Although it has only been operational the last four years, the Department of Sociology has organized a number of diverse academic activities. These activities aimed at its participation in international academic discussions and the promotion of its collaboration with a number of international and local research units and university departments. The wide participation of students and of the academic community itself bears witness to the success of these initiatives.
In the near future, the Department of Sociology, in collaboration with the research institutes of the Social Partners in Greece, plan to apply for research grants to investigate the changes in the labor market brought about by technological transformations. Here, a key role will be played by the students of the Department, as they are expected to get involved both with the theoretical and the empirical dimensions of the respective studies.
To date, the Department has organized:
- The International Congress INDL-5: Features and futures of digital labor (November 2022) in collaboration with Télécom Paris, DiPLab (Digital Platform Labor) of the Polytechnic Institute of Paris and the Research Institute of the General Confederation of Greek Workers.
- The International Conference on the work of H. Lefebvre: Henri Lefebvre: A project of critical Social Theory (May 2022)
- A Meeting on “Transformation of Democracy and the State” (June 2022)
- A day-long Webinar on “Social Sciences in research and Education: Critical assessment of the Greek experience” (December 2020)
- The department of Sociology participates in the International Urban Symposium. The International Urban Symposium (IUS) is a non-profit Association that brings together scholars from various disciplines who share a strong commitment to ethnographic research in urban settings and to empirically-based analysis and non-academics; in particular, professionals who have an interest in the research findings. The IUS encourages topical research among its members; initiates multidisciplinary discussion through round-tables and seminars; trains younger scholars; engenders high-quality publications; establishes links with universities, research institutions and other reputable bodies; and engages in debate and collaboration with non-academics who operate in society and are interested in our empirical knowledge, and in making use of it. In July 2023, the International Urban Symposium organizes the following events:
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- 1. https://www.internationalurbansymposium.com/events/2023-field-training-school/
- This 7-day Field Training School (21-27 July) is aimed at postgraduate students and postdoctoral scholars who are interested in research in urban settings and in empirically-grounded analysis. The primary aim is to train students in the ‘art’ of conducting ethnographic fieldwork and develop the link between ethnographically-based analysis and social theory.
- 2. https://www.internationalurbansymposium.com/events/2023-2/
- Τhe Conference aims to address variations of inequality across the world, the socio-economic, fiscal, legislative and political forces that determine them and the efficacy and legitimacy of the policies implemented to tackle them. In view of the fundamental distinction between equality and levelling argued comparatively in Urban Inequalities: Ethnographically Informed Reflections (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021), we invite scholars from the social sciences to participate in this event with ethnographically based papers to address key topics in this field.
Key Topics
• Employment, Unemployment and Work, including the “Gig economy”, digital work and the deep inequality between the “guaranteed” who enjoy secure employment and trade union protection and the “non-guaranteed” (e.g., the self-employed, the small entrepreneurs, employees on casual contracts);
• Economic and Non-economic Resources;
• Access to Credit (individual and national);
• Healthcare and Public Health;
• Housing: accessibility, financialization;
• Gentrification;
• Education and Educational Opportunities;
• Regional Disparities.
Scientific Committee: Gary Armstrong (City University of London, UK); Hana Cervinkova (Maynhoot University, Republic of Ireland); Subhadra Channa (Delhi University, India); Ketevan Khutsishvili (Tbilisi State University, Georgia); Jerome Krase (Brooklyn College, CUNY; USA); David Nugent (Emory University, USA); Italo Pardo (University of Kent, UK); Giuliana B. Prato (University of Kent, UK); James Rosbrook-Thompson (City University of London, UK); Liora Sarfati (Tel Aviv University, Israel); Manos Spyridakis (University of Athens, Greece).
