ESA MONTHLY BULLETIN MAY 2009

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

ESA News ESA Conference in Lisbon: European Society or European Societies? - 2-5 September 2009 Second announcement

Conferences International Conference: Social Capital & Community Resilience - New Lanark, 4th June 2009 Migration and Social Theory Graduate Conference Trento, June 12 - 13, 2009 Call for Papers: Third Annual EDUC8 Workshop What are Schools for? Visions and scenarios for the future of education and schooling, Wroclaw, Poland, 22 24 October 2009. Deadline: 15 July 2009 Call for applications: Postdoctoral offer to foreign student - LISTO Laboratory for Socio-Technical and Organisational Innovation in Agriculture. Deadline: June, 20th 2009 Opportunities Job Opportunity: lecturer in Sociology University of Aberdeen. Closing date: 1 June, 2009 Visiting International Fellowship 2009-2010 - Department of Sociology at the University of Surrey. Deadline: Wednesday 30th September 2009. The Equalsoc / ECSR joint summer school, Trento, August 31 - September 5.
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ESA NEWS

9th European Sociological Association Conference Lisbon, Portugal September 2-5, 2009 The second announcement of the conference is now available for download at: http://www.esa9thconference.com/2ndannouncement.pdf

CALLS FOR PAPERS/CONFERENCES

Social Capital & Community Resilience Assist Social Capital International Conference: Social Capital & Community Resilience New Lanark, 4th June 2009 http://www.social-capital.net/showart.php?articleid=1 Social Capital has been shown, by a large number of studies, to extend collective well-being in a variety of different and complex ways. The quantity and quality of social capital in a community plays a crucial role in the ability of community members to solve their problems, act for the future and participate in decisions making. Community Resilience is gaining ground as an internationally recognised element in the wellbeing of communities. "Resiliency is the capability of individuals, families, groups, and communities to cope successfully in the face of significant adversity and risk. This capability changes over time, is enhanced by protective factors in the individual/system and the environment and contributes to the maintenance and enhancement of health" (Mangham et al., 1994). Assist Social Capital wishes to focus on practical examples of the connection between community resilience and social capital in the success of a community's efforts to cope with adversity and enhance collective wellbeing. The conference will take place at historic site of New Lanark Heritage Centre, famous for the work of Robert Owen and its influence on the cooperative movement 150 years ago. The event will gather a number keynote speakers and present a series of case studies on the theme of community resilence and the role of social capital.

Migration and Social Theory Graduate Conference June 12 - 13, 2009 Trento, Italy Migration studies have greatly developed in the last decade. A new set of initiatives, projects, journals and forums have created a lively infrastructure for migration scholars. The number of researchers interested in the social dimension of spatial mobility has increased. Historical studies have dramatically modified our contemporary understanding of spatial mobility. Several ambitious research projects have started releasing large data-sources for public use, thus allowing for sophisticated analyses. Once a marginal topic, international migration is now a central concern in all the social sciences. The development of migration research has triggered a set of theoretical debates that have greatly contributed to a new understanding of the social dimension of spatial mobility. The conference wants to provide a venue for a critical review of the state of theoretical work on international migration as well as an assessment of its relevance for general social theory. Which is the state of current theories of international migration? Can migration research contribute to the development of an adequate understanding of contemporary societies? The languages will be English and Italian. SMMS (Scenari migratori e mutamento sociale) Trento University Via Verdi 26 38100 Trento - Italia Phone: (00390)0461 881322, Fax: 0461 881348 Email: smms@soc.unitn.it Visit the website at http://portale.unitn.it/dsrs/dettEvento.do?HP_Request=&eventId=281823&rootchannelId=-47183

CALL FOR PAPERS: Third Annual EDUC8 Workshop What are schools for? Visions and scenarios for the future of education and schooling

Wroclaw, Poland, 22 24 October 2009 (International workshop for PhD Students and Early Career Researchers) Keynote speakers: David Halpin, Institute of Education, University of London Susanne von Below, Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Germany In contemporary society, school faces a crisis of meaning. There are contradictions in the demands made of schooling today: to prepare workers for the knowledge economy, to achieve social justice, instil civic

values and to develop the individual whilst offering choice to pupils and parents and demonstrating efficiency in the use of public funds. Schools are subject to increasing scrutiny in terms of examination performance, curriculum and in many other areas. The aim of this workshop is to step back from the everyday issues and pressures of schooling and education policy to think again about what schools are for and what they should be for. What does a utopian vision for schooling look like? And can it help us to make schooling better? We welcome papers based on empirical research, educational field experience or political experience in the field of education, which advance conceptual clarification and present utopian visions for or from school, defend schooling as it is or consider how changes might practically be brought about. Aimed at junior researchers and doctoral students, the workshop will offer the opportunity for dialogue with leading researchers and peers in a supportive and friendly environment. Deadline for applications: 15-July-2009. The call for papers: http://www.york.ac.uk/res/educ8group/educ8wroclaw2009.pdf Further details available at: www.educ8group.org

LISTO Laboratory for Socio-Technical and Organisational Innovation in Agriculture UR 718 http://www.dijon.inra.fr/listo Postdoctoral offer to foreign student Subject Farms facing traceability An anglo-french analysis of farmers practices of writing Location: Dijon and Burgundy in general; missions at Lancaster University (UK) on a regular basis Duration: 24 months (co-funded by the Regional Council of Burgundy and INRA-SAD on the basis of 12 months each; 2,000 net/month) Starting date: 1st October 2009 The management of accountability in agricultural production has become a major concern in a European space marked by the experience of several animal health crises and by increasing societal criticisms levelled at farming. Now farms find themselves constrained to show they are able to build up relevant information in order to make decisions and to enforce traceability. The postdoctoral student will undertake research in the frame of the project entitled : Farmers facing traceability : What innovations exist in the farmers activity and what support is offered from advisory bodies? A comparative approach: BurgundyLancashire. This research comprises three parts: 1) an ethnographic study of farmers' practices of writing within a small sample of farms in France and England; 2) an observation of the documents handled on the farms in situations of advice and inspection (timetables, administrative files, farmers notebooks, etc.); 3) organization of meetings with the farmers involved in the research to disseminate and discuss the research results and enhance reflection on how to improve the management of information. The activities of the postdoctoral student will focus more particularly on the first part of the research (Year 1). He or she will take part in surveys in Burgundy that will be devoted to the detailed inventory of practices of writing on the farms, whether the latter are motivated by the need for internal management or by accountability requirements. Attention will be focused on the contents of traced information, recording formats and choice of media, distribution of writing tasks among workers and mastery of information, mutual support between farmers, documentary-classification methods, etc. Observations targeted at scenes of writing (when farmers take notes in field notebooks, elaborate manuring plans, or fill in application forms for subsidies) will also be carried out. Methodological issues are critical when practices of writing are dealt with. In this respect, the postdoctoral student will benefit from the expertise acquired by

the project coordinator, with whom he or she will be associated for fieldwork. He or she will also be involved in the exchanges planned between LISTO and the other two laboratories taking part in the research project (the Lancaster Literacy Research Centre University of Lancaster; the Laboratoire Techniques, Territoires et Socit UMR CNRS/ENPC/UMLV) and he or she will participate in the elaboration of a common methodological framework between these three teams. Finally, in year 2, the postdoctoral student will contribute to the two other parts of the research and provide more specifically support to the scientific dissemination of the results obtained, in particular through the organisation of a European symposium. Requirements: The candidate should have a Ph D in sociology, anthropology or sociolinguistics, obtained less than five years ago. He or she will need to have some previous experience in ethnographic investigations and should have skills in observation of activities of work. Knowledge of agriculture will be appreciated. Near native fluency in English (both written and oral) is also required and a basic knowledge of French. It is a condition of this post that the candidate has never worked before in France. Contact: Please send a letter of interest, a CV and a list of publications with one complete journal article you consider representative of your work before June, 20th 2009 to Nathalie Joly : n.joly@enesad.fr / tel.: + 33(0)3 80 77 28 14

OPPORTUNITIES JOB OPPORTUNITY Lecturer in Sociology University of Aberdeen The University of Aberdeen is looking for a lecturer in Sociology. The University of Aberdeen is an ancient Scottish University with a high reputation in Sociology. For further particulars, please see the following website: http://www.abdn.ac.uk/jobs/display.php?recordid=SOC007A Application deadline is 1 June, 2009.
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VISITING INTERNATIONAL FELLOWSHIP in social research methods 2009 for visits in calendar year 2010. http://www.soc.surrey.ac.uk/research/vif.htm The Department of Sociology at the University of Surrey, Guildford, United Kingdom, has established a Visiting International Fellowship (VIF) to foster the development of sociological research methods. Between one and three Fellowships are awarded by competition each year. Applicants for the Fellowship will be established scholars in social science with a track record in a field of social research methodology. They will normally hold, or recently have held, an established academic appointment in social science. The Fellowship committee regrets that it cannot consider applications from candidates seeking training, updating of methodological skills, or who are currently registered for an undergraduate or graduate degree.

Former VIF holders include: David De Vaus (La Trobe), Ed Brent (Missouri), Norman Blaikie (Emeritus, Universiti Sains Malaysia), Irwin Deutscher (Akron), Edith de Leeuw (Utrecht), Seppo Laaksonen (Helsinki), Luis Antunes (Lisbon), Ming Yan (Beijing), Cesar Cisneros (Mexico) and Tom W Smith (Chicago). The awards are open to those who would value the opportunity to advance methodological understanding, for example by reflecting on methods used in previous empirical research, by validating existing or new methodological procedures, or by reviewing and synthesising methodological approaches. 'Methods' may be interpreted widely, to include, for example, statistical techniques and conversation and discourse analysis. Applications from female and ethnic minority candidates are particularly encouraged. An award of 2,000 will be made as a contribution towards travel and subsistence expenses incurred in holding the Fellowship. It is expected that VIF award-holders will normally be on paid leave of absence from their employment. Award-holders should be prepared to visit the Department on one or two occasions during the academic year with a duration of about one month in total. VIFs will become honorary Research Fellows of the University and be entitled to use the University Library and make use of University facilities. The holder of a fellowship is usually permanently resident outside the United Kingdom. The Department of Sociology at Surrey is a centre of methodological expertise and specialises in research methods for the application of social research to contemporary society. It promotes high methodological standards and new developments in methodology for the social science research community. The Department is the home of CAQDAS, the ESRC supported centre for Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software, and is well known for its work on the secondary analysis of large data sets, and work on online research methods. Other methodological specialisms include the computer simulation of social phenomena (CRESS) and cross-national comparison. The Department publishes the quarterly Social Research Update online and houses the office of the journal Sociological Research Online. Applications should be sent by email to Zoe Tenger, VIF Administrator, z.tenger@surrey.ac.uk Applications must be received by Wednesday 30th September 2009 for visits during the calendar year 2010. Applications must be made on the application form posted on the VIF website noted below. Application forms should be submitted by email as an attachment. Decisions will be made and notified by the end of November 2009. Proposals for collaborative research with members of the Department of Sociology are especially welcome. The application form and more information about the Visiting International Fellowship, and the Department of Sociology at the University of Surrey, are available at: http://www.soc.surrey.ac.uk/research/vif.htm VIF Conveners: Professor Nigel Fielding (on sabbatical until September 09) and Professor Sara Arber VIF Administrator: Zoe Tenger Head of Department: Jo Moran-Ellis Department of Sociology University of Surrey Guildford Surrey GU2 7XH United Kingdom Tel: +44(0)1483 683053 Fax: +44(0)1483 689551

The Equalsoc / ECSR joint summer school The Equalsoc / ECSR joint summer school will take place in Trento, August 31 - September 5. The programme is devoted to the analysis of both theoretical and empirical aspects of educational inequalities and the impact of education on social inequalities that form part of several ongoing debates. The Summer school will be arranged around a set of substantive lectures and a set of methodological lectures: Substantive lectures: 31st August 2009 The effects of social origins and other ascriptive characteristics on educational attainment: R. Erikson, Stockholm University. 1st September 2009 Mechanisms underlying class and occupational returns to education: W. Mller, MZES 2nd September 2009 The effects of institutional arrangements on returns to education: H. van de Werfhorst, UvA, AIAS 3rd September 2009 Market versus Meritocracy: Social Class and Education in Modern Societies: J. Goldthorpe, NUFFIELD.

Methodological lectures: 4th September 2009 Ordinal logistic regression models for the study of educational inequalities: R. Luijkx, Tilburg University. 5th September 2009 Techniques for educational policy evaluation: (speaker to be confirmed)

Pleaes notify your students and colleagues. More details and the application procedure can be found on: http://www.equalsoc.org/220/