Journal Laboratorium Announces Competition for Young Scholars

Laboratorium: Russian Review of Social Research invites submissions of research papers by young authors—students working towards doctoral degrees and those who have received Ph.D.s no earlier than five years ago—doing research in social sciences: sociology, anthropology, ethnography, social history and related disciplines. The contest is open to original papers in either Russian or English, not previously published or currently under consideration at any other journal, which are based on the results of empirical qualitative studies. The objective of the competition is to help publicize results of recent research projects, contribute to new ways to analyze social processes, and find innovative uses of qualitative research methods. The selection committee, consisting of members of the journal’s Editorial and Advisory boards, will evaluate papers based on the following criteria:

• Originality of empirical data;

• Theoretical, methodological and empirical validity of the analysis;

• The quality and depth of the analysis;

• The study’s contribution to existing discussions of the topic;

• Heuristic conclusions of the study;

• The structure, logic and style of the paper.

Submissions should be approximately 11,000 words, not counting the bibliography. Best articles will be published in the forthcoming issues of the journal, after having gone through the process of the double-blind peer review. In addition, the winners will receive cash prizes:

1st place – 300 USD

2nd place – 200 USD

3rd place – 100 USD

Send submissions with “young authors’ contest” in the subject line to the journal’s managing editor, Oksana Parfenova at: oparfenova@soclabo.org.

Deadline for submissions is March 1, 2012.

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Call for Papers 

The thematic issue of Laboratorium “From tvorchestvo to creativnost: relations of production, networks of mobilization and realms of consumption”

The economization of creativity on which the neoliberal ideology is based has led a number of commentators to describe late-capitalism as being creatively destructive. The lure of creativity and the promise of success it implies have been entangled in the complex interfaces between neoliberalism and individuals in many places, including East Europe and Russia. For instance, the success of Richard Florida’s The Rise of the Creative Class generateda spike in cities marketing themselves for “sexiness” and investing in amenities able to attract the ”cool” crowd. The administrations of many Dullsvillesand depressed towns are lured by creative experts into the imaginary circle of cities visible on the world map and thus capable to attract investment. In today’s over-designed culture, masses of wannabes try to make their living by offering ever more innovative things and ideas. How do these tendencies problematize the traditional notions of creativity and creators? Is there a way to grasp both the continuities and discontinuities in the evolutionof creativity? How can sociological skepticism, precautions stemming from urban research and aesthetic judgment, be put to use to describe all things creative (or what is left of them)? To what extentcan creativity discourse, particularly that developing in East Europe and in Russia, take into accountthe fact that neoliberalism normatively constructs and interpolates individuals as entrepreneurial actors in every sphere of life? Are there in it traces of recognition that neoliberalism as a cultural logic readily makes the state the main mechanism for promoting economic rationality and prescribing to subjects how to behave as rational agents and consumers? Given that the transition period to market democracy in Russia arguably thoroughly institutionalized neoliberalism, is there any chance to see that “left-wing creativity has not ceased” (Therborn, 2007)? Laboratorium's special issue on creativity welcomes papers in sociology, political sciences, literature, art theory, anthropology, social geography, and other disciplines that can provide insight into the productionand consumption of creative work.

Laboratorium will publish traditional academic papers of a theoretical and/or empirical nature of 8000–9000 words in length. The papers critically investigating various strands of creativity discourse, new policy initiatives, and examples of innovative local projects are particularly welcome. Prospective contributors are invited to submit abstracts (500 words) to the editor, Elena Trubina (elena.trubina@gmail.com), by January 1, 2012. Authors of abstracts selected for publication will be notified by January 15, 2012 and will be expected to submit full-length articles (in one of two languages) no later than April 1, 2012.

Laboratorium will publish the papers that succeed in the peer-review process in one of its 2013 issues.

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Call for papers: 

"Waste and trash in the 21st century" 

Sociologists have drawn attention to the paradox that trash, the least valuable substance in the value hierarchy of modern societies, is nonetheless crucial to explaining how society works. Refuse diffuses among societal layers, and how we handle trash reveals important aspects of the social order.

It is often assumed that modern societies created trash as the last element of the consumption chain, breaking the traditional circularity of agricultural production. What society rejects is nonetheless or precisely because of this replete with symbols, values, and ideologies. Practices of trash disposing, sorting, collecting, and reusing give insight into belief systems, social hierarchies, class and gender behavior, and many other social phenomena. What are the social practices of trash gathering, classifying, reusing, and recycling throughout history and today? What do they tell us about interactions between people, of the patterns of consumption and of the conception of otherness?

In recent years, with the growing pace of industrialization and urbanization around the world, the controversial and problematic aspects of trash have come to the forefront of global politics and science. As trash is no longer considered an unavoidable consequence of progress, the management and recycling of industrial and domestic waste has become not only a pressing technological and logistic issue for municipalities and states, but a poignant bone of contention between social and economic actors.

Waste management – where to locate landfills or build waste incineration and recycling facilities – is more often than not an issue of environmental justice. How do citizens and public authorities tackle the trash issue? How is it framed in public discourse by civic associations, parties, scientists, and officials?

With the change of scale of environmental damages, trash and industrial hazardous materials now travel across natural and administrative borders. A recent development is the international trash trade: trash is treated as a commodity and shipped from richer to poorer countries (from Western Europe to West Africa, for instance). But this is not always the case, as the recycling of nuclear waste in Russia and France shows. What are the economics and politics of the globalized waste trade?

Laboratorium's special issue on waste and trash welcomes papers in sociology, history, political sciences, anthropology, social geography and other disciplines that can provide insight into social practices around waste. Work based on transnational or comparative approaches is especially welcome.

Send abstracts (of no more than 500 words) in one of Laboratorium's working languages (English or Russian) to Oksana Parfenova (oksana.parfenova[at]gmail.com) and Marc Elie (marc.elie[at]cercec.cnrs.fr) by December 1st 2011. Authors of abstracts selected for publication will be notified by January 15th 2012 and will be expected to submit full-length articles (in one of two languages) no later than June 1st 2012. Laboratorium will publish the papers that succeeded in the peer-review process in one of its issues for 2013.