CfS The 4th International RSS Conference, Sibiu, 29 September – 01 October, 2016

New Societies, Old Minorities / New Minorities, Old Societies?
The 4th International RSS Conference, Sibiu, 29 September – 01 October, 2016
Call for Sections

Societies and social actors constantly face challenges under the impact of many countervailing forces that act within the economic, demographic, political, educational and social realms. In their search for improving their living, people may adopt alternative life strategies and more flexible arrangements that profoundly affect the architecture and fabric of communities.

Some changes are easily discernible or self-evident: international migration permanently increased the stock of migrants, transforming, in various contexts, both immigrants and residents, into visible minorities. New waves of migrants and specific events where migrants are involved raise major questions about the nature and capacity of the security systems across European societies and their axiological foundations.

An increase in number of elderly members of the population creates, in turn, the perspective of new majorities and minorities forming. This raises important challenges to public social security systems and calls into question their sustainability.

In addition to demographic processes and trends, the global economic and financial turbulence of the last decades give salience to the voices of the particular: old minorities challenge the foundation and legitimacy of states almost across all Europe; at a different level both old EU members and new ones interrogate the status and relevance of the Union, its mechanisms, objectives and future.

Digitalization, teleworking, the accelerating pace of business, part time contracts, and job sharing transformed the rules of the labour markets and triggered fractionalization. The dynamics of the labour market (e.g. the creation of new jobs at the expense of other redundant qualifications,  segregation of gender, class and race within local and global labour markets), compounded by the limited capacity of the education systems to level the playing field, impact upon long term youth unemployment and raise major social and societal challenges.

Eastern European societies concomitantly experienced democratization, with straightforward changes in the state organization and various civil rights, but also in terms of inequality and social structure, to mention only few areas where changes were almost dramatic. The lesson of democracy was seldom learnt the hard way, starting with the simplistic rule of majority and slowly moving towards receptiveness to minorities. More subtle transformations (such as changes in values) produced deep and long lasting modifications, and also contributed towards the emergence of visible minorities and/or majorities. In addition, ‘counter silent revolutions’ and corruption tended to counterbalance change and, somehow paradoxically, might have actually emphasized the visibility of „minorities”.

Scholars in the social sciences are invited to submit section proposals aiming to debate such themes within the framework of the 4^th International Conference of the Romanian Sociological Society (RSS) „New Societies, Old Minorities/ New Minorities, Old Societies?”, hosted by the Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu (LBUS) between 29^th of September and 1^st of October 2016.

The conference will be preceded by the Midterm Conference of the European Sociological Association RN36, with the topic “Social transformations: new challenges, practices, and critique” (September 28^th-29^th 2016). Both events will be hosted in the premises of the Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu.

Important details:

Calendar

• Deadline for submitting section proposals: 05.03.2016
• Announcement of list of accepted sections and call for papers: 15.03.2016
• Deadline for submitting paper proposals: 15.05.2016
• Announcement of accepted papers: 15.06.2016
• Registration deadline: 01.08.2016
• Conference: September 29th – October 1st.
• The 2016 Midterm Conference of the European Sociological Association RN36 (September 28^th-29^th) will precede the conference.

Official language of the conference: English.

Location

The city of Sibiu is one of the most important cities in Transylvania, Romania. The city is situated at 45°47′ Nordic latitude and 24°05′ eastern longitude. Its particular historical existence made Sibiu a multicultural city, despite the fact that nowadays the majority of the population is Romanian. Romanians, Germans, Hungarians and Roma co-exist in a city which turned diversity into a trademark. Sibiu is a city of culture, hosting the third largest performing arts festival in Europe. In 2007 Sibiu was European Capital of Culture.

Participation fees: 60 EUR

SSR members: 45 EUR

Participation fees for convenors: 30 EUR

ESA RN36 participants: 30 EUR