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Sustainable Communities/Sustainable Lives: Social Change, Social Action, & Social Justice

CALL FOR PAPERS

2013 Annual Meeting
EASTERN SOCIOLOGICAL SOCIETY
Boston Park Plaza Hotel and Towers
March 21-24, 2013

The ESS welcomes submissions addressing any and all issues of interest to sociologists, drawing on methods of every sort. In addition, the 2013 meeting will have a special focus on "Sustainable Communities/Sustainable Lives." What kinds of sociological inquiry can contribute to sustaining communities and lives in the twenty-first century? Among the many challenges are gender, racial, ethnic and hemispheric inequities; war and ethnic conflict; climate change and environmental racism; gender and sexual violence; health disparities and HIV/AIDs among other diseases and epidemics; and globalization of labor and finance. In response to these challenges activists have taken to the streets to call for social changes in leadership at all levels of government and for more equitable distribution of wealth and to provide for the basic needs of a growing population. How can we use our sociological imaginations to explain the series of social protests that have accompanied contemporary political oppression and economic inequality, including the Arab Spring and the Occupy Movement? The Occupy Movement has brought attention to the vast inequalities between the wealthy 1% earning over $500,000 and the rest of the US population, a statistic that sociologists have been pointing out for years. The US poverty rate is the highest it has ever been since the Census Bureau began tracking it in 1959. The wealth gap is further deepened in the lives of Black, Hispanic, and Native populations who suffer greater inequality in access to health care, employment, and housing. They are also more likely to be targeted by racist and classist law enforcement practices and policies. Such inequalities require sustained social action to promote social change and social justice.

Sustainability includes constructing democratic governance structures; producing safe and adequate food, housing, and renewable energy systems; and ensuring open and accessible modes of communication. What role do new technologies, new media, and social networking play in promoting sustainability of communities, families and individuals? What kinds of education, science, and labor are best suited to sustainable practices? The notion of sustainability reflects both the need to develop everyday practical strategies as well as to articulate a vision of the future that will be more economically equitable, peaceful and socially just.

Although the ESS particularly encourages submissions related to this year's theme, we welcome submissions on all sociological topics, drawing on all methods and formats in addition to:

  • Individual papers (please include abstracts of 250 words or less; longer drafts are also welcome via email to the program committee)
  • Wholly constituted sessions (with names and affiliations of all presenters)
  • Thematic Conversations (panels of two or more scholars engaged in debate or exchange)
  • Workshops on specific topics and techniques (indicate the expert in charge)
  • Master classes featuring a prominent scholar or Q & A sessions
  • Roundtable and poster session presentations

Paper submissions and session proposals are due by November 3, 2012. Proposals for mini-conferences are encouraged by June, 2012. The online abstract system will be up at the beginning of the summer. Proposals and questions should be sent to: 2013easterns@gmail.com.

Program Committee: Nancy A. Naples (Program Chair and President), Beth Mintz (Vice President), Margaret Abraham, Claudio Benzecry, Mary Bernstein, Simon Cheng, Martha Ecker, Shirley Jackson, Barbara Katz Rothman, Lauren Sardi, Saskia Sassen, and Sarah Soberaj.