Globalisation, Conflict and the Experience of Localities

Globalization as a theme emerged from the disciplines of Economics and Business studies, with a focus on technological and organizational developments. Over the past decade the field of Sociology has broadened this initial and narrow focus, renewing studies of the relationship between individual and collective experiences as well as between state, non-state actors and society. The study of social and cultural movements has moved beyond a western based model, to engage new actors in Asia, Africa, and South America in the face of conflicts emerging in North America and Europe. The effects of globalization has, in a sense, eclipsed the singular concept of society. This concept has defined deep social conflicts since the 19th century. Globalization has been a key factor in the emergence of a cultural, political, security and military landscape wherein actors in China, India, Vietnam, the Middle East and Brazil are engaging industrial superpowers like Japan, South Korea, Europe and North America, in closely interwoven ways when viewed from a collective action perspective. This international conference will explore questions of how the structural process of globalization has become a foundation for new kinds of experiences as well as social solidarities, beyond national borders and states. This structural process of globalization, the abiding logic that stands at the core of contemporary forms of inequality and domination (poverty, fragmentation, the precarity of labour markets, ecological and peace movements, etc.) also draws our attention to the changing nature of experience and subjectivity, in some cases an embodied subjectivity around cultural differences, and their confrontation with dominant cultural visions. In addition, new types of global actors are emerging where religious sensibilities and subjectivities are playing an increasingly important role. Finally, new tensions and conflicts are acquiring a trans-national quality as witnessed by the increasing movement of immigrant and refugee populations, in the North and South of the globe. We invite papers which empirically and theoretically address the above themes of globalization, conflict and the experience of localities from a collective action perspective.