CALL FOR PAPERS

2009 Annual Meeting
Baltimore Sheraton Inner Harbor Hotel
March 19-22, 2009


At the outset of a new century, sociology’s enduring concern with how societies and individuals change has never been more relevant. On the one hand, growing demographic and cultural diversity has expanded options to create new ways of living, working, and building families. On the other, institutional resistance to these shifting social realities has posed new dilemmas for individuals and created new conflicts and inequalities among social groups.

The 2009 ESS Meeting will highlight emerging tensions between changing lives and resistant institutions, exploring how they play out in domains ranging from the private realms of family and personal life to the public worlds of work, politics, culture, and civil society. How are institutions shaping life chances across gender, class, race, ethnic, and generational divides? How can – and do – individual and collective actions influence the course of social change? How do the clashes between personal needs and institutional forms create new insecurities, but also give rise to new options and choices? Can we expand opportunity while also bridging our social divides?

With Baltimore and nearby Washington, D.C. as our backdrop, the 2009 meeting will consider the basic forces fueling social change as well as how political shifts in the wake of the 2008 elections are likely to alter our prospects for achieving a future that is both more diverse and more equal.

The Program Committee is eager to receive specific proposals and general ideas for a very exciting meeting. We encourage early submissions and creative suggestions on all topics and in a variety of formats. In addition to individual papers, we encourage.

  • Wholly constituted sessions (with names and affiliations of all presenters)
  • Thematic forums (panels of two or more scholars engaged in debate or exchange)
  • Mini-conferences on a topic of special interest (a coordinated set of sessions)
  • Workshops on specific topics and techniques (indicate the expert or experts in charge)
  • Conversations, Q&A sessions, or master classes (featuring a prominent scholar)
  • Individual papers
  • Round-table and poster-session presentations

The Abstract System will be up and running on our website (http://essnet.org) on or about July 1, 2008. To ensure a full "capture" and accuracy, we ask that all submittals (individual and session) come through this system. As usual, the system will ask you to create your own 2009 login so that you can revisit your entry – and in the case of those submitting full panels or sessions, to provide details as they become clearer. We ask that abstracts be no longer than 250 words. To help us optimally organize sessions and place papers, we also ask that authors/organizers identify up to three broad subject areas for each submission from a list provided.

If you have any questions, please email easterns2009@gmail.com .

Kathleen Gerson, ESS President, 2008-2009

2009 Program Committee:
Lynn Chancer, CUNY - Hunter College (Chair)
Pamela Stone, CUNY - Hunter College (Chair)
Sarah Damaske, New York University