The Second ISA Forum was a great success. 3,600 registered participants in 55 Research Committees (RCs), Thematic Groups (TGs), and Working Groups (WGs) gathered together at the Economics Faculty of the University of Buenos Aires, August 1-4. For the success we have to thank the dedication of Margaret Abraham, ISA Vice-President for Research and President […]

by Margaret Archer, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland, and former ISA President, 1986-1990 Margaret Archer was the first and only woman President of the ISA, 1986-1990. She has pioneered the study of social change as a process of “morphogenesis” by which she means the serial interaction of social structure and social agents – interaction […]

In the previous issue of Global Dialogue (2.5), we learned how a young Polish student was recruited to the ISA and how she became the indispensable organizing brain of the Association. In this second and final part of the interview, Dr. Barlinska tells us the story of the consolidation of the ISA into the powerful […]

by Riaz Hassan, Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore In his seminal book Muslim Society, Ernest Gellner boldly asserts: “By various obvious criteria – universalism, scripturalism, spiritual egalitarianism, the extension of full participation in the sacred community, not to one, or some, but to all, and the rational systemization of social life […]

by Mohammed A. Bamyeh, University of Pittsburgh, USA, and Editor of the International Sociology Review of Books As should be obvious to anyone, “freedom,” “development,” and “knowledge” deficits are quite distinct concepts. They are also complex: how one evaluates them depends entirely on how one defines them, and this can vary significantly. Discussing any single […]

by Jacques E. Kabbanji, Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon Since the end of 2010 popular uprisings have sprung up in rural as well as urban areas and spread to many Arab countries. While it is still difficult to predict their final outcome one thing is becoming clear: they express the determination of the populations in the […]

by Anna Temkina, European University at St. Petersburg, Russia Over the past two decades, researchers and activists have discussed whether it is appropriate to use the term “gender” in the Russian context. They often found themselves in a blind alley, trying to grasp what the gender agenda could be, since Russian women are generally not […]

by Lidia Kuzemska, University of Lviv, Ukraine I had mixed feelings after I left the conference on the dilemmas of public sociology in Ukraine that was organized jointly by the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and Kyiv National University of Taras Shevchenko, May 28, 2012 with ISA’s President, Michael Burawoy, as a keynote speaker. He briefly presented his […]

by Cătălin Augustin Stoica and Vintilă Mihăilescu, National School for Political and Administrative Sciences (SNSPA), Bucharest, Romania The specter of the global financial crisis was largely ignored by Romanian politicians who were busy campaigning for the general and presidential elections of 2008 and 2009. Yet, at the beginning of 2010, Romania was facing economic collapse. […]

by Ioana Florea, University of Bucharest, Romania, and Delia Badoi, University of Bucharest, Romania, and EHESS Paris, France In the academic world, June is known as an eventful month, featuring exams and evaluations, application deadlines for research projects, applications for summer schools, end-of-semester conferences. In this tradition, June, 2012 started well in Bucharest, with the […]

by Victoria Stoiciu, Ciprian Siulea, Mihai Iovanel, Ovidiu Tichindeleanu, Costi Rogozanu, Florin Poenaru, and Vasile Ernu, all representing CriticAtac Global Dialogue’s editor came across this enterprising and open-minded group while visiting Romania. CriticAtac collaborated with the sociology department at the University of Bucharest to stage a colloquium on “Marxism after Communism,” attended by a packed […]

by Bert Klandermans, VU-University, Amsterdam, Netherlands, and ISA Vice-President for Finance, 2002-2006 Some years ago the Executive Committee of the ISA discussed the possibility of publishing an annual volume of review articles. The proposal was to produce an on-line journal rather than a book. We reasoned that the production of a book would take so […]

by Ellen Kuhlmann, Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany, President-elect of RC52 (Sociology of Professions), Claus Wendt, University of Siegen, Germany, Board Member of RC19 (Poverty, Social Welfare and Social Policy), and Ivy Bourgeault, University of Ottawa, Canada, Vice-President of RC15 (Sociology of Health) Better healthcare for all citizens is a key to fighting social inequality and […]

Ivan Varga lived many lives. One of them involved everlasting devotion to the ISA and in particular to RC22 (Sociology of Religion), for which he is remembered fondly by many. The following obituary was written by his wife and daughter, Eva Varga and Christina Varga. Dr. Ivan Varga stood up for what he believed in, […]

by Jennifer Platt, University of Sussex, UK, and ISA Vice-President for Publications, 2010-2014 “Open access” is a movement which is spreading rapidly beyond its points of origin, and brings some threats as it approaches the social sciences. The basic idea is simple and attractive: everyone should be able to benefit from the research knowledge available […]

by Ishwar Modi, President of the Indian Sociological Society, and ISA Executive Committee Member, 2010-2014 When I was reading about the Iranian Editorial team of Global Dialogue (GD2.4), I was stuck by the fact that almost all of them were either undergraduate or graduate students. As compared to them, the Indian team members are fairly […]

Alexia Webster, Photographer, and Edward Webster, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa, and former President of the Research Committee on Labor Movements (RC44) Many of the jobs that are being created in the inner city of Johannesburg are survivalist jobs, or what have become known as precarious jobs or the informal economy. These include hairdressers and […]