Conference Sessions

This session creates space for researchers to reflect on and share lessons learned from their research experiences. Reflexive and reflective work that highlights the emotions, insights, and work of researchers allows for important discussion surrounding a shared future for ethical, meaningful, and action-oriented sociological research. This is more true than ever as new and evolving research spaces (e.g., online platforms and virtual communities) demand contemporary approaches and practices from researchers. The aims of this session are twofold. First, this session aims to creatively and critically learn from research experiences and places central importance on the researcher, thereby situating and sustaining the role of the researcher, whether we consider that inevitable, contaminating, insightful or not. Haraway’s (1998) seminal paper on situated knowledges reminds us that research is never conducted “everywhere and nowhere” but, rather, by an individual or set of individuals with partial “vision.” This session aims to explore the possibilities and potentials offered by researcher positionalities (e.g., by virtue of “insider”/“outsider” status, among other characteristics, relationships, histories, and futures). Second, this session asks: How can we sustain ourselves as researchers? As researchers are pressured to make themselves more public, for research reasons and beyond, what risks, challenges, and tensions might we face and, importantly, how can we navigate them? How can we sustain the well-being and curiosity of the researcher?

Relational sociology is a broad family of ontological and epistemological approaches characterized by a common tendency to shift or reconceptualize the objects of sociological analysis from ‘things’ to relations. Relational thinking can be found in a very wide range of theoretical projects — from Marx, Simmel, Elias to Foucault, Derrida, Latour, and Butler, to Dorothy Smith, Harrison White, and Karen Barad. Within sociology, Emirbayer’s “Manifesto for Relational Sociology” as well as recent work by Crossley, Donati, Archer, and Dépelteau has established a conscious relational turn in theoretical and empirical inquiry. Relational sociology has the potential to re-imagine what the social world is made of, how we know it, and how we act within it. Researchers coming from different theoretical backgrounds and studying different empirical objects are therefore invited to engage in a dialog with each other to explore the dynamic, fluid and processual aspects of social life. Presentations can focus on general theoretical issues; relational reformulations of specific areas of study; relational analyses of empirical phenomena; or practical, political, and/or ethical implications of relational thinking.

The word ‘radical’ has the same Latin root as ‘radish’ and refers to roots. Radical relationism ‘goes to the root’ in two ways: by reconceptualizing all fixed, fast-frozen “things” as consisting of or constituted by relational processes, and by using relational thinking to critique and challenge social structures in pursuit of radical social equality. Replacing dualisms of subject and object, society and nature, individual and collective with complex heterogeneous tangles of relations/processes, radical relationism explores openings and connections beyond Eurocentrism and anthropocentrism, and towards antiracism, feminism, trans liberation, decolonization, pluriversality, socialism, and other emancipatory projects. Papers exploring sociocultural, political, ethical, onto-epistemological, ecological, or other uses of relational thinking in radical ways are invited in a spirit of challenging and collaborative discussion.

Gender inequality in land ownership, access, and control is a significant issue in many Asian and Sub-Saharan African countries. For instance, in Asia, women constitute only 10% of landholders, and they usually own smaller plots of land than men. Similarly, in Sub-Saharan Africa, women are often excluded from land ownership and control due to customary laws and practices that favor men. This situation has adverse effects on agricultural and rural development, as women play a crucial role in food production and security. To address these issues, many countries have developed legal frameworks that enhance women's rights to land, including Rwanda's land policy, which recognizes women's equal rights to inherit, own, and control land. In India, the Hindu Succession Act was amended to give women equal rights to ancestral property. Whereas, in Bangladesh, the government is implementing a policy that allows widows and unmarried daughters to inherit land. Moreover, community-based approaches to land policy decisions have been adopted in several countries, such as Tanzania, where land committees comprising men and women are responsible for managing land disputes and making decisions on land use. However, much remains to be done to ensure gender-responsive land policies in Asia and Africa. Therefore, this session will focus on the future implications and possible research directions for the development and implementation of policies that foster sustainable development and gender equality on the continents. This session's objective is also to fill in knowledge gaps by highlighting recent issues on gender and land policy. This session invites papers from academics and non-academics working in these thematic and regional areas.

Gender inequality in land ownership, access, and control is a significant issue in many Asian and Sub-Saharan African countries. For instance, in Asia, women constitute only 10% of landholders, and they usually own smaller plots of land than men. Similarly, in Sub-Saharan Africa, women are often excluded from land ownership and control due to customary laws and practices that favor men. This situation has adverse effects on agricultural and rural development, as women play a crucial role in food production and security. To address these issues, many countries have developed legal frameworks that enhance women's rights to land, including Rwanda's land policy, which recognizes women's equal rights to inherit, own, and control land. In India, the Hindu Succession Act was amended to give women equal rights to ancestral property. Whereas, in Bangladesh, the government is implementing a policy that allows widows and unmarried daughters to inherit land. Moreover, community-based approaches to land policy decisions have been adopted in several countries, such as Tanzania, where land committees comprising men and women are responsible for managing land disputes and making decisions on land use. However, much remains to be done to ensure gender-responsive land policies in Asia and Africa. Therefore, this session will focus on the future implications and possible research directions for the development and implementation of policies that foster sustainable development and gender equality on the continents. This session's objective is also to fill in knowledge gaps by highlighting recent issues on gender and land policy. This session invites papers from academics and non-academics working in these thematic and regional areas.