Cultural Difference and Social Solidarity:
Dividing and Uniting Communities Beyond Multiculturalism

Middle East Technical University-Northern Cyprus Campus
4th-8th July 2011

The issues of social solidarity and preservation of cultural rights, works and values within divided communities and across communities of difference is one of the defining features of contemporary politics. Across the globe, communities are struggling to overcome cultural differences, reflecting religious, political, ideological and identity-based roots. It has been argued that faith in multiculturalism as a philosophical and conceptual basis for promoting social solidarity and communities that are pluralist and cosmopolitanism, has become exhausted by failures, giving rise to new forms of reconciling difference with solidarity. Equally, new discourses of monoculturalism, polyculturalism, or dominant cultural hegemonies have been offered as alternatives to multi-cultural communities beset by tensions and competing demands by different constituents.

The main themes for which papers are sought are:
-Reconciling diverse communities and fragmented communities
-Analysis of effects, uses, failures, or successes of cultural products (literature, film and the arts)
-The role of states, NGOs and international structures in exacerbating or alleviating difference and fragmentation in communities
-Ideological politics and the theorizing of difference, diversity and solidarity
-Language, media and propaganda
-After Multiculturalism?: Monoculturalism, Polyculturalism, Cosmopolitanism and the Theory and Practice of Difference within common space
-Migration, Borders, Diasporas and Solidarity in Changing Communities

These themes are not exhaustive and the organizers will consider other papers relevant to the conference subject. We expect to publish a post-conference edited book, derived from the papers presented and organized around themes that reveal themselves during the conference.

There will be three keynote plenary sessions with speakers to be announced.

This conference seeks to provide a space for scholars to take stock of the present context and share knowledge – specific or general, empirical or theoretical, with a view to develop and explore the possible ways forward to minimizing violence, discrimination, exclusion and oppression as the means by which difference is managed by political structures. The conference is intended to be cross disciplinary and welcomes papers from scholars whose research crosses traditional disciplinary boundaries. Papers and panels are sought for presentation at parallel sessions where each paper will have a strict maximum of 20 minutes presentation time on panels of 2 papers with 50 minutes of discussion time per session.

The Conference language is English and all papers and presentations should be in English.

Deadline for submission of Abstracts by: Friday, January 28, 2010

Notification of Acceptance and Rejection by: Monday, February 7, 2011

Abstracts of no more than 350 words, with name and affiliation, should be sent by email to: sboyd@metu.edu.tr. Please write “conference abstract” in the subject of the email. Pre-arranged panels may also be suggested.

Questions should be directed to the conference organisers:
Scott H. Boyd, Middle East Technical University-Northern Cyprus Campus
sboyd@metu.edu.tr

Paul Reynolds, Edge Hill University
reynoldp@edgehill.ac.uk

Receipt of abstracts will be acknowledged within 48 hours.

Updated information can be found on the conference website:
http://differenceandsolidarity.org