FSAS Conference Distance and Togethereness, 2013

sigla fsasDistance and togetherness through time and space is the Annual National Conference of the Faculty of Sociology and Social Work, University of Bucharest, which will take place between 7th and 9th June, 2013. Please send abstracts in English or Romanian (max. 150 words) and workshop proposals (Call for Papers of max. 400 words, possibly adding 3-6 individual abstracts) to distance-and-togetherness@sas.unibuc.ro.

Author notification: 15 May 2013

Keynote speakers: To be announced

Argument
Social change is often visible through novel forms of distance and togetherness. Migration has pushed towards a redefinition of family closeness on a background of long distances – while also bringing in spatial proximity people from widely different ways of life. New technologies afford synchronous communication, updates, monitoring, as well as a flow of asynchronous messages that assemble global networks of people and organizations. The social web has (again) transformed sharing, collaboration, and privacy, while virtual spaces compete with physical spaces for our presence, or overlap them in augmented realities. Relationships that cut through social boundaries of race, ethnicity, gender, or age have become increasingly common in many societies.

We invite contributions that reflect on forms of distance and togetherness, and their histories and futures. How are they shaped by conflicting forces – such as shorter distances against frequent circulation, fading versus persistence of traditional social boundaries and emergence of novel classifications, fast communication versus message overflow?

Several topics that may orient discussions are:

  • Crossing and maintaining social boundaries
  • Distance and togetherness through sociological methods
  • Imagining and organizing families with mobile members
  • Novel forms of close relationships
  • Professionally together: connecting and distancing people in social professions
  • Seeing ourselves and others through time: social histories
  • Shaping social interactions through organization of time
  • Together and apart through migration
  • Urban distances, separations, and proximities
  • Virtual and mediated presence

More information at http://conferences.sas.unibuc.ro.

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