28 - 31 August 2013
Torino, Italy

MD – Mid-day Specials

Mid-day specials will include selectve thematc sessions, Author Meets Critcs sessions and Workshop sessions of importance to the discipline or of interest beyond it. They will each last one hour.

With regard to two thematc Mid-day sessions (see below), on the EU Zone Crisis (2 sessions) and on Critque and Crisis, it is the first time at ESA Conferences that presenters will be selected with the help of abstract submission and peer-review evaluaton in order to contribute to special sessions. Sociologists from Europe and beyond are invited to submit abstracts.

Sessions

  • MD01 ESA lecture (i): On the Future of Social Science
    chair: Ellen Kuhlmann <e.kuhlmann@em.uni-frankfurt.de>, University Siegen
  • MD02 EU Zone: Which Crisis? Views and Experiences from Different European Regions (1)
    chair: Georg Vobruba <vobruba@sozio.uni-leipzig.de> University of Leipzig

    Will Europe work? Does the crisis of the Eurozone threaten the politcal existence of the European Union? Will it further adapt the state to fnancial markets and push aside the social agenda of the EU?

    It is tme for sociology again. Despite this, the current language of the crisis is the language of economics. The Eurozone crisis is currently being discussed in terms of a debt crisis of the state that requires a politcs of austerity. Before this, it was portrayed as a fnancial crisis of the banking system that required the bail-out of banks. Before that, it was represented as a subprime mortgage crisis in the US. Millions lost ground. But this fact does not ft with the theory of market equilibrium. What does sociology say?

    The conference will devote two Mid-day Special Sessions (four speakers) to the “big picture”, possibly picking up the thread of classical sociology. How do sociologists from the North-West, the South and the East of Europe analyse the ongoing crisis of the EU zone?

    We invite papers that share experiences from different European regions and offer provocative sociological views on their subject matter.

  • MD03 Author Meets Critics (1): R. Miller & G. Day
    Chair: Maggie O’Neill <maggie.o’neill@durham.ac.uk>, Durham University Discussant: Wolfram Fischer <firos@uni-kassel.de>, University of Kassel; Kaja Kaźmierska <kajakaz@uni.lodz.pl>, University of Lodz
  • MD04 Author Meets Critics (2): C. Heath
    chair: Bernt Schnettler <schnettler@uni-bayreuth.de>, Bayreuth University Discussants: Hubert Knoblauch <Hubert.Knoblauch@tu-berlin.de>, Technische Universität Berlin Alain Quemin <aquemin@univ-paris8.fr>, Université Paris-Est
  • MD05 Specials & workshops (1): Rethinking Gramsci
    chair: Sergio Scamuzzi <sergio.scamuzzi@unito.it>, Universitá degli Studi di Torino
  • MD06 Specials & workshops (2): Network of Social Science Laboratories
    Chairs: Ricca Edmondson <ricca.edmondson@nuigalway.ie>, National University Of Ireland (Galway); Anne Ryen <anne.ryen@uia.no>, University of Agder
  • MD07 ESA lecture (ii): On the University – University in Crisis?
    Chair: Suvi Ronkainen <suvi.ronkainen@ulapland.fi>, University of Lapland
  • MD08 Critique and Crisis
    chair: Frank Welz <frank.welz@uibk.ac.at> Innsbruck University

    What is the meaning of critique today? On the one hand, critique has often been understood as normatve criticism by intellectuals. On the other hand, in times of crisis many movements across the world, such as the Occupy protests, the social uprisings in the Arab Spring, the unrest in Greece, and discontent in other European countries, have been analysed as living forms of critque. Are they indicative of reconfiguratons of the link between crisis and critique? Does crisis need critique? Or does critique put the institutional order of things into a state of crisis?

    When Koselleck described modern consciousness as one of crisis (Critque and Crisis, 1959), he had in mind the origins of critique in the Enlightenment and its role in the ‘pathogenesis of modern society’. However, this ESA Mid-day Special invites papers that take up arguments such as that by Koselleck, in which a link is made between critique and crisis as historical categories; such links could be discussed against the background of the current crisis.

  • MD09 Author Meets Critics (3): D. Chernilo
    Chair: Marta Soler Gallart <marta.soler@ub.edu>, Universitat de Barcelona Discussants: Mark Gould <mgould@haverford.edu>, Haverford College; Csaba Szaló <szalo@fss.muni.cz>, Mazaryk University
  • MD10 Author Meets Critics (4): F. Zajczyk & A. Sarlo
    Chair: Maria Carmela Agodi <agodi@unina.it>, Universitá di Napoli Federico II Discussants: Ursula Apitzsch <apitzsch@soz.uni-frankfurt.de>, Goethe-University Frankfurt; Marila Guadagnini <guadagnini@alma.it>, Universitá degli Studi di Torino
  • MD11 Specials & workshops (3): Internationalisation of Qualitative Research – Perspectives and Challenges
    Chair: Gerben Moerman <gmoerman@uva.nl>, University of Amsterdam
  • MD12 Launch of our 2nd ESA Journal: ‘European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology’
    Chair: Pertti Alasuutari <pertti.alasuutari@uta.fi>, University of Tampere
  • MD13 ESA lecture (iii): On the Status of the Discipline
    Chair: Tally Katz-Gerro <tkatz@soc.haifa.ac.il>, University of Haifa Discussants: Elena Danilova <endanilova@gmail.com>, National Research University (Moscow) Frank Welz <frank.welz@uibk.ac.at>, Innsbruck University
  • MD14 EU Zone: Which Crisis? Views and Experiences from Different European Regions (2)
    chair: Luigi Pellizzoni <PellizzoniL@sp.units.it>, Università di Trieste
  • MD15 Author Meets Critics (5): M. Caselli
    Chair: Vincenzo Cicchelli <vcicchelli@msh-paris.fr>, University Paris 4; Discussant: Paolo Parra Saiani <paolo.parra.saiani@unige.it>, Universitá degli Studi di Genova
  • MD16 Specials & workshops (4): Open Access – Dilemmas and Challenges
    Chair: Ellen Annandale <ellen.annandale@york.ac.uk> University of York
  • MD17 Specials & workshops (5): Teaching Quantitative Methods
    Chair: Henning Best <Henning.Best@em.uni-frankfurt.de>, University of Frankfurt
  • MD18 Specials & workshops (6): Funding for Social Scientists
    Chair: Roberto Cipriani <roberto.cipriani@tlc.uniroma3.it>, Universitá degli Studi Roma 3

Thank you very much to all participants for making esa torino an outstanding conference.