Call for Papers for OYCF-UC Irvine Joint Conference on Social Classes in Transitional China
Abstracts are due by March 15; conference to be held May 26-28, 2006
Published: Wednesday, February 15, 2006
A conference on the theme “Social Classes in Transitional China” will be held on May 26-28, 2006 in Costa Mesa, California. We call for submissions of papers from scholars and advanced graduate students in all disciplines working in the China field. The deadline for submission of a paper or abstract is March 15, 2006. The conference is jointly sponsored by Overseas Young Chinese Forum and The Center for Asia Studies at UC Irvine.
China has undergone a major social transformation in the past two and a half decades. Gone is the rampant political persecution that defined personal fortunes in the Cultural Revolution years, although the old statist institutions endure, perpetuating party-sponsored mobility and a skewed pattern of power distribution. Accompanying thissocial transformation has been the emergence of social groupings familiar in Western industrial societies, defined by property ownership, political power and professional skills. We hear of the super rich and the downtrodden; we read about grieving families of coal miners; we catch sight of middle class crowds in Shanghai’s Xintiandi. Such groupings, new and old, present an ever-changing landscape of class structures, and portend important political changes to come.
The last few decades have witnessed a voluminous body of scholarship under the rubrics of social inequality, mobility, and stratification. This conference seeks to bring into sharper focus class and class formation than past conferences and publications, aiming at a forum that is different both in theoretical orientation and methodology. We are particularly interested in the dynamics of change uncovered by comparative-historic analysis of macro processes and analysis of changing policies and their implications. We are also interested in case studies of emerging social classes. In our conference, we will honor the market transition survey research paradigm through a special lecture given by a senior scholar, and plan to devote other sections to research from other angles.
We would like the presentations to cover the following topics, although papers on other topics are also welcome:
- Historical perspectives on the transformation of class structures
- The emergence and convergence of an urban underclass
- The rural-urban divide and the peasant laborers
- The middle class and professionals
- Business owners and the wealthy
- State, bureaucrats and class
- Class perception and class conflict
The conference is bilingual: papers may be written and delivered in either English or Chinese. Interested participants must submit a topic with an abstract (1-2 pages) by March 15, along with a brief C.V. that lists one's credentials and publications. Those who are selected to participate must deposit a copy of the draft paper with the OYCF program committee, which in turn will make the paper available to panel discussants by around May 20. Please send your materials or inquiries via email to callforpapers@oycf.org. A notification of acceptance will be sent by April 1, 2006. If you have questions, please contact callforpapers@oycf.org.
The OYCF will seek funding to publish a postconference volume (in Chinese) as it is doing with last year’s conference. Costa Mesa is located near the UC Irvine campus, in the vicinity of Irvine, Los Angeles, and San Diego.
The Overseas Young Chinese Forum (OYCF) and Its Annual Meeting. OYCF is a self-governing nonprofit organization established in 1999 to provide a forum to discuss issues related to China’s development and explore solutions. We sponsor teaching and research in China and publish an on-line journal (Perspectives). OYCF’s annual conference is increasingly becoming a major forum for China-related studies. Since 1999, our annual meetings covered themes such as the theory and practice of liberalism, the WTO and China, the civil society, women’s issues and rural development in China. Starting from 2005, we have published a book volume (in Chinese) containing select papers from our conferences. The collection from our 2005 annual conference is expected to be released in May 2006. For more information please visit the organization’s website: www.oycf.org.
The Center for Asia Studies at UC Irvine (CAS-UCI). The Center for Asian Studies at UC Irvine was established to enhance the study of the many countries and cultures of Asia at the University of California, Irvine and to provide a forum for discussions across geographic and disciplinary boundaries both within UCI and in the larger community. The Center brings together and draws upon the expertise of faculty throughout the university to create opportunities for students, faculty, and the community to explore Asian topics, culture, and travel, to develop advanced language skills, and to acquire both a broad and a deep perspective on the region generally. The Center is composed of more than 40 UCI faculty members, representing five schools and 10 departments across campus, who have a specialization on one or more of five Asian sub-areas: China, Japan, Korea, India, and Southeast Asia. For more information please visit the center’s website: www.socsci.uci.edu/cas
