Source: Catherine Goetze, Deadline: 30.05.2007.

Panels to be proposed to the International Studies Association Annual Convention in San Francisco, March 2008, Convention Theme: Bridging Multiple DividesTransnational spaces have become a main theme of international relations research in the last years. Yet, theoretical reflections and empirical studies are still rather unconnected and disparate. The panel series proposed here wants to look deeper into questions of the empirical exploration of such transnational spaces. Theoretically the panel series is inspired by sociological approaches that have developed concepts of social spaces that are not ontologically linked to the state but understand the latter as contingent historical development of one particular type of social configuration. Such concepts will be discussed prior to the panels in a roundtable. The panels should serve as forum to discuss empirical questions linked to concrete research on actors, policies, practices, power and discourses which constitute transnational spaces. The Call for Paper invites notably contributions on the following questions:


•    In which way are transnational actors constituted differently from domestic counterparts? Is there for instance a difference between transnational and national social movements, between the transnational and the national capitalist class ; between transnational and internal migrants etc.

•    Do these differences and commonalities allow the transposition of concepts that are used in domestic contexts to the transnational sphere? What conceptual problems arise from such a transposition?

•    How are the processes of action constituted? Empirical research points to the increased importance of new technologies that enhance mobility and densify communication. This implores questions on resource mobilization and utilization, on communication and mobility of different actor groups.

•    The question of legitimacy and inclusion/exclusion has moved more prominently into the centre of transnational studies so that it seems also necessary to ask how the inequalities of access to transnational spaces and the selection and inclusion/exclusion boundaries among transnational actors can be conceptualized. How to identify the relevant actors for the study, notably if we are dealing with “excluded”?

•    How can inclusion/exclusion be distinguished, notably if we deal with “symbolic politics”: is the World Social Forum for instance only palliative, a joly disguise of exclusion or is it on the contrary a forum of “included”?

•    How do we collect data and compare them? When do we know a “class” (like Leslie Sklair’s transnational capitalist class), whe do we know a social or political boundary? Considering that hierachies and inequalities are always relative: what are our yard sticks?

•    Thinking of longue durée processes, structures, embedded histories or contigent chronologies implies asking the question of our linguistic limits of linear understanding and language: how can we devise empirical research in a pragmatic way without mainstreaming and standardizing the social world?
 
Although the main interest of the panel series and its preceding roundtable is the discussion of sociological approaches such as the sociology of Pierre Bourdieu, contributions from critical political economy, critical theory, history or other sociological traditions are most welcome. It is however critical that they engage with a relational and/or structural conception of transnational spaces and reflect upon the ontology of the state in their work as the main interest is the conceptualisation of the transnational space. For the discussion that led up to this proposal please see http://clearblogs.com/bourdieuscapital/.


Abstract proposals of approx. 400 words should be sent to:

Catherine.goetze@nottingham.ac.uk

The deadline for proposals is the 30th May 2007.

All abstracts which correspond to the Call for Papers will be proposed to ISA under the convention theme; the final acceptance is up to the ISA committee.