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Call for Papers Theme: Social Justice Subtitle: New Perspectives, New Horizons Type: 4th International Conference Institution: Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade Location: Belgrade (Serbia) Date: 4.–6.5.2016 Deadline: 5.3.2016 __________________________________________________ It is our great pleasure to announce a conference entitled Social Justice: New Perspectives, New Horizons. The conference is organized by the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade. It will take place in Belgrade from 4-6 May 2016. Prospective conference participants are welcome to apply and submit their abstracts by the 5th of March 2016. Description The conference will reflect on the phenomenon of social justice in a comprehensive and interdisciplinary manner, encompassing a variety of theoretical perspectives and contemporary empirical research that shed light on the complex ways in which people experience injustice and articulate its critique. We envisage the conference as an attempt to deepen the dialogue between empirical research, theoretical conceptualizations and public discourses on social justice in the pursuit of a nuanced and empirically sensitive conception of a just society. In their approaches to injustice, economists, sociologists and political theorists have mostly been focused on different dimensions of inequality and ways to measure them. The public discourse on social justice has thus revolved around a critique of inequalities and the demands for a fairer distribution of resources – economic, but also organizational, cultural, societal, epistemic and symbolic. The conference will give an opportunity for a critical examination of contemporary perspectives on distributive justice considering possible limits of the distribution-oriented (and justice-oriented in general) approaches to ordinary actors’ grievances. Among others, the following questions will be addressed: Is the concept of justice and its opposite (injustice) the best conceptual tool in confronting the deficiencies of a particular social order, or is there any other concept that could better suit this purpose? What is the relation of the concept of justice to the concepts of equality, liberty and autonomy? We would also like to examine the relation between the vocabularies of political theory and the ‘lay’ normativity of ordinary social actors (Andrew Sayer), as well as reflect on the role that publicly engaged social science might have in bringing about a more just society. We are especially interested in exploring further the potential of the capabilities approach for conceptualizing social justice. Participants are also invited to reflect on the ever more prominent conception of ‘fair’ inequality. Topics of interest include: - Theories of justice: ‘differences and commonalities’ - Principles of a just society - Justice, critique and lay normativity - Distributive justice and people’s capabilities - Redistribution and/or recognition - Social justice and rising inequalities - Complexity of inequalities (class, age, gender, ethnicity, race, geographical area, disability, etc.) - Epistemic equality - (Un)just inequalities - Social justice and the (neoliberal) state - New work arrangements and justice - Challenges in the health care (biotechnologies, etc.) - Global justice - Environmental justice - Justice in the Cyberspace Organization of the conference The conference is organized by the Group for the Study of Social Engagement, part of the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory in Belgrade, with the support of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, and in cooperation with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, the Heinrich Böll Foundation, The Goethe Institute in Serbia, French Institute in Serbia and the Center for Advanced Studies of the University of Rijeka, Croatia. Guide for authors The official language of the conference is English. The Program Committee of the conference will select the presenters based on the submitted abstracts. The book of abstracts will be published by the time of the conference. Conference applications should be sent via e-mail to the following address: [email protected]. The email subject should contain the following title: Application: title of the paper. The application should be in the .doc, .docx or .pdf format and it should contain: the title of the presentation, an abstract of up to 200 words and a short biography, in English. The application deadline is the 5th of March 2016. Presentations should not exceed 20 minutes. There will be no registration fees. Conference organisers will provide lunch and light refreshments during the conference. Participants are kindly requested to make their own accommodation and travel arrangements. Important dates Application deadline: March 5, 2016 Notification of acceptance: March 25, 2016 Conference dates: 4-6 May 2016 Program Committee Petar Bojanić, Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade Wolfgang Merkel, WZB, Berlin Social Science Centre Éric Fassin, University of Paris VIII Marjan Ivković, Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade Srdjan Prodanović, Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade Bojana Radovanović, University of Cambridge and Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade For any enquiries regarding the conference, please contact: [email protected] For more information, please visit the website of the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory: www.instifdt.bg.ac.rs Facebook: facebook.com/instifdt Twitter: twitter.com/ifdt_beograd Contact: Srđan Prodanović, Research Assistant Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory University of Belgrade Kraljice Natalije 45 11000 Belgrade Serbia Tel/Fax: + 381 (0)11 264624 Email: [email protected] Web: http://www.instifdt.bg.ac.rs __________________________________________________ InterPhil List Administration: http://interphil.polylog.org Intercultural Philosophy Calendar: http://cal.polylog.org __________________________________________________
