Working group: Post-qualitative methodologies in social sciences - The 28th Conference of the Nordic Sociological Association

Call for abstracts now open:  The 28th Conference of the Nordic Sociological Association, 11-13 August, 2016

Working group: Post-qualitative methodologies in social sciences

Organizers: Marjo Kolehmainen (University of Tampere, Finland) & Tuula Juvonen (University of Tampere, Finland)

Where, when and why are post-qualitative methodologies needed? What kind of consequences do they have for the processes of knowledge-making? The conventional qualitative research practices have been increasingly criticized for being normative or standardized in their approaches. What is the relevance of post-positivist models of knowledge production to social sciences?

Openings in post-qualitative methodologies pose new challenges to social sciences:
– How to approach networks or things that are multi-directional?
– How to apply categories on things that are fluid, or in the constant state of becoming?
– How to get the hold of the unknown and unanticipated and do justice to such complexities?
– How to find alternative ways of attuning, noticing, and registering the social as it happens?

We invite to our working group presentations by scholars who are searching for and applying alternative and creative ways of thinking about methodological understandings and research practices.

Deadline for submitting an abstract: 16 February 2016

Notification for accepted abstracts: 5 April 2016

The working group gathers at the 28th Conference of the Nordic Sociological Association, “Knowledge-Making Practices and Sociology’s Global Challenge”, 11–13 August 2016, Helsinki.

For more information, please visit: http://nsa2016.org/

Marjo Kolehmainen
Post-doctoral research fellow
School of Social Sciences and Humanities
FI-33014 University of Tampere
Finland

E-mail: marjo.kolehmainen@uta.fi
Phone: +358 50 318 7599
http://affective-inequalities.fi/en/marjo-kolehmainen/

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Call for Abstracts: Workshop on Affect and Methods with Lisa Blackman & Patricia Clough University of Tampere (Finland), May 23-24 2016

How can we develop new methodological approaches for registering and studying affect in empirical research?

We invite abstracts for an international workshop on Affect and Methods, to be held at the University of Tampere, Finland, on May 23-24, 2016. The workshop includes open to public keynote lectures by Professor Lisa Blackman (Goldsmiths) and Professor Patricia Ticineto Clough (CUNY), as well as a two-day workshop, where the participants’ papers will be commented on by the keynote speakers and their fellow participants.

We welcome contributions from scholars, PhD students included, who address affect in their empirical research. As intersecting inequalities are increasingly mediated affectively, we assume that the arrangements of gender and sexuality can be approached in novel ways by attuning them to affects. Albeit we encourage submissions from participants whose work stems from different theoretical and methodological backgrounds, the workshop is especially targeted at those working on feminist research or other scholars dealing with questions of power and inequality within cultural or social research.

There has been ongoing theoretical interest in the affects in social sciences and humanities with sophisticated outcomes. In recent years the interest has shifted to include empirical questions regarding affect and methods, which also coincides with the rise of post-qualitative approaches. The latter development has raised the question about whether affects can simply be integrated into the already established research methodologies, or whether profound rethinking is required, especially as the current qualitative methodologies mostly rely on language and sight without attuning them to alternative technologies of noticing and observing.

Hence the themes about developing and employing inventive and experimental methods for the study of affect that can be discussed in the workshop may include but are not limited to the following:

-        How can we work with the notion of affect in a particular research process?
-        How can we enrich our understanding of attuning, noticing, observing and registering non-verbalized signals of affect? How do they support, challenge or complicate the verbalized emotions?
-        What does the study of affect require from the data, if we are to attune to affective dynamics or to access atmospheres, moods, and energies? How does such an approach shift the relations between affect and knowledge production?
-        If one seeks to work with one’s empirical data without renewing post-positivist ideas of coding, verification and measurement, how can one address the questions of describing, interpreting, positioning, and naming affects?
-        How can we examine the cultural and social shaping of affect? How can we analyze the affective dimension of gendered and sexualized power dynamics?
-        How can we make use of affective intensities while conducting research, and how can we conceptualize the affective relationships between the researcher, the research, and/or the researched? How can we avoid relying on the idea of singular, autonomous subjects?

The maximum number of participants presenting their papers will be 12, and the auditing of the workshop is limited by registration only. Participation is free of charge, yet participants are expected to cover their own travel and accommodation costs as well as their meals.

The deadline for abstracts (max. 250 words) is February 15th, 2016. The decisions about acceptance are based on the abstracts and are due at the end of February. The accepted participants are expected to submit a work-in-progress paper of 10-12 pages by April 30, 2016. The papers should preferably present and analyze empirical data and address questions that are pertinent to affect and methods. Papers will be circulated among the participants, and all participants are expected to read both the work-in-progress-papers as well as the literature suggested by the keynotes. Please submit your abstract to: affective-inequalities@uta.fi.

For further information, please contact:

Dr. Tuula Juvonen (Academy Research Fellow): tuula.juvonen@uta.fi or Dr. Marjo Kolehmainen (Post-Doctoral Research Fellow): marjo.kolehmainen@uta.fi.

The workshop is organized by an Academy of Finland funded research project “Just the Two of Us? Affective Inequalities in Intimate Relationships” led by Dr. Tuula Juvonen. More information is available at http://affective-inequalities.fi/en/

PS. Please note that the project has started negotiations on publishing an edited volume “Affect and Inequalities in Intimate Relationships” (working title) with Routledge in 2018. The call for papers will be opened in spring 2016. We encourage prospective participants to also consider responding to that call.

Marjo Kolehmainen
Post-doctoral research fellow
School of Social Sciences and Humanities
FI-33014 University of Tampere
Finland

E-mail: marjo.kolehmainen@uta.fi
Phone: +358 50 318 7599
http://affective-inequalities.fi/en/marjo-kolehmainen/

An American Educational Research Association List If you need assistance with this list, please send an email to listadmin@aera.net.

Relevant conferences during 2016

ICED conference, Cape Town, 22 - 25 November 2016.  Abstract submissions round 2 deadline: 30 May 2016 (round 1 was in November 2015).250 word abstract

7th Annual Conference on the New Materialisms 21-23 September 2016, Warsaw, Poland. Deadline for abstracts: 1 April 2016

Ultrecht Summer School 

Abstracts for individual papers and performances (300 words) should be sent in the following format: 1. Title 2. Presenter(s) + short bio3. Institutional affiliation 4. Abstract 5. Key words 6. Technical requirements Pre-organized panels for consideration should additionally include a summary paragraph along with proposed session title.Proposals to organize workshops should contain:1. Workshop proposal (300-words)2. Summarized CV All submitted abstracts, panel proposals, and workshop proposals will be peer reviewed. DEADLINE FOR ABSTRACTS: April 1, 2016.

DELEUZE AND GUATTARI &THE WITCH'S BROOM, UCT, Cape Town 29 August - 1 September 2016 (Please not change in dates). Deadline for abstract: 15 March 2016

The 28th Conference of the Nordic Sociological Association, 11-13 August, 2016: Knowledge-Making Practices and Sociology’s Global Challenge Tampere, Finland. Abstract deadline: 16 February 2016

Workshop on Affect and Methods with Lisa Blackman & Patricia Clough, University of Tampere (Finland), May 23-24 2016. Abstract deadline: 16 February, 2016