BSA Annual Conference 2008: Conference Theme
The theme of this conference invites engagement with contemporary debates about the relationship between the natural and the social and the ways in which the nature-culture distinction is being challenged by developments within both social theory and empirical research.
A key aim of the conference will be to explore the social and sociological implications of recent developments – within and without sociology - which challenge the boundaries of the natural and the social in very profound ways. Such a challenge poses questions about how we understand human society and its relations to the world of nature as well as serious moral and political questions for human society. Sociological responses to these challenges are multifaceted but remain fragmented within the various sub-fields of the discipline – for example studies of the body and emotions have drawn attention to the ways in which humans are of both culture and nature while the emergent interest in the human-animal relationship constructs animals as part of culture.
This conference aims to generate a conversation between different substantive areas of sociology and across disciplinary boundaries in order to illuminate the special contribution of sociologists both to how we understand human societies and to the complex questions facing them in the 21st century.
The conference theme is open to wide interpretation and we invite papers, posters, symposia or workshops which address the following conference stream headings:
- Biotechnology and society
- Science/religion
- Queer theory
- Animals in human societies
- Emotions and the body
- Theoretical perspectives
- There will also be an ‘Open stream’
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- Social movements
- Cultural constructions of nature
- Nature, culture and gender
- The environment
- A role for public sociology
- Methodological issues
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All BSA study groups are strongly encouraged to contribute posters/papers/symposia addressed to these streams. There will also be opportunities for study groups to meet independently.
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