GREFI International Conference (Mid-term) 2023 on Globalization and the Crisis of 'The Project of Modernity'

The notion of modernity is closely linked with the rise of industrial capitalism in the West in last two or three centuries. As a result, all earlier civilizations have become either dissolved or altered beyond recognition by the impact of modern social forms. Thus, modernity has been a central phenomenon in the western social sciences. In the field of social sciences, the term ‘modernity’ is used to describe the particular attributes of modern industrial society. A major concern of social theory has been the analysis of modernity and its impact on the world. Social theorists believe that “the project of modernity” originated with the growth of scientific knowledge in the period called Renaissancewhich gave an impetus to the notion of rationality in pre-modern societies of the Europe. Three important transformations–the agricultural revolution, the commercial revolution and the industrial revolution transformed the European society into a modern industrial society. The notion of modernity did not confine to the western world but it was extended to other continents as well through colonialism and imperialism. In post-war period modernization theory of development emerged as a dominant model of development which was later challenged by the neo-Marxian sociologists who emphasized on ‘the development of underdevelopment’ and ‘dependency theory’. Almost at the same time, the waves of post-structuralism, feminism, post-modernism and environmentalism posed a challenge to the very notion of modernity and declared that the era of modernity is over and a new era of ‘postmodern society’ has begun. The debates like ‘end of ideology’, ‘end of history’ post-Fordism attacked on the notion of modernity both at the theoretical and empirical levels. A number of methodological issues were also raised by the scholars particularly on positivism. These issues were culminated with the downfall of USSR in the beginning of 1990s and new theoretical construct ‘globalization’ surpassed all the existing theoretical constructs including modernity. Positive ‘hyperglobalizers’ declared that a new epoch in human history has begun and globalization is transforming all existing societies simultaneously. The policy of “Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization” (LPG) was recommended as a new model of development for the developing nations. These views were contested by many scholars and this gave rise to ‘globalization debate’ focusing on the modernity. One set of scholars claimed that era of modernity is now over and we have entered into a new era, i.e., the era of globalization. On the other hand, a number of scholars disagreed and emphasized that modernity is not over but it is transforming itself into a new form, called ‘late modernity’, ‘high modernity’, ‘reflexive modernity’, ‘liquid modernity’. The institutions established in post-war period are increasingly become defunct or irrelevant in resolving the conflict between nations. Conflicts and wars based on religious (clash of civilizations) and modern time ideologies (socialist versus capitalist) have deepened the crisis of the project of modernity. Some of the scholars view the present crisis as a result of globalization which has adversely affected the erstwhile socialistic and communist world in last three decades despite of their efforts to become more powerful economy and polity. The conference is aimed to discuss these issues in six symposia and special sessions. Apart from this the conference will also focus on the following specialized areas of social sciences:

1. Sociology of Conflict, War and Violence (Snehil Singh snehilsingh7@gmail.com)

2. Economy and Society (Dr. Preeti Tiwari tiwari.preeti31@gmail.com )

3. Education and Society (Madhu Bala madhu.baghel1392@gmail.com)

4. Sociology of Nationalism and Ethnicity (Rachna Atri Saksena rachnaatrisaksena@gmail.com)

5. Family, Kinship and Tribal Society (Dr. Priyanka Jain priyanka.jain@niu.edu.in)

6. Debates related to “History of Sociology” (Dr. Pankaj Kumar Singh pankajsocio@radiffmail.com)

7. Social Transformation, Development and Globalization (Dr. Shreepal Chauhan drspchauhan14@gmail.com)

8. Organizations, management and Corporate World (Dr. Deepthi Shanker deepthis2020@gmail.com)

9. Sociology of Aging (Dr. T. Sushila Singha sushilasingha1979@gmail.com)

10. Mass Media and Information Technology (Dr Sarvesh Dutt Tripathi sarveshdt@gmail.com)

11. Leisure and Society (Dr. Deepthi Shanker deepthis2020@gmail.com)

12. Changing Concept of Health in contemporary society (Dr. Nibedita Paul nibeditapaul@yahoo.com)

13. Globalization and Political transformations (Prof. Virendra P. Singh etdrvps@gmail.com)

14. Methodological Issues in the analysis of globalization (Prof. Virendra P. Singh etdrvps@gmail.com)

15. Transformations in Urban social and spatial structures (Dr. Debanjana Nag debanjana22nag22@yahoo.com)

16. Religious Ideologies and the rise of communal conflicts (Prof. Parvez A. Abbasi parvezabbasi@yahoo.com )

17. Science, technology and Society (Prof. Madhav Govind mgovind11@gmail.com)

18. Environment, Climate change and Sustainable Development (Prof. Madhav Govind mgovind11@gmail.com)

19. Globalization, Arts and Literature (Dr. Preeti Tiwari tiwari.preeti31@gmail.com )

20. Social Stratification and Occupation and profession (Prof. Parvez A. Abbasi parvezabbasi@yahoo.com )

21. Cyber Crime, Deviance and Social Control (Prof. Madhu Sisodia madhusisodia2015@gmail.com)

22. Globalization and Migration (Dr. Neha Gutkar neha.gutkar@gmail.com)

23. Women, Gender and Society (Dr. Debanjana Nag debanjana22nag22@yahoo.com)

Abstracts with title and keywords should not exceed 400 words. Additional requested information should include:

name(s); affiliation(s); whatsapp no. and Email of all the author(s)

Indian delegates should send the abstract of the paper by 28 February 2023 via email to the session coordinator as well as on official mail of GREFI (grefiplus2018@gmail.com)