ESA Research Network for the Sociology of Culture

Call for papers of the RN Sociology of Culture for the 8^th ESA Conference ‘Conflict, Citizenship and Civil Society’, Glasgow, September 3^rd-7^th 2007

The Research Network Sociology of Culture will organize a number of sessions at the next big ESA Conference in Glasgow. In line with the mission statement of the Research Network, we welcome paper proposals that address a wide range of conceptual, methodological and/or empirical issues. Given the overall nature and the particular theme of the Glasgow conference, we would like to invite papers especially on the following topic:

EUROPEAN CULTURE/S?

The fact that Europe consists of a variety of cultures is as much a commonplace as is the assumption that the political process of European unification, together with cultural and economic globalization, may lead to one European culture (or, at least, to something like a European identity). The study of this one European culture or the many cultures, however, has been systematically neglected. Of course, there are some conceptualisations of European culture/s using values as the principal parameter of culture. The issue has also been tackled on the national level ("cultural studies of ...”), and there are even more regional approaches within European ethnology. Yet, the question still remains open as to if there is a differentia specifica of European Culture/s. Is there something like “Europeanness”? Does cultural globalisation lead to a dissociation of European Culture/s? In what relation does an eventual "European Culture" stand to the various divergent and convergent tendencies of unification and diversification? As we know, these questions are not only of academic interest but affect political and social conflicts in and outside of Europe.

The proposed theme should not (only) be understood in a narrow, ideational way. Rather, the topic of “European Culture/s?” may act as a frame for a variety of ongoing developments that are at the centre of debate within contemporary sociology of culture, such as individualisation, globalisation, cultural standardisation and commodification, the rise of new gender constellations, immigration & post-colonialism… Also, the theme may be linked to current developments in various cultural fields, such as religion (e.g., the debate on the rise of “European Islam”), science & technology, the media or the arts, as well as in the domains of labour (e.g., the debate on “immaterial labour”),  policy making or social movements.

Queries to our call for papers can be sent to:

·        Thomas S. Eberle <thomas.eberle@unisg.ch>  or

·        Hubert Knoblauch <Hubert.Knoblauch@tu-berlin.de>  or

·        Rudi Laermans Rudi.Laermans@soc.kuleuven.be

Registration and abstract submission

Paper proposals should be submitted until February 28, 2007. A decision on acceptance will be provided by April 15, 2007.

All abstracts have to be submitted through the general ESA conference site. Only abstracts submitted via that site will be processed. For more information and submitting your abstract, please go the site of the 8th ESA conference:

http://www.esa8thconference.com/abstractsubmission/index.php

Please read the information and the guidelines on this site carefully before submitting your abstract. According to the ESA guidelines for this conference, abstracts should not exceed 200 words and individuals should not be the first author (i.e. the presenter) of more than one paper at the ESA-conference. Your abstract should be in English and give a clear picture of the contents of your paper. Please include a title, the name(s) of the author(s), institutional affiliation (both university and department), mailing address, email address, fax and phone number. 

For more information about the 8th ESA conference, visit

http://www.esa8thconference.com/

Changing Cultures: European Perspectives

Joint conference of the ESA Research Network Sociology of Culture & the Cultural Policy Research Centre ‘Re-Creatief Vlaanderen’

Ghent (Belgium), November 15-17, 2006

The ESA Research Network Sociology of Culture

The Sociology of Culture network was founded in 2005 under the auspices of the European Sociological Association thanks to the efforts of Rudi Laermans, Anna Lisa Tota, Tia De Nora, Thomas Eberle and other founding members who wished to promote scholarly exchange and creative collaboration between European-based sociologists of culture and non-European sociologists with an interest in specific aspects of ‘cultures in Europe’. The first meeting of the Network was held at the 7th-ESA-conference in Torun (Poland) in September 2005. The network will organize sessions and meetings at regular ESA conferences; in-between the latter, an interim conference will be the rule. The first interim conference will be held in November 2006 in Flanders (Belgium). More information about it and a call for papers will appear on this site.

The Board 2005-2007

Chair: Rudi Laermans (Centre for Sociological Research, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium) rudi.laermans@soc.kuleuven.be

Vice-chair: Anna Lisa Tota (Dept. of Communication and Arts, Faculty of Literature and Philosophy, University Rome III, Rome, Italy) - tota@uniroma3.it

Board Members:

Tia De Nora (Dept. of Sociology and Philosophy, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Exeter, England UK) – tdenora@exeter.ac.uk

Thomas S. Eberle, as webmaster (Institute of Sociology, University of St. Gallen, Switzerland) - thomas.eberle@unisg.ch


Mark D. Jacobs (George Mason University, USA) - mjacobs@gmu.edu 


Hubert Knoblauch (Fäkultät VII, Institut für Soziologie, TU Berlin, Germany) - Hubert.Knoblauch@TU-Berlin.DE



Contact: rudi.laermans@soc.kuleuven.be ; tota@uniroma3.it

“Mission Statement” of the ESA Research Network Sociology of Culture

Since the 1980’s, culture has again become a key concept and central research theme within the social sciences, particularly within sociology. This ‘cultural turn’ had a profound impact on the general sociological research agenda and on the content of academic sociological curricula. It was therefore appropriate to set up an autonomous research network for the sociology of culture within the framework of the European Sociological Association. The main aim of the network is to provide a forum for discussion and exchange for sociologists of culture who are either based in Europe or whose research is devoted to one or more aspects of ‘culture in Europe’. In addition, the network may also act as a European forum for the exchange of teaching experiences in the field of the sociology of culture. Last but not least, the network wants to be an intellectual space in which the different trends that nowadays re-articulate Europe’s cultural identity can be discussed from a sociological point of view.

Within the sociology of culture, there exists general agreement that genuine cultural practices and artefacts have to do with the symbolization and experience, individually or collectively, of shared representations (the Durkheimian tradition) or shared meanings (the Weberian or interpretative tradition). The network acknowledges a well-established tradition of quantitative and qualitative empirical research on the symbolic and experiential character of cultural practices or artefacts on the one hand, and on the relationships between the latter and the belonging to specific social categories or groups, ranging from classes over ethnic groups to local subcultures, on the other hand. The network wants to continue this double faced tradition and stimulate cross-regional and cross-national comparisons. In line with this tradition, the network aims to further the ongoing sociological debate on the importance of cultural identities, symbolic boundaries, multiculturalism and ‘identity work’ within contemporary European society.

Another prominent research theme is cultural change. Thus, much attention has been given during recent years to the processes, or their effects, of secularization, globalization (including the breakthrough of ‘the network society’), individualization, value change and ‘cultural pluralization’. Still other sociologists of culture stress the growing professionalization and ‘mediatization’ of culture. Culture indeed no longer has predominantly to do with a pre-given collective consciousness or life-world. Nowadays, many cultural practices are unthinkable without the professional production and mediation of all kinds of goods and artefacts. The latter are differently received and appropriated according to the socially structured cultural frameworks of their users. All this is reflected in the growing importance of the notions of ‘lifestyle’, ‘cultural economy’ and ‘production of culture’ within the sociology of culture. Moreover, one may note a heightened sociological interest in the functioning of various kinds of cultural organizations.

Another research area that is well-established within the sociology of culture concerns the existence of cultural hierarchies. These are related to social or status hierarchies and imply manifest or latent operations of distinction, of exclusion or closure, and of power exercise. Seen in this light, the notion of culture refers to different kinds of arenas in which individuals as well as social groups negotiate claims on cultural recognition and legitimacy. Recent research suggests that traditional cultural hierarchies are shifting and re-articulated, e.g. the difference between so-called high and low culture, the arts and popular entertainment. Simultaneously, research on the links between culture and power has been expanded into new areas, particularly gender and ethnicity. Empirical research also addresses the enduring importance of education and schooling in the establishment and reproduction of cultural hierarchies and life-styles.

During recent years, new research themes and theoretical concepts have enriched the sociology of culture. Thus, the notion of cultural memory has given raise to a broader scholarly interest in the uses of various cultural forms for the representation of actual conflicts, contested memories, or controversial events. More generally, the public use of cultural symbols or artefacts has become a central theme in the research of many European and American scholars. Also, interesting research has been done on diaspora cultures and trans-national cultures, and on everyday life and micro-practices of cultural (re)production. At a more theoretical level, but with important empirical ramifications, the sociology of culture has recently been enriched by conceptual contributions from adjacent disciplines, particularly media theory and performance theory. The network wants to act as a forum for the critical discussion of these and other renewals, particularly from the point of view of their fruitfulness for empirical research.

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