Conference Sessions

Papers in this session engage theoretically and/or empirically with decolonial and/or feminist intersectional approaches to gender and sexuality studies. While the importance of such approaches in gender and sexuality studies has been well established, there remains much more work to be done. This panel explores how sociologists can apply and extend decolonial and intersectional theories and methodological strategies in the contemporary political moment. What can such approaches offer to our analyses of right-wing attacks on women’s reproductive rights and LGBTQIA+ rights, femicide and rape culture, mass incarceration and criminalization of Indigenous, racialized and migrant communities? What still needs to be done and where do we go from here?

How have settlers practiced their relational responsibilities to decolonize Canada? What are the expressions of those practices? As Indigenous peoples determine their futures by leading the way to refuse as well as undo colonial systems and policies, expressions of settlers acting in solidarity have looked different across space and time in Canada. This session calls for papers which focus on moments of settlers organizing and acting in solidarity with Indigenous peoples, supporting efforts to build anti-colonial, anti-imperial movements and coalitions, and contributing to practices which center Indigenous pathways to self-government, self-determination and decolonization. This session is additionally seeking papers which explore the complexities that arise when settlers practice a politics of solidarity with Indigenous peoples and engage social movement work inspired by an anti-imperial and a decolonial praxis. Your paper may highlighting what solidarity work has been done, who is doing the work, who is not, and why not. Additionally, you can address what the different ways of doing the former work have been, as well as what can be learned from it. Your paper may address one or more of the former questions. Please ensure that you have described your research methodology in the abstract. This is a jointly sponsored session between Canadian Sociology Association, Canadian Political Science Association, and Society for Socialist Studies.

This session considers theoretical issues, debates, and critical and creative appropriations arising from engagements with Durkheim's oeuvre and Durkheimian social science, including those of the L'Année Sociologique team. Durkheim made extensive theoretical interventions ranging from developing a distinctive ontology for sociology and epistemological protocols for empirical and theoretical research, to reflexively linking products of sociological research to an axiology. Durkheimian work remains a reference point in a range of different sociological traditions (e.g., radical Durkheimianism, poststrucutralism, phenomenlogy, hermeneutics, neo-functionalism, cultural theory, etc.). He also offered various explanations of social change and social structure, while articulating regional theories of religion, social pathology (e.g., suicide), work, power, the state, morality, solidarity, the family, education, individuality, knowledge, the professions, and others.

In recent decades, Durkheimian sociology and social theory has sparked new debates, provoked new controversies, and informed new research pertinent to a wide range of contemporary social phenomena. These developments are fitting, for in pursuing and promoting an array of substantive and comparative studies Durkheim and his allies treated theory-building and research as inseparable. This session will showcase contemporary research into social life and transformation which meaningfully engages with Durkheimian or neo-Durkheimian theoretical work.

Canada is a nation of immigrants. To study immigrant and refugee integration, it is essential to focus on the measurable indicators. For example, we can capture economic integration by examining immigrants and refugees’ decision to participate in entrepreneurial or self-employed activities. Participation in self-employment signals a high level of economic integration because it requires not only experiences and skills but also local connections and social capital. To capture social integration, we can consider multiple well-being outcomes including general happiness, feeling of home, and life satisfaction. These measures reflect immigrants and refugees’ cognitive and affective life evaluations. Finally, to capture political integration, we can research into their trust and political participation. Trust and political participation reflect how well they politically engage into the Canadian society. In Part 3 of this three-part session, panelists focus on the economic aspect of immigrant and refugee integration and explore issues including labour market integration, human capital attainment, and social mobility among immigrants and refugees in Canada.