Category Archives: Call for Papers

Session on “Family Networks” at the XXXIII. Sunbelt 2013 – Hamburg

Call for Papers for a session on “Family Networks”
at the XXXIII. Sunbelt Conference, May 21 – 26, 2013 in Hamburg, Germany

Session organizers:

Andreas Klärner, University of Rostock, Germany, andreas.klaerner@uni-rostock.de
Sylvia Keim, University of Rostock, Germany, sylvia.keim@uni-rostock.de

Reaching back to Elizabeth Bott’s classic study on family relations and the division of labor within a couple, social network analysis has been an interesting perspective for family researchers. Since the discussion about “postmodern” or “patchwork”-families the traditional concept of family has been challenged and no longer can be conceived as given or unproblematic. Here the perspective of dynamically changing networks of family relations has become more and more prominent. Drawing on this discussion, we would like to ask how a network perspective can enhance our understanding of different processes in the making of families. Therefore, in this session we want to bring together researchers interested in family relations and social network analysis. We invite abstracts on theoretical as well as empirical work and appreciate different methodological approaches ranging from quantitative to qualitative and mixed-methods research methods.

Possible topics may include:

  • Family construction or the concept of family: How can a network perspective of dynamically changing family relations contribute to the discussion on changing and varying family patterns?
  • Union and family formation: How do personal relations and social support networks affect transitions to different stages in union and family formation? Do social networks have an effect on the transition to parenthood?
  • Family networks across the life course: How do family (and other) relations change across the life course? A special focus can be on specific life events as partnership formation, (re-)marriage, parenthood, separation/divorce, widowhood, children leaving home…
  • The effects of family ties in various research fields: What is the role of family ties and family support networks for e.g. individual health, education trajectories, (recovery from) drug addiction, criminal trajectories?
  • Intergenerational exchanges: What forms of social capital do intergenerational ties provide? Which financial transfers take place? How are they embedded in rules of reciprocity or solidarity? How are support for children and care of the elderly in “patchwork”-families organized?

Sunbelt Submission will be closing on December 31 at 11:59:59 EST. In order to organize the session, we will need the abstract a bit earlier, by December 20, 2012. Please limit your abstract to 250 words. The oral presentation is scheduled for 20 minutes. Please contact us, if you have any questions. For further information on the conference see http://hamburg-sunbelt2013.org

Contact: Andreas Klärner, Institut für Soziologie und Demographie, Universität Rostock, Ulmenstr. 69, D-18057 Rostock, Tel. +(0)381 498-4367, E-Mail

CfP: HT2013 Track – Linking people: Social Media

CALL FOR PAPERS

HT2013 Track – Linking people: Social Media
24rd ACM Conference on Hypertext and Social Media

http://ht.acm.org/ht2013/tracks/social/
May 1-3, 2013

Palais des Congrès, Paris, France

Abstract submission: December 13, 2012

Full and Short Paper Submission: December 18, 2012

Social media has revolutionized how people create and consume information and interact with one another. On sites such as Twitter, Facebook, the various blogs and wikis, people share ideas, opinions, and interests, and respond to those expressed by others. Social media systems have thereby generalized the conventional notion of a hyperlink to imply connections between individuals in particular, via their shared content, media, concepts, and other artifacts. A characteristic property of this new genre of connections is that they promote rich social interactions among individuals involved in the sharing and artifact-building process. At the same time, the growing popularity of these systems presents some challenges: how to motivate new users to participate, how to sustain communities over time, how to manage social media traffic or decipher the large information spaces engendering the interactions.

Making sense of these complex interactions has attracted significant attention in various research communities over the recent years. This track is geared towards developing deeper insights into the mechanisms of information exchange, user and network characterization as well as the discovery, analysis, and modeling of the dynamic social processes in these systems. It provides a key forum for researchers and industry practitioners to exchange information regarding advancements in the current state of art. Addressing several problems in this space necessitates expertise in a variety of domains, spanning Computer and Information Science, Social Sciences, Psychology, Math and Economics. Hence submissions promoting interdisciplinary collaboration are highly encouraged. We invite original, high-quality submissions on all aspects of social media.

Topics of interest:

  • Information diffusion
  • Community evolution
  • Social network and social media analytics
  • Social information seeking and recommender systems
  • Social search and retrieval systems
  • Temporal and spatial analysis of social and information networks
  • Participatory user behavior
  • User modeling
  • Information visualization of social data
  • Language analytics in social media
  • Mobile social media
  • Privacy
  • Spam, misinformation and malicious activity discovery in social systems
  • Social gaming
  • Expertise and trust in online social systems
  • Crowdsourcing and social computing

Important Dates and Submission:

Abstract deadline: December 13, 2012
Full and short paper submission deadline: December 18, 2012
Notification: January 30, 2013
Camera-ready version due: February 17, 2013

Submission details will be made available at http://ht.acm.org/ht2013/
Submissions will be accepted via https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=ht2013

Chairs

Martin Atzmueller, University of Kassel, Germany

Kristina Lerman, University of Southern California, USA

Call for Abstracts to a Special Note Section: “The German-Language Tradition: Approaches to Social Networks”

Sunbelt 2013, Hamburg

Call for Abstracts to a Special Note Section: “The German-Language Tradition: Approaches to Social Networks”

Session of the Section “Sociological Network Research” in the German Sociological Association (GSA)

The current techniques, methods, and theories that make up the body of Social Network Analysis hark back to developments that emanated to a large extent from North America. Its roots, however, can be found to a large part in the German-language tradition of sociology. Georg Simmel is the most prominent figure in this respect. By questioning the status of the individual as the unit of analysis and conceiving sociology as the study of relationships and their diverse forms, Simmel adumbrated many of the cornerstones of today’s network research.

But Simmel was not the only one who imagined a way of doing sociology that starts from relations and networks (or forms) of relations. One of the first who thought in relational categories was Karl Marx. Much later Leopold von Wiese erected his whole system of general sociology on the notions of relation and process. Karl Mannheim’s studies on the sociology of knowledge discussed the impact of social structure on forms of thinking and knowing. Theodor Litt and Alfred Schütz made fundamental contributions to relational lines of thought with their ideas on the reciprocity of perspectives. Helmuth Plessner, Norbert Elias and of course Niklas Luhmann should be added. Their ideas on relational boundaries, configurations, and patterns of related expectations are certainly part of the German-language tradition of relational sociology.

In addition to these theoretical approaches one should take into account that this tradition also comprises scholars who emigrated to the US, such as Jakob Moreno and Paul Lazarsfeld. Both of them are well-known for their substantial empirical developments. Digging a little bit deeper yet reveals that the empirical roots even date back to the 19th century. For example, in a recently rediscovered article from 1900 matrix algebra is used to trace a German schoolboy’s friends network.

All these works (many others could be added) are very instructive when viewed in the light of modern network research. They broaden the foundations for any current or forthcoming approaches that aim at a theory of social networks and the development of consequent methods. This might trigger a reconsideration of nagging questions and open issues concerning the role of meaning and stories in networks, the multiplexity of ties, the dynamics of networks, the formation of identities, and the setting, crossing, or erasing of boundaries.

In this special note section we would like to concentrate these diverse and dispersed works of the German-language tradition by using networks as a common focus. Many of the named scholars and theories have been discussed extensively in different fields. But they have never been pooled or combined under the rubric of network research so far.

Therefore we invite abstracts for 20 minute oral presentations that address scholars of this tradition and that work out how the pertinent theoretical ideas and notions reset, shift, or reframe critical issues of network research. The discussion of the contributions should revolve around possible combinations and benefits for network theory and analysis.

Submission will be closing on December 31. Abstracts up to a maximum of 250 words should be submitted to the Sunbelt abstract server: http://www.abstractserver.com/sunbelt2013/absmgm/

When submitting your abstract, please select “German-Language Tradition” as session title in the drop down box on the submission site.

Session Organizers:
Christian Stegbauer, Goethe University Frankfurt
Roger Häußling, RWTH Aachen University
Athanasios Karafillidis, RWTH Aachen University (all Germany)

SASE Special Mini-Conference on Finance, States, and the Economy: Financial Participation and Profit Sharing

In the SASE Mini-Conference, we would like to discuss financial participation in an adequately broad and interdisciplinary way. We are particularly interested in questions such as:

  • There is a great variety of financial participation schemes among companies. How do di erent forms of financial participation work? What are employers’ motivation introducing nancial participation schemes?
  • In the economic and financial crisis, the discussion about goals and functions of employee financial participation became a new focus. Is financial participation a proper `trade’ for companies and employees during a global crisis? Do employee buy-outs provide a solution for companies in crisis?
  • Social partners have a crucial role in introduction and development of employee financial participation. What are the positions and roles of trade unions and work councils on financial participation?
  • During the socio-economic transformation the New Member States of the European had the chance to choose employee financial participation as an institution. Under which conditions did they follow this path and how did financial participation develop?
  • `A Piece of the Cake for Social Justice’ is the slogan of an European initiative and platform to promote financial participation in Europe. Does financial participation address social justice?
  • The relationship between financial participation and productivity has been a main focus among researchers, but have not been answered finally.
  • Research on industrial democracy has a long tradition. Which role do worker-owned enterprises like Mondragon play in the discussionabout employee financial participation? What are their advantages and disadvantages?

Organizers: Wenzel Matiaske, Simon Fietze

SASE 25th Annual Conference Theme: States in Crisis – Submission open now!

Theme

For more than a century now, states have intervened strongly in the face of crises in capitalism to deal with their social and economic consequences. States invented new models of regulation (Keynesianism) to deal with capitalist contradictions, socialized the huge losses booked by banks and large firms, changed policy instruments to correct market failures, changed labor market regulations, or created new markets while supporting creative destruction. Crises are highly conducive to thinking about periods and varieties of capitalism, about regulation crises and dynamics, and about the role of the state; they also raise massive tensions and open the floor to political debates, which may call the legitimacy of the state into question and create political pressures.

The 2008 financial crisis and the ensuing recession demonstrate both the power and the vulnerability of the modern state. States were severely buffeted by the economic crisis, and most advanced democracies were forced to take dramatic and extensive policy measures, many of which involved hugely expensive public interventions into the private sector, only some of which have been paid back. Such measures threw the state’s centrality into sharp focus. Although major recessions have challenged state strength and capacity, they have not called into question the role of the state as the primary agent of policy initiatives, nor its legitimate authority to respond to economic crises.

The current crisis is no exception: active policy responses have been deployed across the world, from China and Brazil to the USA; in Europe, states are paying a huge price to support their banks, while the European fiscal crisis has led to unprecedented austerity measures in many southern and western European countries, which are under intense pressure from other states and from market actors. The current crisis has incited the rapid development of myriad state interventions, both internally and in relation to other states. The 2013 SASE Annual Meeting seeks scholarship that documents and explains how states act in the face of crises, as well as the comparative consequences of those actions and the Implications for the restructuring of the relations between states and markets. Such accounts may investigate the role of material interests, the competence of state institutions (such as central banks), the inadequacy or effectiveness of state regulatory institutions, and the effect of long term global shifts in power and resources from the West to the East.

But there are also more fundamental changes occurring within states. Research in classical political economics by scholars such as W. Streeck, P. Hall, B. Jessop, R. Boyer and M. Mann has pointed out the profound restructuring states have undergone as a result of globalization, changing societies, and other phenomena such as the worsening of long-term fiscal crises or implementation failures. Some aspects of the state are growing (auditing, penalizing), while others are in retreat. Some scholars talk about a new phase of the Weberian state; others point to the emergence of neo-liberal governmentality. SASE 2013 also seeks contributions to this ongoing debate over the definition of the state and its role, as contributing to the construction of more market-oriented societies, or to the contrary, resisting and protecting against market pressures.

Program Directors: Roberto Pedersini (roberto.pedersini@unimi.it) and Isabella Mares (im2195@columbia.edu)

Local Organizers: Marino Regini (chair), Gabriele Ballarino, Daniele Checchi, Maurizio Ferrera, Massimo Florio, Roberto Pedersini, Ida Regalia, and Renata Semenza

Submit a paper

Sunbelt XXXIII: Call for Papers – Session SNA-QCA

Call for Papers for a session on “SNA meets QCA”

at the XXXIII. Sunbelt Conference, May 21 – 26, 2013 in Hamburg, Germany

Session organizers:
Anja Iseke, University of Paderborn, Germany
Jörg Raab, Tilburg University, the Netherlands

Like social network analysis (SNA), qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) has gained popularity as a research strategy and a family of methods since Charles Ragin (1989, 2000, 2008) introduced QCA to the social sciences. Following a set-theoretic approach, QCA views cases as configurations of outcomes and conditions based on Boolean algebra. In contrast to studying net effects of independent variables as in regression analysis, QCA methods seek to identify necessary and/or sufficient combinations of conditions that lead to an outcome. QCA is well atuned to multiple conjunctural causation, which implies that first, a combination of conditions (rather than a single condition) produces an outcome (conjunctural causation), second, there may be more than one combination of conditions which account for an outcome (equifinality), and third, a (combination) of condition leading to the presence of an outcome might be quite different from a combinations of conditions leading to the absence of the outcome (causal asymmetry).

So far, only few studies have combined SNA and QCA. For example, social networks have been studied as a condition (e.g., Stevenson & Greenberg, 2000) or as an outcome (Magetti, 2009). QCA has also been used to create typologies of networks (e.g., Yamasaki & Spreitzer, 2006) and Raab, Provan and Lemaire (forthcoming) discuss the combination for inter-organizational networks. Those studies provide ample evidence that QCA is a powerful approach for studying social networks. Configurational network theories may deepen our understanding of social networks antecedents, processes and outcomes, and QCA provide the methodological tools to test these theories. In addition, QCA is very suitable in combining qualitative and quantitative data to explain outcomes on the node, dyad or network level of analysis.

We invite abstracts for 20 minute oral presentations on social network studies that follow a configurational approach and/or apply set-theoretic methods, such as crisp-set QCA, multi-value QCA , fuzzy-set QCA from all social science disciplines.

Some of the questions to address include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Which combinations of conditions lead to specific outcomes? (e.g., what are necessary and sufficient conditions for occupying a central position in a network, what network characteristics are necessary and sufficient for high or low network effectiveness?)
  • Are certain network attributes (alone or in combination with other conditions) sufficient to explain a specific outcome (e.g., under which conditions are weak ties sufficient for receiving advice?)
  • Do actors occupying different network positions require different conditions to achieve a certain outcome? (e.g., do central or peripheral actors require different strategies or resources to perform well?
  • …

Submission will be closing on December 31 at 11:59:59 EST. Please limit your abstract to 250 words.

Proceed to abstract submission: http://www.abstractserver.com/sunbelt2013/absmgm/

When submitting your abstract, please select “SNA meets QCA” as session title in the drop down box on the submission site. To be extra sure please put a note in the “additional notes” box on the abstract submission form that states Anja Iseke as the session organizer.

For further information on the venue and conference registration see http://hamburg-sunbelt2013.org

References
Fischer, M. 2011. Social Network Analysis and Qualitative Comparative Analysis: Their Mutual Benefit for the Explanation of Policy Network Structures. Methodological Innovations Online, 6(2): 27–51.

Maggetti, M. 2009. The role of independent regulatory agencies in policy-making: a comparative analysis. Journal of European Public Policy, 16(3): 450–470.

Raab, J., Provan, K. and Lemaire, R. The Configurational Approach in Organizational Networks Research, in:”Configurational Theory and Methods in Organizational Research”, Research in the Sociology of Organizations, edited by P. Fiss, A. Marx and B. Cambre, forthcoming.

Ragin, C. C. 1989. The Comparative Method: Moving Beyond Qualitative and Quantitative Strategies (1st ed.). Berkeley: University of California Press.

Ragin, C. C. 2000. Fuzzy-Set Social Science. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Ragin, C. C. 2008. Redesigning social inquiry: Fuzzy sets and beyond. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Stevenson, W. B., & Greenberg, D. 2000. Agency and Social Networks: Strategies of Action in a Social Structure of Position, Opposition, and Opportunity. Administrative Science Quarterly, 45(4): 651–678.

Yamasaki, S., & Spreitzer, A. 2006. Beyond Methodological Tenets. In H. Grimm & B. Rihoux (Eds.), Innovative Comparative Methods for Policy Analysis: 95–120. New York: Springer.

Call for Papers: Workshop ‘Kritische Organisationsforschung’

Call for Papers zum

3. Workshop des Forums ‚Kritische Organisationsforschung‘
Thema: ‚Critical Management Studies‘
30.-31. Mai 2013, Technische Universität Chemnitz

Mit den Critical Management Studies (CMS) hat sich in den letzten 15 Jahren ein Begriff und ein Label etabliert, unter welchem die in einem weiten Sinne kritische Reflexion vorherrschender Vorstellungen von Management und Organisation und den damit verknüpften Wissens- und Praxisformen einen neuen Aufschwung genommen hat. Der Workshop verfolgt das Ziel, die Diskussion der CMS im deutschsprachigen Raum zu befördern. Von Interesse sind dabei Beiträge, welche sich in programmatischer oder konzeptioneller Hinsicht mit den CMS auseinandersetzen sowie empirische Studien, welche auf die CMS Bezug oder deren Grundlinien folgen. Erweiterte Abstracts (1.500-2.000 Wörter) können bis zum 31. März 2013 eingereicht werden.

Weitere Informationen

Call for Papers: International Conference in Critical Management Studies

Call for Papers for the

8th International Conference in Critical Management Studies
Sub-Theme: “Cynical? Constructive? Comfortable? Critical? –
Rethinking the C in Critical Management Studies”
July 10-12, 2013, University of Manchester

The purpose of this sub-theme is to discuss the relationship between critique and constructive intervention as well as its consequences for our identities as critical researchers. Deadline for abstract submission is Januray 31, 2013.

Further Information

XXXIII. Sunbelt Social Networks Conference of INSNA, May 21 – 26, 2013 in Hamburg, Germany

XXXIII. Sunbelt Social Networks Conference of the International Network for Social Network Analysis (INSNA), May 21 – 26, 2013 in Hamburg, Germany

Call for Abstracts

Deadline: December 31, 2012

The Sunbelt XXXIII. program committee is soliciting abstracts for paper and poster presentations at the upcoming 2013 conference in Hamburg, Germany.

Submission closes on December 31 at 11:59:59 EST. We invite abstract submissions for posters (120 minute poster session) and paper presentations (20 minute talk) on topics relevant to social network analysis, including theory, methods, and applications of social network analysis. Please limit your abstracts to 250 words. If a series of papers are being submitted as a single panel or session, please indicate this in the “special note section” of the abstract submission website (see FAQ’s). Paper and poster presentations will begin on Wed May 22 and conclude on Sun May 26. Presenting authors of accepted submissions must be members of INSNA and must register for and present their work at the meeting. This stipulation applies to both oral and poster presentations. Each member may present only one paper at the conference.

Abstract submissions are due by 31 December 2012. No abstracts can be accepted after this date.

If you want to submit an abstract, you will be asked to provide the following information (for further information see FAQ’s):

  • Name/s of author/s with affiliation and email
  • Title of the presentation
  • Abstract (limit: 250 words)
  • select “(oral) paper presentation”, “poster presentation” or “no preference”
  • select a session title (list provided)
  • select up to five key words (list provided)

Proceed to Abstract submission:
http://www.abstractserver.com/sunbelt2013/absmgm/

Find out more about the venue and conference registration http://hamburg-sunbelt2013.org/

Proceed to more information about INSNA and Sunbelt Conferences http://www.insna.org/sunbelt.html

Email address for local organizers of the Sunbelt 2013 conference is: sunbelt2013@uni-hamburg.de

See you in Hamburg, the organizing committee:

Betina Hollstein
Sonja Drobnic
Michael Schnegg

Call for papers – 6th RGS Doctoral Conference in Economics

The 6th RGS Doctoral Conference in Economics will take place on February 26-28, 2013 at the Ruhr University Bochum, Germany.

The aim of the Conference is to facilitate the exchange and discussion of research results on an international level by bringing together top PhD students and experienced researchers in a professional and social forum.

Both empirical and theoretical papers will be considered. The range of topics covers all research areas in Economics including

  • Microeconomics,
  • Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics,
  • Financial Markets,
  • International Economics,
  • Public Economics,
  • Health Economics,
  • Labour and Demographic Economics,
  • Population Economics,
  • Industrial Organization.

Papers should be submitted no later than December 10, 2012.

Further details can be obtained from the website of the RGS Econ at http://www.rgs-econ.de.

Conference Poster