GLOBAL SOCIOLOGY AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: January 2017

Sunday, January 29, 2017

Andy Yen: Think your email's private? Think again

Saturday, January 28, 2017

Understanding American Society and Politics - Basic Movies

The Godfather Legacy

The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

The Color Purple (1985) Official Trailer - Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg

The Firm (1993)

American Beauty (1999)

Forrest Gump ( 1994)

Taxi Driver (1976)

Citizen Kane (1941)

American History X (1998)

New Editorial Board: Sociology of Islam 2017

Dear all,

Greetings from Istanbul. We have a new editorial board for the Sociology of Islam, which you will see below. 2017 will be our 4th year and we appreciate your support and activity as part of the mailing list. So far, we have published 16 issues including three ‘special issues.’ We are happy to accept articles related with the Sociology of Islam and Sociology of the Middle East which are related directly with the topics of inequality, social movements, political sociology, religion, nationalism and ethnicity, modernity, work and labor, criminology, aging, environment, health, deviance, sexuality, education, and social change. For your submission, we accept articles from 8000–12.000 words in length. If you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to contact me, Gary Wood or other members of the editorial board. Additionally, we are open to special issue proposals, please email your ideas to us!

You can submit your article to the following website: http://www.editorialmanager.com/SOI/default.aspx
or send it to us for a prescreening process.

Please remember that this is not a religious studies journal! All submissions must be related with the themes of Sociology of Islam and the Middle East.

Our special issues can be found at the following website pages:

The Gülen Movement (Volume 1, Issue 3-4, 2014 )
A Guest editor: Joshua Hendrick, Loyola University of Maryland.
http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/22131418/1/3-4

Contemporary Social Movements in the Middle East and Beyond, 2014 (Volume 2, Issue 3-4, 2014)
A Guest editor: Mojtaba Mahdavi, University of Alberta
http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/22131418/2/3-4

China, Islam and Middle East (Volume 4, Issue 1-2, 2016)
A Guest editor: Tugrul Keskin, Shanghai University
http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/22131418/4/1-2

SOCIOLOGY OF ISLAM:
http://www.brill.com/publications/journals/sociology-islam

Editorial Board
Editors-in-Chief
Gary Wood, Virginia Tech
Tugrul Keskin, Shanghai University

Assistant Editors
Sara Swetzoff, Howard University
Michael McCall, American University of Beirut

Associate Editors
Rachel Rinaldo, University of Colorado-Boulder
Joshua Hendrick, Loyola University of Maryland
Isabel David, University of Lisbon
Mark Gould, Haverford College
Sari Hanafi, American University of Beirut
Sean Foley, Middle Tennessee State University

Book Reviews Editor:
Joshua Hendrick, Loyola University of Maryland

International Advisory Board
Amr Osman, Qatar University
Armando Salvatore, McGill University
Asef Bayat, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Babak Rahimi, UC San Diego
Bryan S. Turner, City University of New York
Charles Kurzman, UNC Chapel Hill
Cihan Tugal, UC Berkeley
Ed Webb, Dickinson College
Geoffrey F. Gresh, National Defense University
Hamid Dabashi, Columbia University
Husnul Amin, International Islamic University, Islamabad
Khalil al-Anani, Johns Hopkins University
Jocelyne Cesari, Harvard University
Marc Andrew, Yale University
Mariusz Turowski, The University of Wroclaw
Mojtaba Mahdavi, University of Alberta
Mohammedmoin Sadeq, Qatar University
Mohammed A. Bamyeh, University of Pittsburgh
Najm al-Din Yousefi, California State University, Chico
Shah Mahmoud Hanifi, James Madison University
Ted Fuller, Virginia Tech
Tim Luke, Virginia Tech
Zakia Salime, Rutgers University

Indexing and Abstracting
ERIH PLUS
Index Islamicus

Friday, January 27, 2017

BEST MOVIES - 2016-17

I Am Not Your Negro - Official Trail

A United Kingdom Official International Trailer 1 (2016) - David Oyelowo Movie

Personal Shopper Official Trailer - Teaser (2017) - Kristen Stewart

Lovesong Official Trailer 1 (2017) - Jena Malone Movie

FREE FIRE Movie TRAILER (Brie Larson, Cilian Murphy - Action, 2017)

THE DISCOVERY Trailer (2017) Rooney Mara, Netflix Movie Drama

COLOSSAL Trailer (2016) Anne Hathaway Monster Movie

A QUIET PASSION Trailer | Festival 2016

The Dinner - Trailer

Thursday, January 26, 2017

2016 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report

2016 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report

James G . Mc Gann
University of Pennsylvania
jmcgann@sas.upenn.edu

JANUARY 26, 2017

ABSTRACT:
The Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program (TTCSP) of the Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania conducts research on the r ole policy institutes play in governments and civil societies around the world. Often referred to as the “ think tanks’ think tank,” TTCSP examines the evolving role and character of public policy research organizations. Over the last 26 years, the TTCSP has developed and led a series of global initiatives that have helped bridge the gap between knowledge and policy in critical policy areas such as international peace and security, globalization and governance, international economics, environmental issues, information and society, poverty alleviation, and healthcare and global health. These international collaborative efforts are designed to establish regional and international networks of policy institutes and communities that improve policy making while strengthening democratic institutions and civil societies around the world.
The TTCSP works with leading scholars and practitioners from think t anks and universities in a variety of collaborative efforts and programs, and produces the annual Global Go To Think T ank Index that ranks the world’s leading think t anks in a variety of categories. This is achieved with the he lp of a panel of over 1,900 peer institutions and experts from the pr int and electronic me dia, academia, public and private donor institutions, and governments around the w orld. We have strong relationships with leading think t anks around the world, and our a nnual Think T ank Index is used by academics, journalists, donor s and the pub lic to locate and connect with the le ading centers of public policy research around the w orld. Our goal is to increase the profile and performance of think t anks and raise the pub lic awareness of the impor tant role think t anks play in governments and civil societies around the glo be.
Since its inception in 1989, the TTCSP has focused on collecting data and conducting research on think tank trends and the role think tanks play as civil society actors in the policymaking process. In 2007, the TTCSP developed and launched the global index of think tanks, which is designed to identify and recognize centers of excellence in all the major areas of public policy research and in every region of the world. To date TTCSP has provided technical assistance and capacity building programs in 81 countries. We are now working to create regional and global networks of think tanks in an effort to facilitate collaboration and the production of a modest yet achievable set of global public goods. Our goal is to create lasting institutional and state-level partnerships by engaging and mobilizing think tanks that have demonstrated their ability to produce high quality policy research and shape popular and elite opinion and actions for public good.

DOWNLOAD THE REPORT.......

Monday, January 23, 2017

When Baghdad Was Beautiful and Old Baghdad بغداد قديماً 1966

When Baghdad Was Beautiful

Old Baghdad بغداد قديماً 1966

1955 Damascus, Syria and Aleppo 1978 - Alep - Halep - 1978

1955 Damascus, Syria

Aleppo 1978 - Alep - Halep - 1978

Monday, January 16, 2017

4th International Course On Shia Islamic Studies" March 4-14, 2017 - The University of Religions and Denominations, Qom, Iran

From: Ahmad Moghri
Date: Monday, January 16, 2017 at 8:23 PM
To: Sociology of Islam <sociology_of_islam-g@vt.edu>
Subject: Last call for: 4th International Course on Shia Islamic Studies (Iran, March 2017)

Dear Tugrul,

Would you please circulate the Last Call for the "4th International Course On Shia Islamic Studies" attached to this mail? It refers to a 6-Day academic workshop and 5-Day cultural tour In 5 cities of Iran in March 2017 organized by the University of Religions and Denominations (Iran, Qom) in collaboration with the Ferdusi University (Iran, Mashhad).

Registration deadline: January 31, 2017.

More information on details and costs is available at shiacourse (at) urd.ac.ir

Thank you in advance!

Kind regards

Ahmad Moghri,

Program Director

Ahmad Moghri
Program Director,
University of Religions and Denominations
Qom, Iran

shiacourse (at) urd.ac.ir

Cfp: “Three Decades of Chinese Political Studies: Reflecting the Past, Prospecting the Future” Association of Chinese Political Studies - Nankai University June 10-11, 2017 Tianjin, China

Call for Proposals “Three Decades of Chinese Political Studies: Reflecting the Past, Prospecting the Future” Association of Chinese Political Studies

The 30th Annual Meeting and International Symposium Hosted by Zhou Enlai School of Government, Nankai University June 10-11, 2017 Tianjin, China

Association of Chinese Political Studies
http://www.acpsus.org/news/three-decades-chinese-political-studies-reflecting-past-prospecting-future

Introduction:
The Association of Chinese Political Studies (ACPS) will hold its 30th annual meeting and international symposium between June 10-11, 2017 in Tianjin, China. Since its founding in 1986, ACPS has provided a platform to bring together Chinese political studies scholars from around the world. ACPS now has nearly 1,000 individual members from more than a dozen countries across four continents. The ACPS flagship journal—the Journal of Chinese Political Science—is moving up the ranks and becoming an increasingly influential outlet for some of the best work in the field. ACPS is pleased to announce that Nankai University’s Zhou Enlai School of Government will host the conference. Founded in 1919, Nankai University is one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in China. Named after China’s most respected leader and statesman, the Zhou Enlai School of Government was established in May 2004. It consists of six academic programs (Politics, Public Administration, International Relations, Sociology, Social Work and Social Policy, and Social Psychology) and is the home of multiple world-renowned research centers.
Conference Theme:
Over the past few decades, the field of Chinese political studies has experienced very rapid growth. The current areas of active research have embraced a rich variety of new data sources, methodological approaches, and interdisciplinary lenses. To showcase cutting-edge China studies scholarship, we invite papers that analyze China’s contemporary international and domestic political issues from new theoretical frameworks and using sound and innovative methodological tools. At the same time, we are also interested in papers that comment and reflect on the recent history of Chinese political studies.
Publication Opportunities
Exemplary conference papers will have the opportunity to be published in edited book volumes as well as to be considered for publication in the ACPS’s flagship journal, the Journal of Chinese Political Science. JCPS was recently accepted into ESCI, Thomson Reuter's Emerging Sources Citation Index, a new index in the Web of Science Core Collection. The journal is also currently under review for acceptance into SSCI, the Social Sciences Citation Index.
Proposal Submission Procedures
The deadline for proposal submission is Tuesday, February 28, 2017. Current ACPS members will receive priority consideration, though we seek high quality proposals in congruence with the conference theme. The proposal review committee will also consider panel proposals consisting of 4-5 papers sharing a coherent theme. Paper and panel proposals should be submitted via e-mail to acpsus.org@gmail.com. For paper proposals, please include: (1) paper title and abstract; (2) each author’s full name, institutional affiliation and contact information. The e-mail subject line for paper submissions should be “Paper Proposal Submission ACPS_Nankai 2017.” For panel submissions, please include: (1) panel title; (2) each paper’s title and abstract; (3) each author’s full name, institutional affiliation, and contact information; (4) full name and contact information of the panel chair and discussant. Please use “Panel Proposal Submission ACPS_Nankai 2017” as the e-mail subject line.

Acceptance of Proposals
The review committee will issue notifications of acceptance, via email, to the primary author listed in the paper or panel proposal. Notifications will be distributed in March 2017.
Conference Registration Procedures
Those whose papers are accepted and plan to attend the conference must register for the conference and pay a non-refundable registration fee via the ACPS website by May 1, 2017. Individuals who have paid their ACPS membership dues and conference registration fees in full are entitled to three free nights of lodging (June 9-11) and group meals throughout the duration of the conference. Volunteering/Contact
We welcome expressions of interest from conference participants willing to serve as panel chairs and discussants. All questions regarding the conference should be directed to: acpsus.org (at) gmail.com

11th Pan-European Conference on International Relations Barcelona, Spain, 13-16 September 2017

11th Pan-European Conference on International Relations

Barcelona, Spain, 13-16 September 2017

Monday 5 December 2016: The Call for Papers, Panels and Roundtables starts circulating. Paper, panel and roundtable proposals can be submitted via ConfTool.
Friday 10 February 2017: Deadline for paper, panel and roundtable submissions via ConfTool.
Friday 14 April 2017: Acceptance letters and registration announcement will be sent to selected participants.
Monday 15 May 2017: Registration deadline,

The theme of this year's conference, invoking the politics of international studies, reminds us of our responsibilities as academics, analysts and students of international relations. These responsibilities have made us fight long and hard for keeping last year's conference in Izmir - to support those colleagues who had become increasingly marginalised in a deteriorating political situation, to serve as a reminder of those who had lost their jobs or even been imprisoned because of their political views, and to do what we could to open up the political debate again. In the end, we had to declare defeat. The events that followed the failed coup d'etat in mid-July, and in particular the declaration of a state of emergency, meant that we could no longer guarantee the organisation of a conference without state interference. Our red line had been crossed, and our responsibility now became one to withdraw - as a sign of protest, but also in order not to jeopardise further the intellectual and physical integrity of our members. The cancellation of last year's conference has cost us and you as prospective participants a lot of time, money and nerves. I am all the more grateful for all your support in what has been a very difficult year for EISA. And I am all the more pleased that you have stuck with us and supported us, and that you are now returning to another Pan-European Conference, which I hope will not disappoint you. Our programme chairs, Victoria Basham and Cemal Burak Tansel, have been working hard to put together a first-rate programme, including a set of semi-plenaries and special events. Our local hosts at IBEI are able to provide us with a congenial conference setting in one of the world's most attractive cities. My thanks go to them and all of those involved in making this year's Pan-European Conference a success! Enjoy the panels, take an active part in the discussions, and let the rest of the world know by tweeting #EISAPEC17. And once you return home, keep Barcelona in good memories while planning already for PEC-18 in Prague, 12-15 September 2018!

Sunday, January 15, 2017

The Inclusive Growth and Development Report 2017

World Economic Forum - January 2017

Around the world, no bigger policy challenge preoccupies leaders than expanding social participation in the process and benefits of economic growth. The report, which covers 109 economies, seeks to improve our understanding of how countries can use a diverse spectrum of policy incentives and institutional mechanisms to make economic growth more socially inclusive without dampening incentives to work, save and invest. The Report presents a new global index, the Inclusive Development Index (IDI), providing a richer and more nuanced assessment of countries’ level (and recent performance) of economic development than the conventional one based on GDP per capita alone. It also provides a policy framework showing the many factors that can drive a more inclusive growth process.

Download the report........

Saturday, January 7, 2017

ASA 2017 Annual Meeting: “Culture, Inequalities and Social Inclusion Across the Globe.” August 12-15, 2017, Montréal, Québec

ASA 2017 Annual Meeting:
“Culture, Inequalities and Social Inclusion Across the Globe.”
August 12-15, 2017
Montréal, Québec
http://www.asanet.org/annual-meeting-2017/program-information

ASA President Michèle Lamont (Harvard University) and the 2017 Program Committee are pleased to announce the theme for the 2017 Annual Meeting: “Culture, Inequalities and Social Inclusion Across the Globe.” The Annual Meeting will be held August 12-15, 2017, in Montréal, Québec, Canada .

View the Program Commitee-sponsored Invited Sessions (this includes Author Meets Critics Sessions, Plenary Sessions, Presidential Panels, Regional Spotlight Sessions, Special Sessions, Thematic Sessions and Workshops).

Mark Your Calendar

November 1, 2016: Call for Papers posted on ASA website and the online system opens for submission of papers, discussion topics, and posters.
January 11, 2017: Submission site closes; Session Organizers begin reviewing the submissions.
May 1, 2017: Program schedule announced; no scheduling information is available prior to that date.
May 11, 2017: Preregistration deadline for program participants
June 1, 2017: Deadline to receive ALL program changes for the Final Program

Culture, Inequalities, and Social Inclusion across the Globe Rising inequality has brought the unequal distribution of material resources to the center of political debates in the United States and Europe. Social scientists routinely mobilize their deep knowledge of the structures of economic inequality to inform decision-making and conversations in the public sphere. Yet our understanding of the cultural dimensions of inequality lags far behind, despite the omnipresence and the urgency of cultural polarizations as manifested in anti-immigration rhetoric, international refugee crises, domestic racial confrontation, and increased class segregation. The 112thAnnual Meeting of the American Sociological Association will make its central goal the improvement of our understanding of the nexus of culture, inequalities, and group boundaries in order to promote greater social inclusion and resilience, collective well-being, and solidarity in the United States and globally. The program committee invites sociologists to consider: 1) the role of cultural processes, such as stigmatization and racialization, in the production and legitimation of inequalities and social exclusion; 2) meaning-making in social processes typically associated with inequality, such as domination, discrimination, exploitation, and opportunity hoarding; 3) Cultures of inequality (e.g., occupational or class cultures) and the cultural differentiation of sexual, ethnoracial, gender, and religious groups; and 4) how political processes, institutions, and public discourses (at the local, national, and global levels) shape material and cultural inequalities. We also hope for analyses of cultural repertoires, symbolic boundaries, institutions, frames, and schemas as analytical tools for the study of inequality, poverty, and insecurity. We equally welcome papers on social inclusion, dynamics of cultural and social change, and the bridging and transformation of group boundaries across the globe. New comparative, qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods for the systematic empirical study of cultural processes will also be on the menu. Because sociologists are uniquely equipped to study inequalities in all their dimensions, it is high time to focus on the politics of social recognition and their interaction with and impact on the distribution of social and material resources, including how they are mediated by and/or manifest themselves in education, labor, immigration, consumption, law, social movements, health, science, the family, the economy, and beyond.
Michèle Lamont, ASA President-elect and Chair of the 2017 Program Committee, Harvard University

FOR MORE INFORMATION....

XIX ISA World Congress of Sociology: Power, Violence and Justice: Reflections, Responses and Responsibilities Toronto, Canada, July 15-21, 2018

XIX ISA World Congress of Sociology

Power, Violence and Justice: Reflections, Responses and Responsibilities

Toronto, Canada, July 15-21, 2018
http://www.isa-sociology.org/en/conferences/world-congress/toronto-2018/

Since the inception of the discipline, sociologists have been concerned with power, violence and justice. Current social, economic and political challenges enhance their relevance. As capitalist globalization expands and deepens, corporate power increases along with global, national and local inequalities. New geo-political power configurations and confrontations are emerging, with violence being used as a tool to oppress and also to resist oppression. Colonial histories and contemporary land appropriations reflect the structures and cultural processes that perpetuate violence against indigenous and minority communities. States’ failures to meet their responsibility to provide basic resources are often deflected by blaming the most vulnerable. Both global economic and geo-political processes create crises and massive displacements of people and, at the same time, fuel racism, nationalism and xenophobia. We have also seen an increasing buildup of a culture of fear as a powerful tool used by states, corporations and other institutions to generate popular support for curtailing freedom in the name of security. Efforts to curtail the flow of desperate refugees, attest to the reinforcement of national and racialized borders. Despite visible progress on equality issues, violence against women and intersectional violence point to the entrenchment of the gender border around the world. Equally significant is the need to consider the role of state and institutional power relations to ongoing everyday violence. In response to disempowerment, violence, and injustice we have also witnessed nonviolent movements, humanitarian interventions, and peace processes that have empowered communities, reduced violence, and promoted justice. These diverse communities have built solidarities outside the neo-liberal frames of state-global capital nexus.
This XIX ISA World Congress of Sociology will focus on how scholars, public intellectuals, policy makers, journalists and activists from diverse fields can and do contribute to our understanding of power, violence and justice.
Margaret Abraham
ISA President

FOR MORE INFORMATION......

13th ESA Conference (Un)Making Europe: Capitalism, Solidarities, Subjectivities - Athens, Greece, 29 Aug -1 Sep 2017

13th ESA Conference of the European Sociological Association

Un)Making Europe: Capitalism, Solidarities, Subjectivities

Athens, Greece, 29 August to 1 September 2017
http://www.europeansociology.org/conferences/13th-conference-2017/

Call for Papers (PDF), deadline: 1 February 2017

Europe can be made or unmade, and this is especially true since the ‘Great Recession’ of 2008. European society, and even the very idea of Europe, is under threat. First, the i n- herent contradictions of capitalism are obviously stronger than we thought: Greece, where the emphatic idea of “Europe” originated, has experienced severe austerity mea s- ures; Europe has seen a deepening of neo-liberal politics, threats to what remains of the welfare state and increasing inequality. Second, solidarities are fragmented in and between societies across Europe. The new world economic crisis formed a context for both the constitution and the undermining of solidarities. On the one hand, from the Arab Uprisings to the various Occupy and Indi g- nados movements – and their manifestations at the level of political parties – we have seen rebellions by citizens demanding political change. On the other hand, refugees fle e- ing wars have been denied human rights and their lives have been threatened by the closure of borders and the lack of a coordinated European strategy. Third, subjectivities are formed that do not only result in resistance and protest, but also in apathy, despair, depression, and anxiety. Authoritarianism, nationalism, racism, xen o- phobia, right-wing extremism, spirals of violence, and ideological fundamentalisms have proliferated throughout the world, including in Europe. As a result, the promise of Europe and the geographical, political, and social borders of Europe have been unmade and this ‘unmaking’ poses a profound challenge for sociology and the social sciences more generally. It is in this context that the European Sociological Association’s 2017 Conferenc e takes place in Athens at the epicentre of the European crisis. The underlying question for the conference is: How and where to should a sociology that matters evolve? How can sociology’s analyses, theories and methods, across the whole spectrum of ESA’s 37 research networks and various countries, be advanced in order to explain and understand capitalism, solidar i- ties and subjectivities in the processes of the making, unmaking and remaking of Europe?

FOR MORE INFORMATION....