[Gesth-l] cfp Competition and Good Society - the Eastern Model

[Pető Andrea Dr.]

12th ALEKSANTERI CONFERENCE: Competition and Good Society - the Eastern Model

24th-26th October 2012, Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, 
Finland
http://www.helsinki.fi/aleksanteri/conference2012/

The link between competition and good society has seldom been 
extensively discussed on any international academic forum. Since the 
1980s there has been vivid political discussion of and rivalry among the 
varieties of capitalist models. The ongoing Western economic crisis with 
political decision-makers' discord, a growing sense of social insecurity 
and global demonstrations all point out how cutting-edge this topic is. 
Hence, we aim to discuss competition and competitiveness not primarily 
in the economic context but, more importantly, in reflection to societal 
life. We are interested in what kind of preconditions competition 
creates for welfare, social justice, equality and culture, in addition 
to how competition affects changes on the level of mentality and ideas - 
subjects that have been greatly neglected.

The purpose of the 12th Aleksanteri Conference is to generate academic 
research and discourse on this subject. The focus of the conference is 
on the Eastern angle. Its aim is to discuss how people in Eastern and 
Central Europe, Russia, and even further in the East in Central Asia and 
China understand the preconditions of a good society and what role 
competition plays in it as well as how competition is reflected in the 
semantic systems and the cultural structures of these countries. 
Especially the area that faced the enormous task of building a new 
social system after the collapse of socialism had to redefine its 
relation to market forces, competitiveness and social well-being. What 
are the experiences of this societal development after twenty years? Are 
the Eastern models divergent or convergent with the varieties of Western 
capitalism? What are the norms, limitations and practices of competition 
in the diverse Eastern models? How has the understanding of competition 
changed after the Second World War? Can we find continuities of ideas, 
practices or mentalities rooted in the communist past and Cold War 
period that still affect these issues?

We call for contributions from a wide range of disciplines in social 
sciences and humanities since the aim is a fruitful interdisciplinary 
discourse. The conference organisers welcome presentations particularly 
on the following topics:

COMPETITION AS INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIAL ACTION
- Competition as individual performance, rivalry, struggle or fulfillment
- The merging of individual and social purposes of competition
- Competition as a channel and overarching bond between the individual 
and community
- The social appeal of competition: the attraction of Olympic games, 
beauty contests, song and choir contests, quizzes, survival 
competitions, chef contests, etc.

CHANGE AND CONTINUITY
- Influence of historical background and cultural traditions on 
contemporary competitiveness and the understanding of social welfare
- Traces of the Cold War and state socialism
- New forms of competition and new interpretations of social well-being
- Impact of competitive practices on change in the political sphere, 
working sphere, education and gender relations

REGIONAL, NATIONAL, INTERNATIONAL AND TRANSNATIONAL
- Regional, national and international differences and similarities: the 
notion of competition and the needs of society
- Transnational, supranational and non-national aspects
- Comparisons of Eastern and Western models

INTERACTION AND JUXTAPOSITION
- Spread of competition in societal life
- Interaction of the political and economic spheres: integration, 
intervention, influence
- Egalité, fraternité, liberté! Democracy and civil society from the 
point of view of competition
- Role of the media
- Individual manoeuvring space and social boundaries
- Intersectional approaches: gender, class, ethnicity
- Gendered competition
- Competition and corruption: trust and the idea of the constitutional state

IDEA OF DEVELOPMENT
- Competition, entrepreneurship, innovations
- Competing ideas: theories of individualism and communality
- New resistance and global phenomena
- Ideology of growth and sustainable development in connection with 
competition

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:

Ivan Berend
Ivan Berend is Distinguish Professor of the University of California, 
Los Angeles, member of the British Academy, the Academia Europea, and 
four other European Academies of Sciences. He is author of 29 books on 
economic history; the most recent ones being "Europe Since 1980" (2010), 
"Industrialization and Diversity. A Regional Economic History of 19th 
Century Europe" (forthcoming in 2012) and he is currently working on 
"Out of the Blue? The 2008-12 European Economic Crisis."

Vladimir Gel'man
Vladimir Gel'man is Professor of Political Science and Sociology at 
the European University in St. Petersburg, visiting Professor at the 
Central European University in Budapest, the University of Texas in 
Austin and the Center for Modernization Studies at the Aleksanteri 
Institute, Helsinki. He is member of the editorial board of journals 
Polis, European Political Science and International Journal of Urban and 
Regional Research. He has published 17 books and over 120 articles on 
Russian and Post-Soviet politics and comparative politology.

Andrea Petö
Andrea Petö is Associate Professor at the Department of Gender Studies 
at the Central European University in Budapest, the President of the 
gender and women's history section of the Hungarian Historical 
Association, the Feminist Section of the Hungarian Sociological 
Association and co-President of AtGender, The European Association for 
Gender Research, Education and Documentation. Petö is author of several 
books and articles on European comparative social and gender history.

Colin Sparks
Colin Sparks is Professor of Media Studies at the University of 
Westminster (UK) and Director of Communication and Media Research 
Institute (CAMRI). He was one of the founders of Media, Culture and 
Society, and was a founder of the European Institute for Communication 
and Culture. His current research interests include the comparative 
study of media systems undergoing rapid change. He is particularly 
interested in comparing the media systems of post-communist countries 
with those of other societies that have moved away from different forms 
of dictatorship towards more democratic forms of political rule.

Iván Szelényi
Iván Szelényi is William Garam Sumner Emeritus Professor of Sociology 
and Political Science, Yale University, Max Weber Professor of Social 
Science and Foundation Dean of Social Sciences at NYUAD. He is a Fellow 
of American Academy of Arts and Sciences as well as member of the 
Hungarian National Academy of Sciences. Szelenyi has published several 
books and articles on social inequalities from a comparative and 
historical perspective in Communist and Post-Communist countries.

CONFERENCE SCHEDULE AND DEADLINES

Proposals for panels (500 words): April 30th, 2012
Abstracts for individual papers (300 words): April 30th, 2012
Notification of acceptance: May 31st, 2012
Publication of the conference programme: June 30th, 2012
Conference: October 24-26th, 2012

Please submit your abstract and contact information through the abstract 
submission form:

https://elomake.helsinki.fi/lomakkeet/32730/lomake.html

or panel proposal submission form:

https://elomake.helsinki.fi/lomakkeet/32733/lomake.html .

For further assistance or more details, please see the conference website

http://www.helsinki.fi/aleksanteri/conference2012/

or contact the Conference Coordinators at fcree-aleksconf at helsinki.fi .

The Aleksanteri Conference is an annual, multidisciplinary, 
international conference organised by the Aleksanteri Institute, the 
Finnish Centre for Russian and Eastern European Studies, affiliated with 
the University of Helsinki. Aleksanteri Conferences have attracted broad 
interest among researchers and policy-makers in a wide variety of 
disciplines, both in Finland and abroad, interested in the development 
of post-socialist countries.

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