N E W S L E T T E R INTERNATIONAL SOCIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION COMITE DE RECHERCHE 48*RESEARCH COMMITTEE 48 COMITE DE INVESTIGACION 48 CHANGEMENT SOCIAL, ACTION COLLECTIVE ET MOUVEMENTS SOCIAUX SOCIAL CHANGE, COLLECTIVE ACTION AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS*CAMBIO SOCIAL, ACCION COLECTIVA Y MOVIMIENTOS SOCIALES Vol. 3, No. 2 (October 1998) From the Editor Dear Colleagues, Here is the second newsletter of this year containing news of the election of the new board of the RC 48, messages from the new board, minutes of their meetings, a report of the Montreal conference, and all the news I could lay my hand on. I would also like to ask all members who receive the newsletter by post and who have an e-mail address to give the latter to me. I can then send them the coming newsletter by e-mail which is at least faster and cheaper. Again, to make the next issue as interesting as this one (or more), the only thing you have to do is to send me everything you want to have included. Leo d'Anjou - anjou@soc.fsw.eur.nl From the President Dear Colleagues, During the XIVth World Congress of Sociology in Montreal our RC 48 has held its quadrennial Business Meeting, and the elections yielded recomposition of the Board. As a result, we welcome three new Board members: Linda Cardinal (Ottawa, Canada), Debal Singharoy (New Delhi, India) and Antonio Murga (Mexico City, Mexico). Two of our previous Board members have resigned: Alberto Melucci and Gary Alan Fine. Alberto was a great scholar and colleague, and Gary was a friend with whom Bert and I have spent long hours discussing in preparation for the formation of our Research Committee. Special thanks should also go to our outgoing President, Bert Klandermans, whose personality and everyday activity shaped good part of our young history. After all, it has been now eleven years since Bert and I have started the project of establishing an international forum for social movement scholars. Bert remains on our Board and all of us hope he will share with us his expertise and advice. Finally, I would like to welcome Tova Benski, who has replaced me as Executive Secretary-Treasurer, and who will be responsible for the regular functioning of our group. Tova is known to most of you for her succesful effort to organize the Regional Conference in Israel in 1997. This is the second term for our RC 48 in our role as a fullly fledged Research Committee. In Montreal we had an exciting agenda and a program of twenty sessions, which encompassed a broad area of social movements research. We were especially glad to see a number of new faces, younger scholars and graduate students from all over the world, and we certainly hope to see more of the fresh blood in our still young group. We welcome inquiries from prospective members, we shall offer some form of discounted membership (in the form of one-time, four-year subsidized subscription to the journal Mobilization) to new members from the weak currency countries recognized by ISA. The Board has discussed research and conference policies for the forthcoming term and we all agreed to try to ensure better geographical representation in line with ISA guidelines. In order to accomplish this task, we shall be going places with new Regional Conferences, possibly to be held in Mexico, in India and in Ireland. Antonio Murga, Debal Singharoy and Linda Conolly are now inquiring about prospects of organizing such conferences at their respective universities. Once those plans are more firm, we shall inform you and encourage broad member participation in the forthcoming events. We shall undertake efforts to organize in the near future a Regional Conference in East-Central Europe so that we could draw more participants from the new democratic countries which emerged after the fall of the Soviet Union. The idea behind regional conferences is to bring the RC's expertise and scholarship and to interface with local researchers and scholars who frequently find it too expensive and cumbersome to attend major international meetings. We shall also try to use other organized efforts to promote social movements research. Next year, in July, 1999 the International Institute of Sociology will be meeting in Tel Aviv, Israel. We have asked Tova Benski to secure at least two sessions in the program to deal with social movements research and theory, and we encourage as many of you as possible to send submissions directly to Tova (see her Report in this Newsletter). We also plan on having our next European Conference on Social Movements to continue our great tradition of meetings for European scholars. This conference is tentatively scheduled for the year 2000. We board members hope that you will find our rejuvenated group intellectually exciting, and that you will be able to participate in our academic and professional activities. As to our mission, it is to allow our members the broadest possible intellectual horizon and to encourage internationally comparative work among those examining different aspects of social movements, collective action, and social change. We want to promote theoretical and methodological analyses, and we welcome empirical studies that improve understanding of the world around us. We particularly welcome members from countries and cultures undergoing rapid social change, where movements are significant actors, and where participation in collective action is an important form of the politics of protest. We encourage you to tell us more about your research and scholarship, so we can contact you in case we plan an event specifically suited to your profile. As a member of RC 48 you will be listed in our directory and will receive a copy of it for your own reference. Twice a year, you will receive our Rotterdam, NL-published Newsletter, you will also be eligible to participate in RC 48 sponsored conferences. I speak for all of the Board Members in looking forward to hearing from you soon. We plan a series of ground-breaking and intellectually attractive sessions for the next four years. Bronislaw Misztal President, RC 48 From the executive secretary-treasurer Minutes of the Business meeting and first meeting of the new board of RC 48 on July 26th 1998 in Montreal On Monday, July 26th, during the 14th World Congress of the ISA in Montreal, a business meeting of the members of RC 48 was held. The outgoing president and secretary-treasurer presented reports of past activities and current financial situation of the RC. The members approved those statements. The plans for the forthcoming inter-congressional period were discussed. We discussed the possibility of holding the 3rd European conference (in the 2000) and decided to ask our colleagues at Kent University to undertake this effort. Hank Johnston presented information on Mobilization journal and requested that RC 48 subsidize the journal out of the membership dues. He informed the committee members that currently, about 80% of the subscribers are from North America. Committee members suggested that the board considers this request. A suggestion has been made not to subsidize current subscribers across the board for it would give a financial advantage to those who do not need assistance. Following elections that were held on that business meeting, the new executive board of RC 48 is as follows: President: Bronislaw Misztal Department of Sociology The Catholic University of America Washington, DC 20064, USA phone: 1 202 319 5999; fax: 1 202 319 6267 e-mail: misztal@cua.edu Executive secretary-treasurer: Tova Benski Department of Behavioral Studies The College of Management 9, Shoshana Persitz st. Tel-Aviv 61480, Israel phone: 972 4 8253576; fax: 972 3 6990460 e-mail: tbenski@colman.ac.il Members: Ms. Linda Cardinal Department of Politics University of Ottawa Ottawa, K1N 6N5, Canada e-mail: lcardina@aix1.uottawa.ca Antonio Murga Frassinetti Departamento de Sociologia Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana Iztapalana Av. Michoacan Y La Purisima S/N Col. Vicentina 09340 Mexico, D.F. phone: 723 4788/89; fax: 724 4787 e-mail: almf@xanum.uam.mx Wanda Dressler Holohan Groupe de Recherche CNRS (GRMSE) Université Paris-Nanterre 200, rue de la Republique Nanterre, France9200 e-mail: DRESSLER@U-PARIS10.FR Bert Klandermans Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Dept. of Social Psychology Amsterdam, The Netherlands e-mail: bertklandermans@psy.vu.nl Johan Olivier Center for Sociopolitical Analysis Private Bag x41 0001 Pretoria, S. Africa e-mail: JLO8@SOCDYN.HSRC.AC.ZA Debal K. Singharoy Reader in Sociology Indira Gandhi National Open University Maidan Garhi, New Delhi - 110068 India Phone: 91 011 6961845; fax: 91 011 6862313; 91 011 650863 e-mail: ignousos@del2.vsnl.net.in The first full meeting of the new board of RC 48 was held in Montreal on the evening right after the business meeting of the RC. Wanda Dressler and Johan Olivier were absent. It has been agreed that the financial assets of the RC will be transferred from Bronislaw Misztal to Tova Benski, once the legal issues of opening the Bank account in Israel will be resolved. The board discussed the future plans for inter-congressional events and decided the following: 1. RC 48 should increase its inter-congressional activities by taking advantage of various international opportunities. 2. It has been decided to strongly recommend to our members to submit proposals for the forthcoming IIS (International Institute of Sociology) meetings that will be held in Tel-Aviv in July 1999. Currently we secured two session slots for our RC. Interested members should contact Tova Benski. 3. Following the success of The First Regional Conference in Tel-Aviv, the board should make efforts to organize several regional conferences in the near future. We shall seek to organize these conferences in Latin-America, Asia and East-Central Europe. The board will make an effort to extend our membership in these countries. Tova Benski Executive secretary-treasurer September 3rd 1998 Position of the RC 48 Board With Regard to the Request Presented by the Editor of Mobilization Journal On the 30th of July 1998 the executive officers of the board, Bronislaw Misztal and Tova Benski have discussed the request presented by Hank Johnston, editor of Mobilization. We sought consultation of Isabela Barlinska, executive secretary of the ISA and of our two board members representing Latin America and Asia. We evaluated the current financial situation of the RC funds and discussed the strategy of allocating these resources. It was decided that the RC board should consider the existing 3 tier structure of membership in the ISA and offer some form of subsidy only to the new members from underdeveloped countries according to their needs. Since Mobilization is an independent and Refereed journal RC 48 will only be considering applicants from the pool of members consistent with the ISA policies. The board will consider individual applications from the applicants representing the first tier (lowest qualifying fiscal levels as determined by the ISA) and issue subsidy vouchers in the amount of USD 10.00 (ten dollars) for one membership period (four years). The funds will be made available from the pool of incoming membership fee money. It was also suggested that in order to further cooperation between the journal and RC 48, the RC will request the following: - that the executive officers of RC 48 are accepted as ex-officio members of the editorial board and offered actual influence on its editorial policy. - that the journal offers one issue every four years to be edited under the auspices of RC 48, granted all other editorial policies of the journal, including manuscript review processing, are met. - that the journal encourages submissions from those regions of the world that are consistent with ISA's policies of regional representation. Bronislaw Misztal Tova Benski President Executive Secretary-Treasurer September 1998 Letter from the Executive Secretary-Treasurer Dear Colleagues, With the Montreal meetings behind us, I would like to greet all the colleagues who participated and presented papers, and all our members who were not able to attend this time, in the hope that they will be able to attend our future programs. Let me highlight briefly the two forthcoming events planned by RC 48 for 1999. In the spring of 1999, April 16-18, the Second Regional Conference will take place in Cork, Ireland. In the summer, July 11-15, the 34th World Congress of the International Institute of Sociology (IIS) will take place in Tel-Aviv, Israel, and we have secured two sessions for our RC members. Please note, calls for papers and deadlines are specified in this newsletter and we would like to encourage our members to try and attend at least one of these events. I would like to remind all our members to make sure that they renew their membership when it expires and would take this opportunity to call on those colleagues who are interested in the topics of study covered by our RC to join us. For details contact me or the President, Prof. Bronislaw Misztal. Our addresses appear in this newsletter. I would also like to encourage our members who have not done so yet to join the list of subscribers of the MOBILIZATION journal. May I remind our members that the board will consider individual applications from applicants representing the first tier (lowest qualifying fiscal levels as determined by the ISA) and issue subsidy vouchers in the amount of USD 10.00 (ten dollars) for one membership period of four years for new subscription to the Journal. I wish all members a prosperous term and hope to see you in Tel-Aviv or Cork in 1999. Tova Benski Executive Secretary-Treasurer. Report of the Montréal meeting The last conference of the RC 48 has been held in Montréal in July-August 1998 during the last Congress of the International Sociology Association and it was a success. About 19 sessions had been organized. We had a wide variety of papers ranging from environmental movements in Hungary to Japan as well as gender and peace in Israel, national movements, positive discrimination and homophobia. Some sessions will be remembered for the intensity of the debates and discussion: Social Movements in Ireland; Gender and Social Movements and many more. Attendance at the conference was good but the rooms were not overcrowded. Unfortunately, the cost of the conference prohibited a lot of our colleagues outside of Europe and the North American hemisphere of attending the meeting. It seems that we may have the same difficulty in Brisbane, Australia where the next Congress of the ISA will be held. But this should not discourage us. In Montréal, it was noticed that RC 48 is a very active committee. We were the research committee with one of the most important number of sessions. The meeting in Montréal was also an excellent occasion for meeting new members and pursuing our discussions outside of the conference. Montréal is a very agreable city, especially in the summer and participants took advantage of the good weather and got together in cafés and restaurants. Participants who stayed until the end all gathered for a last dinner together. Social movement and collective action studies seem to be well and alive inside and outside RC 48 sessions! Linda Cardinal, Program Committee ISA Regional Conferences Call for Papers The Second Regional Conference on Social Movements and Change: Ireland SOCIAL MOVEMENTS IN TRANSITION: MOVING TOWARDS THE MILLENNIUM? The next regional meeting of the Social Movements and Collective Behaviour Research Committee will be held at University College Cork, Ireland - 16th-18th April 1999. The conference aims to critically review the sociological study of social movements and place contemporary perspectives and approaches in context. Conference papers will embody a systematic review and reappraisal of empirical work and theory, across a broad field of study, in the making of the new millennium. It is proposed that submissions will include concrete analyses of the interaction of social movements and the state; culture, ideology and framing; and mobilizing structures. A principal focus of the conference is the nature of social movements activism in Ireland, as one of the contemporary cradles of the problems of social action (activism) and indigenous social, political and religious conflicts. Two key issues will underpin the conference papers: 1. Comparative analysis of the so-called new - and re-emergence of old - forms of collective protest and social movements: - Current transitions in types of social movement activism will be addressed by contributors, (for example, recent mobilizations of nationalist, racist and counter right movements). - Are these social movements different from the new social movements which mobilized from the 1960s onwards and persisted into the 1990s? - Were the so-called "New" Social Movements of the 1960s, 70s, 80s and 90s, so new after all? Papers based on research in comparative social movements and analysis of globalisation, gender, religious movements, nationalism and the issue of identities are applicable. 2. Social Movements and Ireland: - How can factors unique to Irish society, especially the Peace Process in Northern Ireland and the Celtic Tiger phenomenon, illuminate the study of social movements? Irish society is particularly interesting for social movements scholars. The State was founded in 1922, following the mass mobilisation of a range of historical movements (nationalist, labour, suffrage and cultural). These movements shaped the dominant political cleavages and development of the State. Contemporary Irish social movements, such as the women's, environmental, nationalist and pro life movements, mobilised extensively from the 1970s onwards. In addition, the conflict in Northern Ireland and the Peace Process is of particular interest to social movement theorists and is an topic which requires much more development by sociologists. Irish society has developed rapidly in the 1990s - hence the pseudonym 'Celtic Tiger.' For scholars interested in social movements in developing societies, Ireland is a most interesting case given the past trajectory of acute emigration and slow pace of development. Locating this conference in Ireland will provide an opportunity for exchange and debate on a number of issues of central importance to sociologists working in the arena of social movements, and in other disciplines (including, women's studies, history, politics, philosophy, environmentalism and geography). UCC as a location: - Cork City is located in the South of Ireland. There are many places of natural beauty and great historical and political significance in Cork City and the surrounding areas. For more detailed information on the university and Cork City, visit the UCC web site: http://www.ucc.ie/ The web site, and conference web page, provides extensive information on travel, accommodation, tourist attractions, cultural activities and restaurants. - Cork international airport is fifteen minutes from the university. There is an excellent taxi, bus and rail service. Air fares to/from the UK and major Western European cities are reasonable (currently about £ 100 return, if booked in advance). Conference Fee: IR£ 350 (includes reception on Friday 16th April and lunch on Saturday 17th April). Concessions for students and delegates from weak currency countries. Venue: Boole Building, UCC Abstracts (200 words max.), to be submitted by January 10th 1999, and advance registration fee (preferably by cheque/international bank draft in IR£) should be sent to: Dr. Linda Connolly Department of Sociology UCC (University College Cork) Cork. Ireland Direct Phone/Voicemail: 353-21-902592; Fax: 353-21-272004; e mail: l.connolly@ucc.ie For further information and details contact Linda Connolly directly or visit the conference web page, which will be updated in due course, at: http://www.ucc.ie/ucc/depts/sociology/home.htm Call For Papers 34th WORLD CONGRESS OF THE INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF SOCIOLOGY Multiple Modernities in an Era of Globalization Tel-Aviv, July 11-15, 1999 It is my pleasure to announce that we secured two time slots for members of our RC on the 34th world congress of the IIS. We are inviting our members to send in proposals for papers on the following two themes: A. The state of the art in social movements research and theory: B. Comparative studies of Social Movements - Research and Theory. There will also be space for poster presentation at the congress. We would really like to encourage you to take this opportunity and organize an RC 48 event within this congress. Abstracts of about 200 words should be forwarded to Tova Benski, the RC secretary, no later than February 10, 1999. Authors are requested to indicate on their intention form whether their contribution in intended for oral presentation on one of the two sessions specified above, or poster presentation. I look forward to seeing you at the Congress. Please read the guidelines provided by the Congress secretariat. If you would like to participate you will have to send in an intention form. In that case, contact me and I will send you the required form. Your sincerely Tova Benski Executive Secretary of RC 48 Guidelines for abstract format as required by the Congress Secretariat. Abstracts should be written in English. Send the abstract either by E-Mail to tbenski@colman.ac.il as a WORD ATTACHMENT, or mail your abstract on a diskette in WORD FORMAT to the following address: Tova Benski Dept. of Behavioral Sciences The College of Management-Academic Studies 9, Shoshana Persitz St. Tel-Aviv 61480. The diskette should be mailed together with 4 original copies and should reach the above address no later then February 10, 1999. The abstract should be typed single-space in Times/Times New Roman font in 11-12 points. The title should be typed in CAPITAL LETTERS in 14points bold, leave one line empty and then type author's names and addresses. Authors are to be listed by initials first followed by family name and title. Underline the name of the presenting author, then leave two lines empty and begin the text of the abstract. Notification of Acceptance: Presenters of abstracts will receive formal notification of acceptance of their papers by April 30, 1999. Other Calls for Papers STUDIES IN PROTEST LEADERSHIP - DRAFT BOOK PROPOSAL We are in active discussion with a publisher about the idea of a book exploring questions concerning leadership within social movements and collective action. The question of leadership in protest activity seems to us to have been under-explored within academic literature. Among the questions in need of further investigation are: - what does the term 'leadership' actually involve? - how is the problem posed within social movements and collective action? - what are the differing conceptions of leadership - e.g. from above and below? - how do leadership contests and disputes shape the development of movements? - does leadership necessarily and automatically translate itself into 'oligarchy' and the weakening of democratic organization? - etc? We should be interested in hearing from potential contributors. We should like to receive expressions of interest (of a few hundred words maximum) suggesting papers for inclusion in the volume. We are especially interested in proposals which discuss problems of leadership in the context of concrete studies of actual movements and/or episodes of collective action. We have a longer proposal document which we can supply to those who send us such expressions of interest. Obviously we cannot make any promises about publication. Colin Barker (Manchester Metropolitan University); Alan Johnson (Edge Hill University College); Michael Lavalette (Liverpool University). Please reply by post to: Colin Barker Department of Sociology Manchester Metropolitan University Manton Building, Rosamond Street West, Manchester M15 6LL, England fax 0044 161 247 6321 or by email to c.barker@mmu.ac.uk with copies to johnsona@staff.ehche.ac.uk and m.lavalette@liv.ac.uk SOLIDARITY: "THE SOCIAL" IN THOUGHT AND PRACTICE Graduate Student History Conference New York University April 9-10, 1999 [NOT 2-3 as previously announced!] Graduate students in the History Department at New York University announce a conference on the theme of "solidarity" and invite graduate students in all fields and periods of history to submit abstracts for papers. We use "solidarity" to refer to social phenomena that have come to be called mass action, political mobilization, and coalition-building. We invite students to present historical work that showcases the various interpretive and methodological tools that historians bring to the study of "solidarity." Please submit proposals by NOVEMBER 15, 1998. Proposals should include a one-page abstract and a curriculum vitae, and should be sent to the following address: Graduate Student History Association "Solidarity" Conference Attn: Jane Rothstein and Louis Anthes New York University Department of History 53 Washington Square South New York, NY 10012 For further information, contact: Jane Rothstein jr231@is5.nyu.edu or Louis Anthes lqa9210@is2.nyu.edu ALTERNATIVE FUTURES AND POPULAR PROTEST V Every year since 1995, Manchester Metropolitan University has hosted a very successful international conference on `ALTERNATIVE FUTURES and POPULAR PROTEST'. A fifth conference will be held on 29 - 31 March 1999. The aim of the Conference is to explore the dynamics of popular movements, along with the ideas which animate their leaders and supporters and which contribute to shaping their fate. We invite offers of papers from sociologists, political scientists, historians and others, addressing the conference themes and their theorisation. Papers should address such matters as: - contemporary historical social movements and popular protests - social movement theory - utopias and experiments - ideologies of collective action - etc. Those interested in offering papers should contact either of the conference convenors with a brief abstract: Colin Barker, Department of Sociology Mike Tyldesley, Department of Politics and Philosophy Both may be reached at: Manchester Metropolitan University Geoffrey Manton Building, Rosamond Street West Manchester M15 6LL, England Tel: C. Barker on 0161 247 3439, M. Tyldesley on 0161 247 3460 email: c.barker@mmu.ac.uk or m.tyldesley@mmu.ac.uk Fax: 0161 247 6321 (+44 161 247 6321) Books In this section I will mention book titles which came somehow to my attention. - Katy Pickvance Democracy and Environmental Movements in Eastern Europe: A Comparative Study of Hungary and Russia. Boulder: Westview Press, 1998. ISBN 0-8133-3518-3. This book is a systematic comparison of environmental activism - and more broadly, collective democratic action in two former state socialist societies. Both countries differ in (state) organization, which enables the author to show how such differences shape collective action in democratizing nations. For more information contact k.pickvance@ukc.ac.uk or Dr. Katy Pickvance, Darwin College, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK CT2 7NY. - Thomas R. Rochon Culture Moves: Ideas, Activism, and Changing Values. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998. I came across this book because I was asked to review it and was rather impressed by it. Particularly, the introduction of the concept 'critical community' seems to me to be very valuable for the study of social movements. The Electronic World Here I will give you the adresses of Websites concerning social movements and collective action. - Shifting Ground; A new interactive website about social and cultural movements - WWWpage http://www.lancs.ac.uk./users/csec/shiftingground/ The organizer is Thomas V. Cahill of Lancaster University in the U.K. - Social Movements; a social movements mailing list and a connected Web site. If you would like to subscribe to the mailing list, email to: maiser@wit.ie with the message 'subscribe social movements'.Further information may be found on the Web site edited by Laurence Cox. You will find the site at http://cyberjournal.org/social-movements/. - Mobilization; this is the website of the journal. This is a place where you may subscribe, order reprints of articles, find publication guidelines, etc. Look at http://www.infonex.com/Mobilization. Other news CONFERENCE PAPERS AVAILABLE of ALTERNATIVE FUTURES and POPULAR PROTEST: 4th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE, 1998. Manchester Metropolitan University, April 1998 A limited supply of the papers given at this very successful conference is still available for purchase. The papers are bound into two volumes, and available as a set, at a cost of 25 pounds sterling [including second class postage]. Details of the contents of the two volumes, and of how to obtain them, contact Colin Barker (see above). Letter from the I.S.A. President, No. 1, October 1998 The Aims of our Common Work While we are entering the third millennium there is a greater need than ever for sociological imagination, scientific excellence, intellectual probity, and moral commitment to a better world, a world more peaceful and more respectful of the dignity of all women and men. The ISA can contribute significantly to meet this need. The objectives set 50 years ago by UNESCO's Social Science Council in promoting the ISA and parallel worldwide associations - such as knitting together social science scholars of the world in order to increase international understanding, bettering social science knowledge for benefitting mankind, promoting research in fields crucial to the establishment of a peaceful world order - are still well alive and important, and must be taken very seriously in our daily work. But they must be put into the context of the contemporary global world, which is characterized by the growing tension between the increasingly global integration and interdependence in technology, finance, information, and the continuing fragmentation of societies, cultures, and political systems. International non-governmental organizations, in general, and international scientific and professional associations in particular, should become - and will more and more become - major actors of the world stage. Key decisions of global impact should not be left only to the governments of the most powerful nation-states and to international governmental organizations, to multinational corporations and global financial networks, to political-ideological alliances and religious fundamentalism, since all those actors inspire their conduct to power and gain, or tend to impose a given Weltanschauung. International scientific associations can play a beneficial, countervailing role insofar as they are able to build truly global communities of scholars and inspire their conduct to universalistic principles, on the basis of which everyone is evaluated in terms of her/his scientific achievements, capacity to teach, and professional ethics, and not in terms of gender, ethnicity, age, or nationality. In order to play this beneficial role in a global world the ISA must become a truly international and global organization itself. Our association has gone a long way since its foundation almost 50 years ago. The ISA has grown from a small scientific society with a few dozen members mostly from the US and Western Europe to a large international organization with 3300 individual and 150 collective members from 89 countries and more that 4000 active participants to our world congresses. The ISA has progressed toward internationalization more that most other international scientific associations, as the composition of most research committees as well as many of its activities show, from the regional conferences to the Worldwide Young Sociologists' Competition, to the official adoption of multi-linguism in our Statutes. But more must be done, and can be done. As I stated in setting my priorities as a nominee for president, the ISA should become a truly global association while enhancing the different cultural heritages. And, as the Report of the Bureau of International Sociology writes, "the acknowledgment of the role of language in the development of individual and collective identities must be rendered compatible with sociology's search for universality". Let me give a few examples of the kind of initiatives I have in mind to pursue this goal. First, ISA will sponsor and actively support selected comparative projects, developed by international teams, where sociologists from economically weaker countries can be significantly helped and where non ethnocentric models can be worked out. We will encourage scientific cooperation not only between the 'north' and the 'south' of the world, but also between different regions of the 'south' itself without the mediation of the core countries. Second, we will organize a traveling International Summer School for the best young sociologists; the participants can be selected with the same procedure of the International Young Sociologists' Competition, the teachers should be major figures in our discipline, the host institutions can rotate and 'travel' to different parts of the world. We can hope that relations of friendships and habits of working together will last in the hearts and minds of participants and will build strong ties and commitments to future cooperation. Third, through our Research and Publications Committees, we will encourage Research Committees to publish a series of textbooks in Sociology with a truly global, non parochial perspective which can contribute to internationalise the curriculum. I am myself engaged in the drafting of the proposal for a multilingual dictionary of key sociological concepts - the first of its kind - with the aim of enhancing our consciousness of the intellectual history of concepts and of the major differences in the production and use of the basic categories of sociological analysis in different languages. Fourth, in cooperation with the national and regional associations, we will organize a series of regional conferences, continuing with work done by Immanuel Wallerstein. Through these initiatives the ISA will be able to help us to better our work as sociologists both in research and teaching. An international association is an ideal setting for confronting and exchanging experiences, disseminating information, diffusing innovations and monitoring their effects. As ISA members, we do not fully exploit the great opportunities for cooperation in research and teaching which stem from the international networks we have built. We will closely cooperate with national and regional associations of sociologists in this respect. We will consider the possibility of organizing prizes for the sociological book of the year, the best educational program, the recognition of excellent life-long careers in sociological work, and the like. A third major concern of my presidency will be the enhancement of the prestige of sociology as a discipline. As we know, individual sociologists can become presidents of great republics such as Brazil and Venezuela, influential intellectuals and opinion makers, leaders of collective movements, government experts, etc. But, as a whole, the influence of sociological knowledge is not fully recognized in international and national institutions, in productive organizations, as well as in many professional fields. I am not arguing here that sociology should be only applied sociology, or become a kind of 'sociological engineering'; I am saying that were the sociological perspective more taken into account by international organizations, government agencies, and corporations, major mistakes stemming from an over-technocratic or over-economic view of man and society could be avoided; and that were sociological theory and method more widely and usefully employed than they are now in the professional education of doctors, managers, judges, lawyers, civil servants, social workers, nurses, architects, engineers, media professionals, etc. the quality of these professional services will be better. Concrete actions in these areas include producing high-quality sociological research books, making the sociologists' voice heard in the public discourse, designing higher education curricula with professional associations, disseminating information about employment opportunities in international organizations. In particular, I will commit myself to supporting those sociological communities which are under attack by authoritarian governments. I am in fact convinced that a basic priority of an international scientific organization is the staunch defence of the basic rights and freedom of scientific inquiry, intellectual debate, and freedom of teaching. As President, I also intend to strengthen and better our organization along the lines of my speech on the elections evening: accountable leadership, team work, transparent and democratic decision making. I believe that the ISA's president is a primus inter pares and that decisions should be taken collectively. In my view, democratic leadership is the art of promoting and coordinating cooperation in order to achieve common goals in the interest of our constituency and of our institution. This does not imply of course that I am not prepared to take full responsibility for ISA's activities and the accurate implementation of our decisions. I will do whatever I can to make the whole ISA a place of genuine and active debate about the fundamental issue that face us as scholars and concerned members of the world community. The three pillars of our institutional fabric are the national associations, the research committees, and the individual members. Together with the Executive Committee - which already works as a real team and a group of friends - I am committed to work in closer cooperation with all of them. I am proud of representing the world sociological community. Let us work together for sociological excellence in research and teaching and for the scientific and social legitimation of our discipline in a genuinely global association. Alberto Martinelli - President I.S.A. MOBILIZATION The International Journal of Social Movement Research FREE SUBSCRIPTIONS! PARTICIPATE IN OUR LIBRARY CAMPAIGN MOBILIZATION is the only peer-reviewed journal of research in social movements, protest, and collective action. To place MOBILIZATION in more libraries, we are offering a free one-year subscription if your university library subscribes on your recommendation. Here is how the offer works: 1. Send us an e-mail that you want to participate: Hank.Johnston@sdsu.edu 2. Write or e-mail a letter of recommendation to your periodicals librarian. 3. Mail or e-mail a copy of the letter to our editorial offices listed below. 4. We will keep your letter in a file. When your library subscribes we will notify you of your free subscription for next year. Also, for those participating in the library campaign, we are offering current 1998 subscriptions at a special price: $18.50 (It usually takes 2-3 months for libraries to process the requests). We will send you the current issue (Volume 3, No. 1) immediately upon receipt of your order. The next issue (Vol 3, No. 2) will be mailed to you the end of October. Fill out the form below to pay by credit card. Or you may order by e-mail (it is completely safe) by contacting the editor, Hank.Johnston@sdsu.edu. Library subscriptions cost $38.50 for one year. This is compared to $185.00 or more for other academic journals. At this low price, usually all it takes is a strong faculty recommendation. For immediate delivery you may fax your credit card order to 619 673 8402. Otherwise, you may mail the order form to: MOBILIZATION, Department of Sociology, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182-4423 USA Name (please print)_________________________________________________________________________ Credit card number_________________________________________Expiry date_________________ Mailing address_______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________ Country____________________________________________________ZIP________________________ Tel_________________________FAX______________________E-Mail___________________________ ??