INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
International Sociological Association (ISA)
ISA RC47 – Research Committee Social Classes and Social Movements
ISA RC48 – Research Committee Social Movements, Collective Action and Social Change

FROM SOCIAL TO POLITICAL. NEW FORMS OF MOBILIZATION AND DEMOCRATIZATION
9th – 10th February 2012, Bilbao – Spain
University of the Basque Country (Paraninfo)

CALL FOR PAPERS
OBJETIVES AND THEME
In the recent evolution of contemporary social movements three phases can be
identified.
The first phase is marked both by the labour movement and the systemic
importance attributed to the labour conflict in industrial society. A conflict
interpreted by Emile Durkheim as a shortcoming of social integration, by Max
Weber as a rational conflict by entrepreneurs and workers interests, and a
central class struggle for society transformation by the view of Karl Marx.
The second phase of development of social movements takes on new social
movements of the sixties and seventies of the XX century, such as students,
women and environmentalists movements of post-industrial society. Actions
whose sense and meaning are explained mainly by two new analytical
perspectives: resource mobilization theory (McAdam and Tilly) that focuses on
the study of rational attitudes of these actions and conflicts; and actionalist
sociology, which aims to identify new central actors of the conflicts in the post-
industrial society, as labour movement was in industrial society.
The third phase emerges in a world framed by the ascendancy of markets,
the prominent role of financial capital flows, communitarian closure and
fundamentalism, and refers to movements of affirmation of human rights and
democracy as alternatives to global domination and systemic conditioning of
individual and groups.
The objective of this conference is to foster theoretical reflections and to
present empirical evidences regarding some of the recent mobilizations that
took place in the Mediterranean area and that have two very clearly
distinguished threads. On the one hand, there are the mobilizations that reveal
the need to open space to democracy by asking for political reforms and
democratization processes in countries such as Tunez, Egypt, Morocco, Libya
and Syria, among other. On the other hand, numerous discontent displays
regarding the political management of economical crisis and the shrinking of the
Welfare State in South Europe triggered mobilizations such as 15-M in Spain,
“Indignate-vous” in France, Italy and Greece and other protests organized by
young people and students in England, Israel and Belgium.
Bringing together different networks and orientations around social
movements, expressed by the two ISA Research Committees 47 and 48, this
conference offers the opportunity to debate around the changes and the
meanings of social movements of the twenty-first century. In special, we are
interested in analysing the antecedents, the influence of social and political
conditions, the movement’s nature regarding organization, forms of protest,
claims, causes, protagonists, role of social media and to spot the meaning of
these relatively new forms of protest beyond the action repertoire.

ORGANIZATION
The general structure of the Conference has provided different ways for
participation. One of them is the organization of academic sessions. Each
thematic session will consist of the presentation of a guest lecturer for 20
minutes, four oral communications for 15 minutes each, and five
communications presented in poster format.
The final constitution of these thematic sessions will be a posteriori, when
all communications are received and the Scientific Committee has made the
selection of oral communications and posters. All communications will have the
same status for the issuance of participation certificates. A prerequisite for
presenting a communication is to be properly enrolled in the Conference.
Regarding a possible publication –still in consideration- of the full papers
participants must adapt the texts to a model that will be sent later.

SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS
The abstracts of communications should be sent to the organization of the
Congress based on the following criteria:
• Length: Maximum 1000 words. It is considered that a minimum of 700 words
is required to provide enough information to evaluate the proposal.
• Languages: Communications must be submitted only in English.
• Contents: All abstracts must have the following information:
a) Communication information.
– Title.
b) Author’s information.
– Surname, first name.
– Email address.
– Affiliation.
c) Work content.
– Kind of work: describe briefly if it is a theoretical reflection, an
qualitative/quantitative empirical research, a case study or a comparative
analysis;
– 3 key words;
– Description of the object and/or main subject of the work;
– Methodology;
– Main findings, conclusions and/or contributions;
– References; bibliography.
d) Other elements which are considered of interest: e.g. if the proposal is framed
in a competitive research project or international research project.

PARALELL ACTIVITIES
We are opening the possibility to organise a parallel exhibition of graphic
material related to the congress. Formats admitted are:
– Photos of manifestations: in case you have been involved or had the
chance to observe these movements in person we would appreciate if
you could share your materials, like photos, leaflets picked in locus,
posters, etc. Send us your links to Flickr, Facebook, or any other social
network in which your photos are posted.
– Videos of mobilizations that can be posted in Social Networks like
Youtube, Vimeo, etc.;
– Recordings of interviews, direct testimonies (in mp3, mp4) or posted in
Social Media Platforms;
– Interesting websites (webography related to these movements that can
be consulted during the conference; like bloggs, movements websites,
etc.).
If you have any other ideas relating contents for these parallel activities please
feel free to contact us and we will evaluate the possibility of including them.
Please send abstracts before 30th November 2011 to the Conference Coordinators:
Benjamín Tejerina – University of the Basque Country (b.tejerina@ehu.es)
Antimo L. Farro – “Sapienza” University of Rome (antimoluigi.farro@uniroma1.it)

Hi! See very interesting call for paper from my colleagues Lorenzo Zamponi and Markos Vogiatzoglou. Cheers! Mayo

Linking collective identity and agency: Social movements, organizations and strategic choices.

The general CfP for section 16 is asking for papers on social movements, advocacy coalitions, contentious politics, the social roots of political parties , etc..

Our panel proposal will investigate the issue of strategic choices made by Social Movements and Social Movement Organizations. We shall focus on two broad categories of determinants,

a) Time, memory and learning in movements

b) Strategy as an intertwinement of Agency and Structure.

More specifically, with regard to category (a), we are looking for papers addressing:

Processes of evolution and learning in a cycle of protest

The spillover effect and the legacies of mobilisations

Mnemonic constructions and their use by social movements and SMOs

Path-dependency in repertoire and organizational choices

With regard to category (b):

Organizational aspects: Social movements as organizational/strategic action fields

Movements’ decision-making when dealing with strong structural constraints (i.e. under repressive/authoritarian regimes).

Repertoires of actions: violence/nonviolence as a strategic choice

Cultural and institutional contexts’ influence on movements’ strategy

And in the crossroads between the two:

The influence of movement tradition: its diffusion in the national and cross-national level

Events and eventful protests as movements’ strategy determinants.

Tthe panel proposal will include 5-6 paper abstracts (approx. 300 words each). We are looking forward to making a selection based on pluralistic criteria, both in theoretical and methodological terms. We are mostly interested in papers based on empirical-oriented projects, yet we would also consider innovative theoretical approaches.

In order to finalize our panel abstract and ensure a fair and rigorous selection, we kindly ask you to send your paper abstracts by December 31st, 2011.

If you ‘re interested in participating, send an email to lorenzo.zamponi@eui.eu and/or markos.vogiatzoglou@eui.eu