11 February 2009

Tilly & Wood, Social Movements: 1768-2008, Second Edition released

Publisher's blurb: "This expanded second edition of Tilly’s widely acclaimed 2004 book brings this analytical history of social movements fully up to date. Tilly and Wood cover such recent topics as immigrants’ rights, new media technologies, anti-Olympic organizing in China, new mobilizations against the Iraq War, and the role of bloggers and Facebook in social movement activities. Coverage of these and other recent events serve to expand further the book’s seminal theorizing and conceptualization of how social movements grew from eighteenth-century Europe to eventually fuel popular movements all over the world."

More here

08 February 2009

"Fall of the Wall" session on again

"The Fall of the Wall Twenty Years Later" is now being held under the auspices of the Society for Socialist Studies. The Call for Papers is here.

07 February 2009

Cartoon


via xkcd

Again, just trying to prime the pump with posting possibilities.
Jim

CNSIMC sessions at 2009 CSA meetings

Here are the approved sessions for the Canadian Sociological Association meetings in Ottawa in May 2009, as they appear on the CSA website. Click on the link for the Call for Papers on the CSA website.

The Creation, Maintenance, Expansion and Crisis of Nation States - Organiser: Karen Stanbridge, Department of Sociology, Memorial University of Newfoundland èCSA043


The Nation-State and Everyday Life - Organiser: Trevor Harrison, Department of Sociology, University of Lethbridge èCSA054


Hegemonic Nationalism - Organiser: Slobodan Drakulic, Department of Sociology, Ryerson University èCSA084


Contentious Nationalism - Organiser: James Kennedy, School of Social and Political Science, Edinburgh University èCSA095


Social Movements - Case Studies - Organizer: Philippe Couton, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Ottawa èCSA096


Author meets Critic: Political Institutions and Lesbian and Gay Rights in the United States and Canada (Routledge, 2008)  - Author: Miriam Smith, School of Public Policy and Administration, York UniversityèCSA074


Exploring Social Movement Theory - Organizer - Jim Conley, Department of Sociology, Trent University èCSA132


new book on political protest

Although its focus is American, and its author is a legal scholar, this new book looks interesting for those of us researching public political protest. (I'm posting this in part to show the variety of content that might appear here). Jim

Timothy Zick, Speech Out of Doors: Preserving First Amendment Liberties in Public Places. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008, 362 pp. $US 29.99 paper (978-0-521-73196-6), $US 90.00 hardcover (978-0-521-51730-0)
Publisher's blurb: Even in an age characterized by increasing virtual presence and communication, speakers still need physical places in which to exercise First Amendment liberties. This book examines the critical intersection of public speech and spatiality. Through a tour of various places on what the author calls the “expressive topography,” the book considers a variety of public speech activities including sidewalk counseling at abortion clinics, residential picketing, protesting near funerals, assembling and speaking on college campuses, and participating in public rallies and demonstrations at political conventions and other critical democratic events. This examination of public liberties, or speech out of doors, shows that place can be as important to one’s expressive experience as voice, sight, and auditory function. Speakers derive a host of benefits, such as proximity, immediacy, symbolic function, and solidarity, from message placement. Unfortunately, for several decades the ground beneath speakers’ feet has been steadily eroding. The causes of this erosion are varied and complex; they include privatization and other loss of public space, legal restrictions on public assembly and expression, methods of policing public speech activity, and general public apathy. To counter these forces and reverse at least some of their effects will require a focused and sustained effort – by public officials, courts, and of course, the people themselves.

06 February 2009

Welcome to Network Members from Karen

Hi everyone - 

You're accustomed to hearing from me through mass e-mails to the entire membership. I'll still be forwarding the occasional item from time to time, but announcements and links previously distributed to your inbox will be posted here or on the website, in addition to Congress information and other items of interest. As well, I hope that we can all use this as a virtual meeting place for discussions of whatever interests us - contention, politics, bureaucratic inefficiencies...we'll see how it develops!

Karen 

05 February 2009

Modified CNSIMC session proposals accepted

Some misunderstandings between the network and the CSA have been cleared up, and most of the proposed sessions have been approved, in modified form. Details will appear here soon.

03 February 2009

CNSIMC session proposals rejected!

The CSA organizing committee has not accepted the CNSIMC sessions for the meetings in June, and has asked instead for general topics. The proposals are being reformulated and will be posted here as soon as possible. Comments are welcomed.