America in a New Age of Global Conflict

In this decade’s unexpected “new international order” marked by waves of terrorism, civil wars, sectarian conflicts, US military interventions in South Asia and the Middle East, as well as anti-globalization protests and confrontations, what social science perspectives, from within and without the United States, can give us informed orientations? What are appropriate roles of mass media and their publics?

Organizer/Presider: Edward Tiryakian, Duke University
Panel: Saskia Sassen, University of Chicago
Stephen Krasner, Stanford University
Immanuel Wallerstein, Yale University
Piotr Sztompka, Jagellonian University, Poland
Said Arjomand, State University of New York, Stony Brook

Border Crossing and Human Rights (in North America)

The presider asked the panelists to reflect on the meanings and experiences of crossing physical and legal borders for immigrants in Canada, the United States and Mexico. The panelists will address the role of national states in delimiting these borders in the context of an otherwise increasingly integrated region, as these actions undermine both the exercise and the protection of immigrants’ human rights.

Organizer: Cecilia Menjivar, Arizona State University
Panel: Jacqueline Hagan and Nestor Rodriguez , University of Houston
Tanya Basok, University of Windsor
Manuel Angel Castillo, El Colegio de Mexico, Mexico
Discussion: Gabriela Rodriguez Pizarro, UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants

Can Transnational Labor Mobilization Change Globalization?

Among the host of social movements challenging the current trajectory of neo-liberal globalization, only the transnational labor movement can claim can claim over 150 million members in over 150 countries, organized into local affiliates but connected by robust global organizational structures. How would this movement have to transform itself in order to push globalization onto a different path?

Organizer and Presider: Peter Evans, University of California, Berkeley
Panel: Beverly Silver, Johns Hopkins University
--Labor’s Impact on Globalization: A Historical Perspective.
Kjeld Jakobsen, Secretaria for International Affairs, City of São Paulo, Brazil
--How can the Labor Movement Build Transnational Solidarity? A View from the South.
Mark Anner, Department of Government, Cornell University
--Labor Transnationalism in the Latin American Apparel and Auto Industries.
Andy Banks, George Meany Center for Labor Studies
--The Potential Impact of Transnational Strategies on the Growth of the U.S. Labor Movement.
Katie Quan, Director, Center for Labor Research and Education, Institute for Labor and Employment, University of California
--What role for the Chinese Labor Movement in Building Global Labor Solidarity?
Pun, Ngai, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Chinese Working Women Network (CWWN) Hong Kong.Shenzen
--Can Global Ties Help Local Labor Organizations in Today’s China.

Diasporas and Identities: The Global Jew in a Postmodern Age

The ways in which Jews create communal identification patterns across time and space offer a microcosm for the study of other ethnic, religious, racial groups within transnational and Diaspora contexts. In ten-minute presentations, the panelists will investigate the ways in which gender, changing ethnic, religious, cultural, and national boundaries redefine and allow for more flexible and dynamic interpretations of collective identity and diaspora.

Organizer: Debra Renee Kaufman, Northeastern University
Presider: Judith Gerson, Rutgers University
Panel: Daniel Levy, State University of New York, Stony Brook
Debra R. Kaufman, Northeastern University
Harriet Hartman, Rowan University; and Moshe Hartman, Ben-Gurian University
Steven J. Gold, Michigan State University
Caryn Aviv and David Shneer, University of Denver

Globalization and Resistance: Past and Present

This session presents comparative research and analysis of contemporary and historical movements of resistance to globalization and movements that try to democratize global governance. Papers will examine the relationships between transnational social movements, inequality and different kinds of resistance to globalization in comparative and world historical perspective.

Organizer: Chris Chase-Dunn, University of California, Riverside
Panel: Walden Bello, University of the Philippines
Terry Boswell, Emory and April Linton, University of California, San Diego
Bruce Podobnik, Lewis and Clark College
Jackie Smith, State University of New York, Stony Brook
Discussion: Peter Evans, University of California, Berkeley

Globalization of Love

In this session panelists will present their research on different facets of the connection between migration, gender and human relationships. Each paper is drawn from a rich body of ethnographic research and raises issues that call for further exploration. Barbara Ehrenreich will discuss these papers and we will then invite further discussions from the floor.

Organizer: Arlie Hochschild, University of California, Berkeley
Panel: Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, University of Southern California
Rhacel Parrenas, University of California Davis
Hung Thai, University of California, Santa Barbara
Discussion: Barbara Ehrenreich, writer

Public Religiosity and Transnational Space: A Question of Relevance

What influence does religion hold in relation to shifting public borders that defy or transcend expected alliances? The panel will discuss various Christian and Muslim perspectives that confront, challenge, and perhaps create different configurations of religiosity in relation to emerging changes in political, economic, and social space.

Organizer: Paula Nesbitt, University of California, Berkeley
Panel: José Casanova, New School of Social Research
Mansoor Moaddel, Eastern Michigan University
James Beckford, University of Warwick
Pauline Côté, Laval University; and James Richardson, University of Nevada, Reno
Discussion: Rhys Williams, University of Cincinnati

Citizenship and Identity in Unifying Europe: Particularistic or Universalistic?

Citizenship and identity in unifying Europe are in the cross-fire between universalistic and particularistic trends and forces. Judged by the proposed constitution or the mindset of border-hopping Euro-elites, Europe is unlikely to be defined by religion or culture. Yet the universalistic core of emergent Europe is mightily counteracted by the resurgence of nationalisms in the majority populations, as well as by multicultural minorities that want their particular ways inscribed in law and policy.

Organizer: Christian Joppke, Russell Sage Foundation
Panel: Yasemin Soysal, University of Essex, England
--Why Does European Citizenship Lack Charisma?
Bryan Turner, Cambridge University, England
--Citizenship, Legal Pluralism and Islam
Adrian Favell, University of California, Los Angeles
--European Citizenship in Three Eurocities
Mabel Berezin, Cornell University
--Re-Asserting the National: The Paradox of Populism in Transnational Europe
Discussion: Saskia Sassen, University of Chicago

The Clash of Civilizations: How Deep? How Enduring? How Real?

A decade after Samuel Huntington originally outlined the argument of the “clash of civilizations,” many voices in the media and among policymakers seem to take the global condition of “the West against the rest” as a given. The panel will explore the theoretical and empirical validity of the notion of the clash of civilizations and weigh its value in understanding global dynamics.

Organizer: Jerry Pankhurst, Wittenberg University
Panel: Said Arjomand, State University of New York, Stony Brook
Mark Juergensmeyer, University of California, Santa Barbara
Craig Jenkins, The Ohio State University
Roland Robertson, University of Aberdeen

The Role of NGOs in Social Movements: U.S. and European Contrasts

The recent proliferation of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as well as the “NGOization” of social movements, though globally observable, has been analyzed from different perspectives. Unlike US social movement research, the European literature theorizes a distinction between NGOs and SMOs. This international panel explores both national variation in empirical phenomena as well as the differences in conceptualizing them.

Organizer: Margit Mayer, Free University, Berlin; and Silke Roth, University of Pennsylvania
Panel: Alexander Demirovic, University of Frankfurt, Germany
John McCarthy, Pennsylvania State University
Helena Flam, Leipzig University, Germany
Carol Mueller, Arizona State University

The Shifting Transnational Boundaries of Carework: Caring Labor in International Conflict

Caring labor once consigned to invisible and private domestic space and performed largely by unpaid female kin, has emerged as a public issue that addresses concerns grounded in war and conflict. While public policies designed to reaffirm carework's private character shape public debates in the US, actual caring practice and ideologies surrounding care are moving into unexpected domains involving unanticipated groups and individuals.

Organizer: Judy Wittner, Loyola University; and Cameron Macdonald, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Panel: Kathryn Ward, Southern Illinois University
Joan I. Biddle, New School Online University
Jennifer Hyndman, Simon Fraser
Discussion: Joan Tronto, Hunter College, City University of New York; and Cameron MacDonald, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Transnational Women’s Movement

The presider will ask panelists to addresses how organizers/organizations in three different regions of the world have mobilized as ‘local’ and ‘global’ movements for social change. Each panelist will be asked to draw on their own research to identify and discuss challenges and strategies used to build coherent political projects and constituencies across hierarchies and inequalities.

Organizer: France Winddance Twine, Duke University and University of California, Santa Barbara
Panel: Kathrina Zippel, Northeastern University
Mangala Subramaniam, Purdue University; and Myra Marx Ferree, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Nancy Naples, University of Connecticut
Discussion: Gay Seidman, University of Wisconsin, Madison

What Do Sociologists Have to Say about Terrorism?

This session will focus on ways that sociologists are contributing to understanding terrorism, including discussion of the behaviors included in this type of violence, new ethnographic and quantitative data bases developed for studying varying dimensions of terror activity, and the political and social consequences of the use of terror.

Organizer: Margaret Zahn, Research Triangle Institute
Panel: Charles Tilly, Columbia University
Georgi Derluguian, Northwestern
Gary LaFree, University of Maryland
Laura Dugan, University of Maryland
Randall Collins, University of Pennsylvania

What Do We Know about Migrant Smuggling and Human Trafficking?

The growing business of migrant smuggling and the trafficking of people into slavery has received much recent media attention. Yet, empirical sociological research on this topic remains underdeveloped. This panel assesses the state of research in this area; it also explores various local and global social forces in creating these two related social phenomena.

Organizer: David Kyle, University of California, Davis
Presider: Kitty Calavita, University of California, Irvine
Panel: David Spener, Trinity College
David Kyle, University of California, Davis; and Brad Jokisch, Ohio University
Kamala Kempadoo, York University
Kristel Acacio, University of California, Berkeley

Who Defines the Reality of Feminized Migration in Asia?

Labor migration in Asia has become increasingly feminized. Receiving states commonly lack a policy of incorporation for unskilled foreigners. As a result, their rights remain unprotected. Panelists will address how sociologists can define the reality of migrant women's experience in order to generate gender-sensitive, equality-minded policies and publics.

Organizer: Keiko Yamanaka, University of California, Berkeley
Panel: Pei-Chia Lan, National Taiwan University
Ruri Ito , Ochanomizu University
Hye-Kyung Lee, Pai Chai University
Nicola Piper, Australian National University