Professor Saskia Sassen will take part in a half-a-day international doctoral workshop, which will be the concluding act of a two-day long seminar on denationalisation and territory (7-8 May 2014). Such doctoral seminar aims at providing Ph.D students who work on issues related to globalisation a dynamic and informal space to present their work, receive inputs from discussants and participants and have a chance to discuss with one of the major sociologists in the field. The participants will have the opportunity to reflect on their research questions, to receive informed opinions and to meet other academics working on similar issues in different regional context.

Call for participants

Professor Saskia Sassen will take part in a half-a-day international doctoral workshop, which will be the concluding act of a two-day long seminar on denationalisation and territory (7-8 may 2014). Such doctoral seminar aims at providing Ph.D students who work on issues related to globalisation a dynamic and informal space to present their work, receive inputs from discussants and participants and have a chance to discuss with one of the major sociologists in the field. The participants will have the opportunity to reflect on their research questions, to receive informed opinions and to meet other academics working on similar issues in different regional context.

The seminar will take place over two days. The first day will start with a theoretical discussion on the issues of the seminar. Two sections will follow in which participants will be invited to present their work. The second day will start by another presentation session by participants and will be closed by a discussion on questions and issues arised throughout the three presentation sessions with Professor Sassen. This will give participants the chance not only to discuss her latest work, but also to discuss with her issues inherent to the participants' own research.

The seminar is open to 20 Ph.D students.

The seminar will be held in English, an adequate command of English is thus required for participation.

Themes

The presentation sessions will be structured around three thematicaxes that can be adjusted to the interest of the participants once abstracts have being received:

1) Transnational capital

This panel welcomes papers on the movements of transnational capital and their challenges to conventional perceptions of national spaces, citizenship and identity. Land grabbing and population forced displacementis one of the different ways in which transnational capital has redefined relations to territory, and the one that has surely catalysed the most scholarly attention over the past years. However, the resurgence of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and the dynamics of foreign direct investments and of delocalisation of transnational capital can also offer insights on the dynamics of transnational accumulation vis à visthe negotiation of national territory and the construction of the role of the state and that of citizenship.

2) Global mobility

This session will welcome presentations on issues related to new practices of transnational mobility, transnational mobility of labour and transnational families. Labour mobility is linked to the new international division of labour, which concerns both qualified and low-qualified workers, coming from the North or the South.  These new practices of mobility in the globalised word have consequences not only in new family configurations but in local readjustments related to culture, citizenship, education and resource access.  These topics are of particular interest now.

3) Social movements, transnational solidarities

This session will welcome presentations on the politics of transnational social movements, with a special focus on the emergence and transformation of solidarities among diverse actors and organizations. Trade liberalisation and the globalised neo-liberal order have seen the emergence of social movements, expressing the great heterogeneity of exploitation and forms of discontent all over the globe. How do social movements face evolving transnational orders and act at global and regional scales? How do transnational solidarities emerge and endure? While some of these alternative socio-environmental postures carry the seeds of new models of society, others convey ‘good governance’ concerns that challenge institutional frameworks movements deem defective. How do social movements face evolving environmental institutions at global and regional scales?

Application guidelines

Each candidate is required to provide a short bio (max 150 words) describing his or her main research interests, academic affiliations, and advancement of the doctoral research.

Each participant will give a 20 minutes presentation on one of the three issues proposed. Presentations will be selected on the basis of an abstract of maximum 500 words.

The bio and the abstract must be sent to cecile.giraud@uclouvain.be as one pdf document.

Candidates will be chosen according to the relevance of the subject of the proposal with at least one of the three main thematic axis and the scientific quality of the abstract.

For more information; http://www.uclouvain.be/457503.html

Deadlines

Deadline for submission is the 15th of February 2014.

Acceptance will be communicated on the 21st of February 2014 at the latest.

The workshop will be held on the 7th and 8th May 2014.

Preliminary Program

7th May 2014

• 9.00-11.00 : denationalization and territory : an introduction

11.00-11.15 : coffee break

• 11.00-13.00 : 5 presentations+discussion
• 14.00-16.00 : 5 presentations+discussion

16.00-16.30 : coffee break

• 16.30-18.30 : 5 presentations+discussion

18.30-20.00 : drink

8th May 2014

• 9.00- 11.00 : 5 présentations+discussion
• 11.00-13.00 : discussion générale
• 14.00-15.00 : keynote by Saskia Sassen

15.00-15.30 : coffee break

• 15.30-17.30 : workshop session with Saskia Sassen
• 17.30-18.30 : restitution of the workshop session and concluding remarks

Location

The seminar will take place at the Université catholique de Louvain (Belgium). More precise indications regarding the location will be provided closer to the date of the event.

Contact

To register and for further information please contact Cécile Giraud at cecile.giraud@uclouvain.be