On behalf of Nina Baur:
___________________________________________________________________________ Call for Papers for the Session
Data for Historical Sociology and for Analyzing Long-Term Social Processes at the Seventh International Conference on Social Science Methodology
organised by ISA RC 33 (Research Committee on Logic and Methodology) September 1st ? 5th, 2008, Naples ___________________________________________________________________________ History (as a science) and sociology have always been closely intertwined:
Many of the classical social scientists were both sociologists and historians (e.g. Karl Marx, Max Weber, Norbert Elias), and although historical sociology has been long neglected, there have always been historically oriented social scientists such as Michael Mann, Charles Tilly, Randall Collins and Michael Foucault. Currently, historical sociology is re-organizing itself (as can be seen, for example from the ISA TG02). At the same time, many theoretical debates within sociology address long-term social processes. Examples are the debates on welfare regimes, on gender regimes, on varieties of capitalism, on institution building, on World Systems, on modernization, on democratization and on globalization.
Questions might be both why certain phenomena are so stable over very long time periods and why and how they change (e. g. path-dependently). If these questions are to be addressed empirically, researchers need data covering time-spans of sometimes 50 years, 100 years or maybe even several centuries, or they need to go back in time as many years. Meanwhile, most empirical (especially quantitative) research covers only the most recent past (i. e. the last 5 to 20 years). Thus, if longitudinal research is to be taken seriously, methodological problems arising when studying the longue durée have to be addressed. One of the most urgent questions is, which kind of data can be used for historical sociology and/or for analyzing long-term social processes. Papers for this session should address one ore more of the following questions:
* Is it possible to learn about the distant past from ?classical? sociological data types (i. e. surveys, interviews or observation)? How can these data be used and where are their limits?
* What alternative data types do exist that can be used for analyzing long-term social processes (e. g. documents, literature, diaries, paintings, films, mechanical drawings, maps, landscapes, buildings, objects)? What are there similarities and differences, and how do they differ from surveys, interviews and observation? Do historians and social scientists differ in interpreting these data types, or do they just differ in experience with handling specific data types? How can validity of data be assessed?
* What specific data problems do arise, if researchers want to analyze social process of the longue durée? Which data are suitable for which kind of questions?
* For each specific data type, it is important to ask about their specific characteristics and how this effects interpretation. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this data type? For which kind of theoretical and thematical research question are these data suitable? Where and how can these data be sampled and collected? Are these data limited to a specific geographical area and historical period?
Papers debating general methodological questions and papers discussing specific problems using a concrete data type in a specific research project are both equally welcome.
Selected Papers from this session will be published in a special issue of the journal HSR (Historical Social Research / Historische Sozialforschung).
Submission Please email an extended abstract (1-2 pages) to the session organizer: Nina Baur ? Technical University Berlin ? Germany ? Email: nina.baur@tu-berlin.de
Deadlines: Submission of extended abstracts (1-2 pages) February 17th, 2008 Notification of authors February 24th, 2008 Submission of Full Paper for HSR September 30th, 2008
Further Information On the Conference: http://www.rc332008.unina.it/ On RC 33: http://www.isa-sociology.org/rc33.htm On ISA: http://www.isa-sociology.org/
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