Programme and abstracts

Place: Mezzanine floor

Here you can download the abstract book for the conference.

Place: Dr. Christiaan Barnard Room (1^st floor)

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Place: Dr. Christiaan Barnard Room (1^st floor)

Chair: Marjaana Rautalin

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Colonialities, Spatialities, Positionalities: Revisiting Challenges in Studying Transnational Social Relations

Transnational studies have been quite productive in generating approaches to theorizing transnational, global and translocal relations. Many of these approaches have been used to analyse spatial reorganization of social relations in the context of migration, mobility and new, non-national forms of social inequalities, and to be applied to and reinterpret theories of social mobility, social and symbolic boundaries, intersectionality and supranational relations. This presentation suggests synthesizing sociospatial and societal approaches in transnational studies so as to consider long-term large-scale power asymmetries and patterns of inequalities across the globe. To this end, the talk will bring together (i) multiscalar approaches to space that consider the significance of multiple sociospatial scales, (ii) multiple intersecting forms of transnational(ized) inequalities and (iii) analysis of complex forms of colonialities, including postcolonial, postsocialist and neo-colonial patterns. The talk will conclude with a discussion of challenges presented by researchers’ positionality in studying global and transnational multiscalar relations.

Place:  Dr. Christiaan Barnard Terrace (1^st floor)

Coffee, tea, juice, water and biscuits are served for the participants during the break.

Place: Leda Room (Mezzanine floor)

Chair: Victor Roudometof

Papers:

Pertti Alasuutari: National parliament and the worldwide institutionalization of politics

Motti Regev: Pop-Rock and the Global Transformation of Musicking

Ali Qadir, Pertti Alasuutari & Heba Sigurðardóttir: The crying game: Epistemic governance and emotional work in global parliamentary discourse

Place: Athena Room (Mezzanine floor)

Chair: Marco Caselli

Papers:

Alban Davesne: Faltering Nordic Solidarity? Diverging COVID-19 Strategies and their impact on Cross-border Health Cooperation

Manisha Desai: Rethinking Solidarities Across Borders

Stefania Adriana Bevilacqua: The European Union Social Dimension

Elisabeth Donat & Barbara Mataloni: Looking for allies – Regional Parliaments strategies for engaging in EU affairs

Place: Main Restaurant (floor zero)

Buffet lunch with local non-alcoholic drinks.

Place: Dr. Christiaan Barnard Room, (1^st floor)

Chair: Marjaana Rautalin

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The Structures of World Society: Geography, Discourse and Networks in Global Health and Global Education, 1900–2020

Research on international organizations (IOs), both intergovernmental and non-governmental, and their influence on national and international policymaking has become commonplace in comparative education. At the same time, strikingly absent in this large body of research is a large-N perspective on IOs themselves, with the international level representing a level of analysis in its own right where geography, discourse and networks are reflected in conference activities. We contribute longitudinal data on more than N = 37,000 international education conferences by thousands of international organizations and analyze patterns of geographic distribution, discursive shifts and network dynamics as they evolve over the entire 20^th century until today.

We find that over time education has become geographically less Western, much more substantively differentiated and far more networked. At the same time, clear core and periphery structures remain intact and early signs of contraction may caution against predicting the continuation of massive expansion of the future world society.

Place: Dr. Christiaan Barnard Terrace (1^st floor)

Coffee, tea, juice, water and biscuits are served for the participants during the break.

Place: Dr. Christiaan Barnard Terrace (1^st floor)

Coffee, tea, juice, water and biscuits are served for the participants during the break.

Place: Dr. Christiaan Barnard Terrace (1^st floor)

Place: Dr. Christiaan Barnard Room (1^st floor)

Chair: Marjaana Rautalin

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Human rights – A Western or a universal idea? A sociological perspective

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), proclaimed by the UN in Paris 1948, is a milestone document in the history of human rights. Drafted by representatives with different legal and cultural backgrounds from all regions of the world, it sets for the first time common standards of fundamental human rights to be universally protected. It has inspired and paved the way for the adoption of more than seventy human rights treaties around the world (see https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights). However, since that time, in several countries and regions of the world, particularly in Africa, the Arab-Islamic countries and China, the universal validity of this declaration has been challenged. It is argued (1) that Western countries themselves do not observe the standards established by the UDHR; and (2) that it reflects European-western values which may not be valid for other cultures and political systems. In my paper, I will argue, that both of these challenges are justified to some degree. In regard to the first reproach I will argue, however, that the violation of human rights by Western countries (particularly the USA; but also by the EU and its member states) does not challenge the validity of the basic human rights. In regard to the second reproach, I will investigate in detail which elements of the UDHR seem to contradict basic values in the aformentioned cultures. Here, I will show that the contradiction often does not concern basic values but only lifestyles and customs. If we focus on basic values, most of the contradictions seem to disappear.

Place: Calypso Terrace (floor zero)

Sparkling wine and snacks

Place: Calypso Restaurant, (floor zero)

You can find the set menu here!

Place: Dr. Christiaan Barnard Room (1^st floor)

Chair: Peter Holley

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Global Sociology and Its Discontents

Sociology emerged in the course of Western modernization; its major classical-era statements are preoccupied with modernity and its impact on national societies. After decolonization, “Third World” modernization paved the way for the notion of globalization. The sociology of globalization is a current specialty within US and European sociological associations. The promise of global sociology has been on the agenda of the International Sociological Association since at least 1990. At a deeper level, global sociology requires un-thinking the role of core concepts such as modernity or religion or society vis-à-vis their Western origins. Global Studies and post-colonial sociology, two of the most widely known research fields claiming global intent, are examined with respect to whether they provide adequate conceptual resources for global sociology. While the research agendas of both offer promising insights, inquiry suggests that both suffer from important drawbacks. The sociological tradition is now facing an impasse; fragmentation may persist, but other possibilities also exist. A truly global sociology may eventually emerge in the course of the 21st century.

Place: Dr. Christiaan Barnard Terrace (1^st floor)

Coffee, tea, juice, water and biscuits are served for the participants during the break.

Place: Main Restaurant (floor zero)

Buffet lunch with local non-alcoholic drinks.

Place: Dr. Christiaan Barnard Room (1^st floor)

Chair: Peter Holley

Join Zoom meeting

Digital nomadism: Examining the relationship between mobile subjectivities and the nation-state

Being “on the move” has become a way of life for many. This is evidenced by the increasing trend of voluntary mobilities that relate to life-style choices. Digital nomadism is a good example of this trend. Digital nomads are professionals (often from Global North countries) who use telecommunication technologies to earn a living and conduct their lives in a nomadic manner. Digital nomadism is a rapidly growing form of life-style mobility that results from the digitalisation of work, the possibilities for “geoarbitrage” and the relative freedom of mobility (for some). 

Such emerging life-style mobilities speak to the continuing significance of the nation-state. They render visible the interplay between the global and the institutionalised, territorially-based relations of power. In this presentation, I ask: What does it mean for the nation-state when mobile subjects engage in frequent and multi-transitional crossings of national borders, with varying durations of stay and travelling within different nation-states – and without the eventuality to permanently return to one’s country of origin? I suggest that the current life-style mobilities are giving birth to a new form of mobile subjectivity as they become a normalised and more established way of life. This emerging subjectivity raises several questions that touch upon our understandings of the social, community, identity and work. Indeed, it can challenge and expose the norms of “desirable” life, largely based on ideas of sedentariness in post-industrial nation-states.

Place: Dr. Christiaan Barnard Terrace (1^st floor)

Coffee, tea, juice, water and biscuits are served for the participants during the break.

Place: Leda Room (Mezzanine floor)

Chair: Marco Caselli

Papers:

Gerasimos Karoulas, Nicos Souliotis, Margarita Komninou & Alex Afouxenidis: The socio-political dimensions of FDI in Greece: the investment of Chinese Cosco in Piraeus Port

Gianmarco Peterlongo: Platform economy: the global (informal) phenomenon. Insights from a multi-sited research between Southern Europe and Latin America

Place: Athena Room (Mezzanine floor)

Chair: Victor Roudometof

Papers:

Muhammad Ahsan Qureshi: Whispers of Coloniality: an in-depth dive into the discourse around the Grand Helsinki Mosque

Niko Pyrhönen, Anton Berg, Teemu Ruokolainen & Katja Valaskivi: Mediatized religious populism: Circulation and remediation in fast messaging platforms

Christos Anastasiades: Religion and Political behavior in Cyprus

Place: Calypso terrace (floor zero)

Wine and cheese will be served for the participants.

Place: Dr. Christiaan Barnard Terrace (1^st floor)