CENTER FOR CIVILIZATIONAL AND REGIONAL STUDIES

INSTITUTE FOR AFRICAN STUDIES

FORTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
"HIERARCHY AND POWER IN THE HISTORY OF CIVILIZATIONS"
June 13-16 2006, Moscow, Russia

FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT AND CALL FOR PANEL PROPOSALS

Center for Civilizational and Regional Studies in cooperation with the Institute for African Studies (both under the Russian Academy of Sciences) is organizing in Moscow on June 20-23 2006 the Forth International Conference "HIERARCHY AND POWER IN THE HISTORY OF CIVILIZATIONS".

The First Conference held in Moscow by the Center for Civilizational and Regional Studies in co-operation with the Russian State University for the Humanities in June 2000, brought together over 150 scholars. While the majority of participants were from Russia, others came from Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Kazakhstan, Netherlands, Poland, South Africa, Spain, UK, Ukraine, and the USA. The work of the Conference was organized along 8 panels. Billed as a discussion of 'the general trends and mechanisms of sociocultural evolution and the processes of sociopolitical evolution in their regional and temporary variation', it turned into a series of debates about the relationship between an-thropology and history of the longue durée, with contributions from (and implications for) those work-ing in philosophy, political science, sociology, cultural studies, and related disciplines. The success of the First Conference suggested to its participants an idea to ensure the biannual regularity of further conferences. Furthermore, it was decided to broaden its disciplinary diapason by inviting to participate in the Second Conference not only anthropologists, archaeologists, historians, and sociobiologists, but also political scientists, sociologists, jurists, geographers, and specialists in other related fields aiming at the creating of a world-wide network of scholars concerned with all the possible aspects of the Con-ference’s general problematique.

The Second Conference took place in Saint Petersburg in July 2002. The Conference was held jointly by the Center for Civilizational and Regional Studies and the Institute of Oriental Studies (St. Peters-burg Branch). This time the Conference brought together 180 scholars. 93 of them represented research centers and universities of 14 Russian cities while 87 participants came from 30 countries of all the in-habited continents of the Earth: Australia, Austria, Belorus, Canada, China (including Taiwan), Co-lombia, Czech Republic, France, French Polynesia, Georgia, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Ice-land, India, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Latvia, Malaysia, Mali, Netherlands, Nigeria, Slovenia, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, USA. The work of the Conference was organized along 18 panels. The Conference was supported financially by the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ire-land (London) and the “Uchitel” Publishing House (Volgograd).

The Third Conference was held in Moscow by the Center for Civilizational and Regional Studies in cooperation with the Institute for African Studies (both under the Russian Academy of Sciences) and School of History, Political Science and Law of the Russian State University for the Humanities in June 2004. 189 scholars from 16 cities of Russia and 27 other countries (Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Iran, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Netherlands, Peru, Portugal, Republic of China, South Africa, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates , United Kingdom, United States) participated in the event. 202 papers were presented at the plenary session, 24 panels, and 1 “round table”. The Institute for African Studies, Russian State University for the Humanities, and “Uchitel” Publishing House (Volgograd) supported the Conference financially.

The immediate objective of the Forth Conference is to discuss the following issues:

• civilizational and evolutionary models of socio-political development;
• hierarchy and heterarchy in the sociopolitical history of humankind;
• hierarchical and net structures in the history of cultures and civilizations;
• interaction of the socio-political and cultural-mental groups of factors in the processes of so-cial transformations;
• cultural and socio-biological foundations and factors of dominance in human societies;
• power strategies vs. stages of political evolution;
• ideology and legitimation of power in different civilizational contexts;
• violence and non-violence in the history of political institutions formation, development and decline;
• the role of economy in sociopolitical processes;
• access to information as a condition and its use as a means of political manipulation and mo-bilization;
• the “classical” (band, tribe, chiefdom, state) and “alternative” forms of sociopolitical organi-zation;
• “traditional” and recent schools and trends in the study of the “hierarchy and power” problem-atique.

The working languages of the Conference are Russian and English.

The Organizing Committee will be glad to consider any panel proposals (within 500 words in any of the Conference working languages) which will be received by March 15, 2005. The information to be submitted alongside with the proposal, includes the panel convenor’s full name, title, institutional af-filiation, full mail and e-mail addresses, and fax #, as well names, institutional affiliations, and e-mail addresses of not less than two other possible participants of the panel, at least one of which should rep-resent a country other than that of the convenor.

The Organizing Committee will inform the applicants about the results of their panel proposals’ con-sideration by April 1, 2005. Besides that, the Organizing Committee reserves the right to establish one or two free communication panels. It is suggested that each of the panels will eventually include about a dozen papergivers, and the list of all the participants is to become known in the beginning of the year 2006 due to the activities of both the Organizing Committee and panel convenors. None of the propos-als may be accepted or rejected on the basis of its submitter’s previous academic credentials, ethnic or national origin, sex, or otherwise, but only on the basis of the proposal’s relevance to and importance for, the Conference’s general problematique. Proposals emphasizing theoretical and cross-regional ap-proaches to the “hierarchy and power” problematique are strongly encouraged. In the case the proposal is accepted, the Organizing Committee will send you the list of documents necessary to support your and your panel participants’ visa application process at the Russian Consulate or Embassy in the re-spective countries.

The Conference participant’s registration fee is 100 euros (or the equivalent sum in US dollars or Rus-sian rubles) which includes the visa application support at the Russian Foreign Ministry, culture pro-gram, Conference Book of Abstracts, reception, coffee-breaks, is to be paid on the spot upon arrival. The fee for an accompanying person is 50 euros (or the equivalent sum in US dollars or Russian rubles) includes the visa application support at the Russian Foreign Ministry and participation in culture pro-gram. Accommodation at the hotel of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Downtown Moscow is about 45 euros per night. It is also possible to make an independent reservation in this hotel or in one of many other Moscow hotels of different class through Internet at sites: http://www.moscow-hotels-russia.com/rus/, http://www.hotelmos.ru/index_e.htm, http://www.hotelsrussia.com, http://www.selectrussia.com/ and http://all-hotels.ru. Estimated meal and other daily expenses are c. 15 euros per person. However, please note that the figures above may be subjected to some changes due to processes in transnational and national economy which are obviously out of the Organizing Committee’s control. If such changes happen, the Organizing Committee will try its best to inform the Conference participants as soon as possible.

All the correspondence should be sent for the Conference Secretaries, Ms. Anastasia A. Banshikova and Ms. Svetlana V. Kobzeva preferably by e-mail (civ-reg@inafr.ru), or either by fax (+ 7 095 202 0786), or by ordinary mail (Center for Civilizational and Regional Studies, Russian Academy of Sci-ences, 30/1 Spiridonovka St., 123001 Moscow, Russia). The telephone number is: + 7 095 291 4119.