[показать] 8th Annual Aleksanteri Conference
WELFARE, GENDER AND AGENCY IN RUSSIA AND EASTERN EUROPE
December 10-12, 2008; the University of Helsinki, Finland

Aleksanteri Conference 2008
Time and venue: December 10-12, 2008, University of Helsinki , Finland
Organiser: The Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki
Co-organiser: The National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health (STAKES)

The Aleksanteri Institute of the University of Helsinki will hold the 8th Annual International Aleksanteri Conference, December 10-12, 2008. The conference will bring together researchers of society, culture and history to examine the interrelationships of welfare, gender and agency in Russia and Eastern Europe during the transitional period. The approach is more multidimensional than usual, because in addition to economic and social problems the agenda also includes bodily and sexual issues. They are viewed from an inter-sectionalist perspective, taking into account gender and, moreover, class and ethnicity. The integrating theme is discussion on post-socialist welfare models.

The conference will also deal with methodology - moving within the frames of the past, the present and the future; in-between macro and micro levels; and de/reconstructing East/West divisions, hierarchies and biases e.g. through post-colonially inspired post-socialist criticism.

Keynote speakers

*Professor Linda J. Cook, Department of Political Science, Brown University ( USA )

*Director Elena Gapova, Centre for Gender Studies, European Humanities University , ( Vilnius , Lithuania / Minsk , Belorussia )

*Professor Elena Iarskaia-Smirnova, Department of Social Anthropology and Social Work , Technical State University, Saratov (Russia)

*Associate Professor Janet Elise Johnson, Department of Political Science, Brooklyn College, City University of New York (USA)

*Professor Dagmar Kutsar, Unit of Family and Welfare Studies, University of Tartu ( Estonia )

*Associate Professor Vesselin Popov, Ethnographical Institute and Museum of Bulgarian Academy of Sciences , Sofia ( Bulgaria )

*Dr. Kate Thompson, Faculty of Health, Birmingham City University ( UK )


Extended Call for Papers

Download a pdf-file here:
http://www.helsinki.fi/aleksanteri/conference2008/files/excp.pdf

Call for papers, panels, workshops

While open to all proposals dealing with welfare, gender and agency in Russia and Eastern Europe , the programme committee suggests, for instance the following sub-themes for consideration:

Welfare regimes

In what sense and on what level of action is there cause to speak of welfare models, ▒welfare regimes', in Russia and Eastern Europe ? To what degree do they reflect new neo-liberal vs. past state-paternalistic values and goals? What kind of alternative models are there? What significance is given to current deep social divisions and poverty?

Regional and sub-regional variations

What kind of developmental differences are there between, on the one hand, Russia and CIS countries and, on the other hand, the new members and applicant states of the EU? How large are regional differences internally?

Gender

How are models gendered economically and socially? What insights do violence against women, prostitution and trafficking in women offer into the models? What kinds of masculinities are constructed? What are the future prospects for men who, statistically speaking, have a very low life expectancy today?

Ethnicity and migration

What is the situation of different cultural minorities such as the Romani people? How is East-West migration related to welfare in Eastern Europe ?

Civil society and agency

What is the relationship between political power institutions and civil society, and society at large? How is the sphere of civil society gendered? How do practices and agency take shape at the grassroots level?

Welfare services

What is the division between the public and third sectors in welfare service
provision? How common are so-called public-private or public-civic mix solutions? How, for example, are the life situations of clients of social work perceived? Who is responsible for the interpretations and on what terms?

National policies and transnational perspectives

How do policies on the national level shape new models? What do, for example, general and gender-sensitive development indexes tell about them?
How is welfare approached in multinational and transnational Western programmes aimed at the region?

In addition to plenum sessions, there will be panels and workshops gathered on a call-for-papers basis. Standard panel proposals should consist of a chair, three papers and a discussant; standard workshop proposals of three papers. Individual proposals for workshop papers are welcome as well.

All submissions should be in the working languages of the conference, which are English and Russian. Unfortunately no translation can be provided.

All proposals should be sent via the form on the conference website. In case of difficulty in using the website, submissions are also accepted by email to fcree-aleksconf@helsinki.fi

Participants and observers who do not wish to give a paper or organise a panel or a workshop are also welcome to take part in the Conference. There is no registration fee but registration is required.

Conference schedule and deadlines

Proposals for panels (ca. 500 words): May 15, 2008
Abstracts for 15-20 minute papers (ca. 300 words): May 15, 2008
Notification of acceptance: by 15 August, 2008
On-line registration: by November 15, 2008
Conference: December 10-12, 2008

Registration will open August 15, 2008. For further information, or any
questions you may wish to ask, please contact the conference coordinator at Aleksanteri Conference: fcree-aleksconf@helsinki.fi

The co-organiser of the conference, the International Development
Collaboration (IDC) at the National Research and Development Centre for
Welfare and Health (STAKES) ( http://idc.stakes.fi ), will organise as a part of the conference the transnational session ▒Responses to Social
Problems in Transitional Societies'.

more information: www.helsinki.fi/aleksanteri/conference2008