Call | Sociology of Law and Justice

Call for papers | Sociology of Law and Justice

Coordinators:

Paula Casaleiro (CES, UC)

Sílvia Gomes (CICS.NOVA, UMinho)

Pierre Guibentif (Dinâmia’CET, ISCTE-IUL)

Vera Duarte, suplente (CICS.NOVA, UMinho)

António Casimiro Ferreira, suplente (CES, UC)

Susana Santos, suplente (CIES, ISCTE-IUL)

The theme of the XI Portuguese Congress of Sociology has a special appeal to all who choose Law and Justice as a doorway to reflect on contemporary societies, namely their dynamics, actors, and processes of reconfiguration.

The work developed around the questions “Who does the law?” and “Who does the Law serve?” has allowed producing tools for observing and transforming the social reality that can make diagnoses and establish lines of action. These tools have facilitated the approach to emancipation and domination, and to the social struggle for equality and the reproduction of social inequalities. Moreover, they may be used to analyze in the arrival of new forms of social movement, defending respect for differences, claiming recognition, or affirming identities, with inclusive or exclusive purposes.

At the sessions of our thematic section, we hope to be able to discuss work on legislative, judicial or administrative proceedings, as well as cases of mobilization of law and rights on the periphery of the places of production of state law, where issues of recognition or identity are at stake. More specific themes could be:

• Demands for recognition in legislative, judicial and administrative proceedings;
• Democratic rule of law in the presence of populism;
• The role of law and rights in collective or individual identification processes;
• Defense of citizens' rights and social struggle;
• Access to law and justice by different social groups;
• The exclusive and inclusive potentials of rights’ claims;
• Social justice in the face of the challenge of intersectionality;
• Diversity in justice professionals.

We call on sociologists, in their various contexts of work, and on professionals in law and justice to participate in what we wish to be a broad and plural debate, perfected by various professional and research experiences in the multiple fields of Sociology of Law and Justice. Proposals for communications, posters or contributions in other formats (e.g., video) based on completed or ongoing research work, action research processes, theoretical and/ or methodological reflections, or on professional experiences, are strongly encouraged.

Proposals will be evaluated and selected according to the following three criteria: (1) relevance of the subject; (2) rigor and consistency in defending this subject; (3) manifest quality of the basis of the work presented (which may be of different kind, such as empirical research, theoretical discussion, experiences gathered in a professional context, etc.).

We, therefore, invite all sociologists, and researchers and practitioners with related background, to submit abstract proposals of research arising from academic and non-academic context in response to our Call.