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XVIII ISA World Congress of Sociology

Facing an Unequal World: Challenges for Global Sociology

Yokohama, Japan, 13-19 July 2014.

Deadline for submissions of paper proposals 30 September 2013

Theme III. 1 Building a Transnational Sense of Justice among Youth in a Globalized World

Session Organizers
Vincenzo CICCHELLI, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France, [log in to unmask]
Nicole GALLANT, Observatoire Jeunes et Société, Canada, [log in to unmask]
Sarah PICKARD, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, France, [log in to unmask]
Ian WOODWARD, Griffith University, Australia, [log in to unmask]

Session in English

This session invites papers that shed light on the processes through which young people today develop a sense of global social justice. Undoubtedly, the world continues to globalize and boundaries of social interaction are redrawn as networks of objects, people and ideas are mobile in many types of ways. This has made national borders increasingly porous, and allowed certain events to take on a global rather than local meaning. The first wave of globalization theory establishes this set of changes, and more recently exploration of cosmopolitan possibilities have encouraged researchers to investigate the changes in ethical and moral perspectives this sweeping globalization may cause. Such changes are not assured, however, as local reactions and contexts mean these global changes are understood differently.

In addition, various local events mean a shutting-down of the hospitalities and openness associated with forms of global mobilities related to processes of exclusion and othering. Finally, theories of the global and associated social changes are remarkably – and problematically – free of complexities introduced by matters of age. This leads us to ask an important set of questions about matters of a cosmopolitan sense of justice and ethics amongst youth in this global context.

Specifically, we are looking for a variety of empirical work regarding learning, context, values, role models and interaction factors, which may or may not lead youth to develop a sense of global justice. Has globalization changed the sense and the meaning of inequalities? What kinds of transnational injustices are pointed out? What kinds of young people become aware of the unequal world in which they live? What factors influence them, e.g. country of residence, contact with culture, travel experience, level of studies, peers, socio-economic class, gender, etc.? How do they learn about global inequalities? What kinds of discourses on global justice do they have, and how are these related to other similar discourses, such as the Human Rights repertoire, Indigenous rights narratives, national or cultural values, popular culture, transnational youth cultures, classic humanism, alternative and new social movement activism, etc. What types of actions do young people undertake to attempt to reduce inequalities? Is there among young people a claim for a supranational regulation of justice? How can we understand the ways in which transnational solidarities are imagined and shaped? Are these processes any different from those of previous generations of youth and from those among adults?

Congress website: http://www.isa-sociology.org/congress2014/
Session webpage: http://www.isa-sociology.org/congress2014/rc/rc.php?n=RC34

Best wishes and hope to see you there,

Vincenzo Cicchelli, Nicole Gallant, Sarah Pickard and Ian Woodward