issues related to different geographical, social, disciplinary and temporal peripheries. How is the local related to the global? Is there a political geography of social theory? In what ways have gender, ethnicity and class structured the production of social knowledge - and our understandings of it? What do experiences from the non-western margins say about today’s spatial and temporal limits, and power relations? Is a trans-national history of the social sciences without a cognitive centre possible, and how would in that case such a history look like?
The conference especially welcomes papers related to one or several of the following sub-themes and topics. But since the aim of the conference is to offer an open and inclusive understanding, papers on other aspects of the history of sociology and the social sciences are welcome as well:
- Geographical peripheries: history of sociology and the social sciences in Sweden and other small or non-western countries; glocal and/or postcolonial perspectives, etc.
- Social peripheries: women as forgotten pioneers and newcomers on the sociological scene, social scientific couples, class and ethnic perspectives, power relations, etc.
- Institutional peripheries: extra-academic social research; state investigations and non-governmental organisations; disciplinary boundaries and academic hierarchies, etc.
- Temporal peripheries: 1968 -- forty years later; long-term historical perspectives; cultural historical perspectives, etc.
Invited keynote speakers will be:
- Prof. Saïd A. Arjomand (Department of Sociology, State University of New York – Stony Brook)
- Prof. Raewyn Connell (Faculty of Education and Social Research, University of Sydney)
- Prof. Johan Heilbron (Centre de sociologie européenne, Paris, and Erasmus University, Roterdam)
- Prof. Eileen Yeo (Department of History, University of Strathclyde)
The conference is co-hosted by the Department of Historical Studies, Umeå University, the Department of Sociology, Uppsala University, and the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study (SCAS).
Submission deadline for paper abstracts: January 31, 2008!
For further information go to the conference website: http://www.periphery2008.se