Ravenshaw University to host 36th All India Sociological Conference

Ravenshaw University will organise the 36th All India Sociological Conference from December 27 to 29, 2010 under the aegis of the prestigious Indian Sociological Society (ISS).

The Department of Sociology of Ravenshaw University will host the prestigious conference which is being held for the first time in Orissa, informed organising secretary of the conference and HOD Sociology Prof Dipti Ranjan Sahu. It is a great pleasure for us to extend an invitation and hearty welcome to the esteemed members of Indian Sociological Society and other participants to the conference, he said.

The theme of the conference is ‘Development, Polity and Social Tensions’ and there will be three symposia on ‘Revisiting development discourse in contemporary times’, ‘State, civil society and social conflicts in India’ and ‘Social tensions and the politics of development in Orissa’, he said. More than 1,500 national and international delegates are expected to participate in the conference and Oxford University Press, New Delhi has accepted our request to publish the book of conference abstracts, added Sahu.

The conference will attempt to address the issues of development, governance and social tensions of contemporary society through various symposia and deliberations. The politics of development and deprivation ensures a wide range of social tensions and revisiting development discourse in the present context is called for, explained Sahu. The conference will witness how sociologists analyse and put forth their interpretation of this complex development that our society is going through, he said. The State’s role in the welfare of the citizen is critical to good governance and social good and questions of effective governance arise in view of social tensions like poverty, hunger, destitution, homelessness, crime and corruption, he pointed out.

Former Vice Chancellor of SNDT University, Prof Suma Chitnis will deliver the Tenth MN Srinivas Memorial Lecture on December 27. Similarly, honorary professor at the Institute of Economic Growth, University of Delhi, Prof TN Madan will deliver the First Prof Radha Kamal Mukherji Memorial Lecture on December 28, he informed further.

Sahu said that there will also be a pre-conference workshop on 'Sociology in Action' for young sociologists, teachers and researchers below 35 years of age on December 25-26. The workshop will focus on capacity building for applying sociological concepts and tools in analysing real life situations and problems, as well as in facilitating young sociologists to practice sociology as an applied science, he explained.

There will be two round table conferences on ‘Encounters with Sociological Theories--Problems and Promises’ and ‘Transcending the Conventional Methods and Approaches in Sociology’. While the former will have two sessions, ‘Opportunities and Challenges in applying Sociology to Development and Social Transformation in India’ and ‘Emerging Avenues in Sociology’, the latter will have sessions, ‘Developing Critical Thinking: Teaching and Research’ and ‘Sociologists in the Agencies of Development’.