Dear Colleagues,
Call for Papers
Conference
Women and the Diversification of Chinese Society
Date: 1-2 September 2016
Venue: May Hall, The University of Hong Kong
The political economy of China over the last fifteen years has been characterized by incomparable economic growth, the continuation of the socialist regime, and accelerated global integration. It has engendered numerous new and often inchoate phenomena for which existing social theories cannot yet sufficiently account. Among them, one structural coincidence is notable: while we see the emergence of an ever-expanding social space, increasingly diversified individual practice, and the loosening of key kinship and gender institutions, abundant evidence also suggests aggravated patriarchal dominance and the regression of women’s status. The concomitance of these phenomena calls for intellectual explication as well as public concern. Meanwhile, the practice of ethnography around the world has shown the increasing unproductivity of the West-East analytical divide, and indicated a labile relationship between the formation of modern nation-states and the realities categorized as kinship and gender in the anthropological literature. This workshop aims at an anthropological understanding of the correlations between the rise of the Chinese state, the diversification of social realities, and the condition of Chinese women. We welcome all proposals based on empirical research that can contribute to a stimulating two-day discussion. As an initial provocation, we specify the following topics that seem to shed light on the emergence of alternative realities and the evolution of familiar ones, and we welcome new topics that fit these headings:
Ø Territorial bonds: domestic and transnational migration, settlement patterns, multiple localities, tourism.
Ø Family and kinship institutions: residence and commensality patterns, adoption and desertion, cross-generational ties, sibling and cousin relatedness.
Ø Marriage and intimacy: forms of making intimacy, marriage and reproductive choices, homosexuality, caregiving.
Ø Political and public institutions: state stipulations and enforcement, forms of education, women and power, gendered relations in the workplace.
Ø Economies: forms of market, consumption styles, economic activities, women and wealth, property ownership and transmission.
Ø Sociality: forms of networking, technology-mediated sociality, friendship, social brotherhood and sisterhood, clubbing and grouping.
Ø Bodily work: femininity and masculinity, discourse and embodiment of individuality, plastic surgery, psychotherapy, medical choices, sex work.
Ø Beyond materiality: emotions, intuition, perceptions and sentiments.
The Members of the Honorary Committee of this Conference:
Prof. Chris Hann, MPI for Social Anthropology
Prof. Michael Herzfeld, Harvard University
Prof. Ellen R. Judd, The University of Manitoba
Prof. Angela Ki-che Leung, The University of Hong Kong
Prof. Sherry B. Ortner, UCLA
Prof. Helen F. Siu, Yale University
Convener: Dr. Cecilia LIU Xiaoqian
This conference is jointly hosted by the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology and the Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences, with academic consultancy provided by our comité d'honneur. Please send an abstract (not to exceed 500 words) to [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> by 1 March 2016. Selected presenters will be funded for their attendance. We look forward to your contributions.
For more information, see website: http://www.eth.mpg.de/2169/en
All the best
Cecilia
Dr. Cecilia LIU Xiaoqian
Postdoc Research Fellow, MPI for Social Anthropology
Ph.D & MSc. Social Anthropology, LSE
Address: Advokatenweg 36, 06114 Halle (Saale), Germany
Tel: +49 (0) 345 29 27 381; Email: [log in to unmask]
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