Transformations and Interventions: Critical perspectives on economy and culture in post-socialist societies

International Sociology Conference, to be held at the American University - Central Asia, 17-21 June, Kyrgyzstan

In addition, the Conference has been assisted by Civic Education Project Russia (CEP Russia) - www.cep-russia.yar.ru

Here is some information for the participants of the Bishkek International Sociology Conference

If there any questions, please contact Balihar Sanghera (CEP Fellow) or Tanya Yarkova (CARC) - email us!

Email: bishkekconference@yahoo.co.uk

Telephone: +996 (312) 66-10-92

Social upheavals are both intended and unintentional, mediated and initiated by markets, civil society and the state, and can be viewed as spontaneous, planned and/or negotiated. Such transformations affect the cultural lives of individuals and communities. These transformations represent both threats and opportunities, and social actors and institutions adapt to and resist such liberating and oppressive effects. Interestingly, cultural and political goals (such as moral conservatism) can remain at times at odds with the economic goals (such as market freedom). Economic and cultural changes can be morally evaluated in terms of individual liberties, societal needs, cultural diversity and moral ideals. Social actors and institutions aim to intervene and make further changes on the grounds of civil rights, morality and ethics, economic profit, cultural heritage, and social development.

Various theorists have discussed the nature of transformations in advanced industrial societies in terms of a shift from production to consumption to information, from fordism to post-fordism, and/or from modernity to late-modernity to post-modernity. However, the changes that have occurred in post-socialist countries differ in nature and degree. Arguably, these countries have undergone a deeper transformation reflecting a turn to capitalist state ideology, a destruction of the welfare state, a revival of religious groups, an emergence of political extremists, an outbreak of public corruption, a poisoning of the environment, a flow of labour migrants from rural to urban and from East to West, a thriving informal and illegal economy, an unchecked growth of criminal terrorism, and a re-writing of national histories. In spite of such brutalising changes, there have been small flowerings of modernity, evident in a greater awareness of and a need to tackle gender inequalities, ethnicity minority abuses, and gay and lesbian discrimination.

In bringing together critical perspectives on transformations and interventions in post-socialist societies, the conference will provide an opportunity to discuss the mechanisms and structures of these changes, and the capabilities of actors and institutions to bring about effective actions to address social inequalities and inequities. The conference will not collapse into economic determinism, social fatalism, political cynicism and moral relativism, but rather will explore feasible strategies for the construction of alternative frameworks of economy and culture to that which are usually offered and represented by neo-liberals and post-modernists.

This conference will be a major event bringing together participants from many different countries, and leading to a publication of the best papers. It will draw upon the aims and the success established at the Critical Sociology Conference at Tbilisi State University in June 2002. In addressing many of the themes that were developed at the previous conference, we shall also confront new challenges and issues. Consequently, we wish to attract participants from the Critical Sociology Network (CSN), who will further develop the network’s goals, and welcome non-CSN members who will offer a distinct and significant contribution to the conference and the network.

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In common with most post-socialist countries, the discipline of sociology in Central Asian countries and Mongolia is an emerging area of study, unsure of its topics, teaching and research, as discussed at the CEP Sociology Roundtable in Lithuania, November 2001. In Central Asia and Mongolia, there are several acute problems:

 a small community of sociologists, many of them inadequately trained and lacking PhDs;
 a poor and chaotic structure to the sociology curriculum that fails to aspire, stimulate and challenge students;
 a lack of contact between Western trained scholars and the region’s young, local lecturers;
 insignificant teaching resources and a lack of translated foreign literature;
 a haphazard and opportunistic record of research activities, driven by the needs of overseas donors and sponsors.

Consequently, sociology lacks recognition, and commands a small intake of students, paling in significance to its more prestigious disciplines such as economics and politics. While ideas and strategies for improving the curriculum structure, making contacts with local lecturers and providing effective teaching resources do occur, these occur very locally through personal contacts and in an unorganised manner. Instead, what is required is a more effective, region-wide and structured strategy.

In the second part of the Bishkek Conference, there will be a half-day curriculum development programme, designed to assist sociology lecturers in the region. The programme will consist of two sessions. In the first session, we have invited four leading specialists, Pal Tamas (Hungary), Sven Eliaeson (CEU, Poland/Sweden), and Caroline New (UK). They will discuss various areas of sociology: urban sociology, advanced social theory, research methods and methodologies and gender studies. These topics have been selected as high priority, reflecting the discrepancies in their teaching and research across the region and their poor quality in comparison to Europe and Russia.

During this session, the sociology specialists will discuss their course syllabi to an audience of sociology lecturers from the region, as well as the conference participants from Central and Eastern Europe and Russia. The discussions will include how to revise courses and establish new ones, what strategies to employ to overcome departmental resistance and difficulties in undertaking such courses, and how to develop and incorporate the courses into the lecturers’ existing teaching programme. Their course syllabi will be tailored to the specificity of the region, moving away from the ethnocentric approach commonly found in textbooks and other teaching resources.

During the second session, lecturers will share and learn from regional lecturers on how to introduce effective teaching curriculum into their department. This session will be facilitated by Roxanne de la Sablonnier (Mongolia), Sarah Amsler (AUCA Kyrgyzstan), Balihar Sanghera (AUCA Kyrgyzstan) and Tatiana Yarkova, (CARC, Kazakhstan), who have introduced and designed sociology curriculum programmes. The discussions will include the general principles of restructuring the sociology curricula in the region, programme structure, state requirements, and regional specifics and problems.

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There will be two sessions of the roundtable to discuss issues arising from the conference and matters relating to the Critical Sociology Network (CSN). It will be an opportunity for CSN members to brief their colleagues of their activities from last year, and to plan for the next year. CSN non-members will be invited to attend, and to collaborate with CSN members on future activities. Topics of discussion will include guest lecturing, fund-raising and joint research. We have invited 8 existing CSN members, and we shall register many new members.

The participants from the region will initiate a local branch of the CSN, following the CSN’s broad aims and goals, set out at the first CSN Critical Sociology Conference, Tbilisi, June 2002. This networking of lecturers will solidify the sociology discipline in the region, and develop future programmes such as academic skills workshops, guest lecture series and joint research. Employing the local network, we hope to re-spark sociology as a discipline in the region, to build confidence and communication among the lecturers, and to implement collaborative activities region-wide, as well as to network with outside partners.

In the first session of the roundtable, Jerome Heurtaux (France/Poland) will open the proceedings to address matters arising from the conference. Then, Valentin Deichman (Educational Adviser and Scholarship Coordinator, Soros Foundation Kyrgyzstan) and Tatiana Yarkova (Academic Leader in Sociology, CARC Kazakhstan) will present their current strategies and future plans for improving the state of sociology in the region, as well as existing and planned academic assistance and training for sociologists.

In the second session, Jerome Heurtaux will review the activities of CSN members over the last year, as well as ongoing and new initiatives of CSN. During this session, new members for CSN will be formally registered. CSN will strengthen its base by enlisting more members from Central Asia and Mongolia, as well as from the US, the UK and New Zealand. Then, Jerome Heurtaux will facilitate an open discussion relating to CSN projects, with a particular focus on discussing cooperation and joint research projects with the Central Asian Sociology Departments.

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Links to Civic Education Project (CEP), the American University - Central Asia (AUCA) and Critical Sociology Network (CSN) websites

Civic Education Project
American University - Central Asia
Critical Sociology Network

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Call for Contributions for Book
The Conference Schedule of Events
Conference Abstracts in English and Russian
The List of Conference Participants
The List of Conference Participants' Biographical Details

Bishkek Sociology Conference: Call for Papers
Bishkek Sociology Conference: The Poster

Conference Accommodation - Issyk-Kul Hotel

A very good map of Bishkek (in Russian)
A Travel Guide to Kyrgyzstan
The Lonely Planet Guide to Krygyzstan
A Travel and Tourist Guide to Kyrgyzstan, the Pearl of Central Asia
A Bishkek Map (in Russian)

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Links to Balihar's and Tanya's websites

Tanya's website