We have great news, the next RC06 gathering will be held in Kyoto, Japan. The theme of the seminar is “Reconstruction of Intimate and Public Spheres in a Global Perspective”.

Because this type of interim seminars are relatively smaller in scale than the ISA World Congresses and happen each year, they provide a good opportunity for focused and up to date discussion on family research.

Here is the call for papers by the organizing committee:

Dates: September 12-14, 2011
*Excursion tours will be organized on 15th*
Venue: Kyoto University, Japan
Deadline for abstracts: February 10, 2011

There have been fundamental social changes worldwide since the 1970s. As many people consider globalization and individualization as their characteristics, these changes involve transformation both on the macro and micro-level scales. Ultimately, we are facing an overall social change that could be termed as a “reconstruction of intimate and public spheres.” The family or the intimate sphere is no longer an isolated social space. It is changing within the context of population ageing, development and retrenchment of welfare states, globalization and migration, and the formation of global and regional norms and values.

The fundamental social changes are happening all over the world, but we should raise a question of whether or not the changes are mostly identical in all places. For example, Asian scholars have begun to pay attention on the regional features of their societies, such as lowest low fertility, infrequency of children born out-of-wedlock, and the familialistic welfare regime that assumes family responsibility for the welfare of family members. The researchers in migration studies point out that family changes are observed in both sending and receiving countries, but in different ways.

The aim of this workshop is to consider diverse aspects of “reconstruction of intimate and public spheres” in various places in the world. In particular, as the workshop will be held in Japan, the organizers hope that this workshop will serve as a chance for deepening discussions between Asian scholars and the scholars from other parts of the world.

The sample topics to be covered are:

– The state, market and the family/intimacy
– Welfare state retrenchment and the family/intimacy
– Community and the family/intimacy
– Globalization and the family/intimacy
– Migration and the family/intimacy
– The family/intimacy in post-communist societies
– The impact of super-national organizations on the family/intimacy
– Media and the family/intimacy
– Population ageing and the family/intimacy
– Religion and the family/intimacy

We are looking forward to receiving quality paper proposals from various areas of the world. Please send your abstract (200-300 words with your name, affiliation, address, and e-mail address) to cfr2011.kyoto@gmail.com by February 10, 2011. You will be notified by the end of February 2011 of the status of your proposal. The deadline of full paper will be July 20. The time for presentation will be 15-20 minutes. Those who would like to apply for the poster session, please write clearly on the same sheet with the abstract.

Membership is not a prerequisite for the proposal submission. Prior to the final program is compiled, however, authors are required to register for RC06 (CFR) membership. If the membership registration is not completed by the end of July 2011, authors’ names will be deleted from the program. Four-year membership registration fees are $40 for regular members, and $10 for student members.

The organizing committee will provide travel grant for a few presenters, particularly young researchers (with no tenure-track jobs) from the Asian region. If you are interested, please contact cfr2011.kyoto@gmail.com after your paper proposal is accepted.

Organizing Committee:
Emiko Ochiai
Katsuko Makino
Masako Ishii-Kuntz
Noriko Iwai
Hachiro Iwai
Reiko Yamato
Mieko Takahashi