The British Sociological Association

Annual Conference 2019

Wednesday 24 – Friday 26 April 2019

 (Postgraduate Workshop – Tuesday 23 April)

Glasgow Caledonian University

 

Confirmed Plenary Speakers: Satnam Virdee, University of Glasgow; Imogen Tyler, Lancaster University; Nonna Mayer, Sciences Po, France

Call for Papers

The British Sociological Association invites submissions to its Annual Conference. Participants can present on any sociological research topic.

 

Annual Conference 2019 Theme:       

Challenging Social Hierarchies and Inequalities

 

The material, structural and institutional divisions between groups in multiple societies and locations are now very much at the centre of sociological debate and research. What this research captures is the varied dimensions and complexities of contemporary hierarchies and intersecting inequalities. In the UK, research is looking at a range of vital situations and conditions. The implications of the hostile environment for immigration pursued by the Home Office for people’s right to remain and be counted as citizens. The inequalities and divisions played out in the EU referendum campaign, particularly around race and class, citizen and immigration, and risks created by Brexit for widening inequality and division. The politics of shifts in how childhood poverty is measured and understood. The drops in life expectancy now being seen in particular regions in the UK most badly hit by austerity, as well as the wider effects of austerity on the poorest and most vulnerable, including the challenges faced by disabled people seeking to retain their entitlements to welfare support. The framing of resources and rights as a zero-sum game between social groups ignoring intersectionality and solidarity. Looking beyond the UK, across the globe the treatment of refugees continues to starkly enact a de-humanisation of those denied basic shelter and safety, while we are witnessing the normalisation and mainstreaming of a racist, misogynistic backlash and the once unacceptable far-right. At the same time varied actors are mobilising to challenge these contemporary divides. The #MeToo movement provides an important challenge to established gender power inequalities and demands that those previously beyond scrutiny due to their hierarchical position are held to account.  In addition resistance to racism and white supremacy can be seen in attempts to decolonise academia, including sociology, as well as the wider anti-racist activist movements.

 

This refocusing on hierarchy and inequality generates a range of potential thematic questions for this year’s conference. These include, but are not restricted to: Which are the hierarchies and inequalities that matter most in contemporary social divisions? How do we understand the relationship between different sources of hierarchy and inequality? What effects will Brexit have in the UK and beyond to societal structures and patterns of inequality? What are the methodological tools we need to both capture hierarchy and inequality and to support challenges to them? Is sociologicalresearch doing enough to work with other associated disciplines and non-academic knowledge and expertise to play a meaningful role in public debate and social practice to challenge the important social problems created by inequality?

 

The call for papers for our 2019 Annual Conference asks for contributions across our varied streams that engage with these questions and many others that speak to the overall conference title. We encourage proposals to engage with these questions in innovative formats and which challenge usual modes of delivery. We are keen that the conference engages with Brexit given it will occur as realities of Britain’s withdrawal from Europe take shape.

 

See the highlights from this year’s conference here.

 

Click HERE to submit your abstract.

 

Important Dates

Friday 5 October 2018               Special Event submission deadline

Friday 12 October 2018              Abstract submission deadline

Friday 11 January 2019              Presenter booking deadline

Contact the BSA Events Team

Email: [log in to unmask]

Telephone: +44 (0)191 383 0839

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