ESA 2015
ESA, one of the biggest annual European conferences, took place in August 2015. Participating in this event has become one of the SESL traditions. This year, SESL was represented by Vadim Voskresensky and Sonya Semenova, our two youngest members who just recently got their bachelor’s degree.
This year the conference was taking place in Prague (Czech Republic) on August 25-28. Social distinctions, inequalities and sociological imagination became the basic and unifying topics of this year’s conference. This conference is a significant event for social researchers, which covers a very wide range of research areas, from urban sociology to the sociology of holidays. In addition, ESA allows a large number of researchers from European and Asian countries to share the results of their studies with the scientific communities and to find colleagues for further scientific cooperation. This year, ESA was attended by nearly 3,000 sociologists, and organizers created over 40 thematic sections.
The conference was taking place in two buildings of the Czech Technical University. The plenary opening session took place at the building of the Czech Congress, with the opening presentations by Zygmant Bauman and Arlie Hochschild. It was clear that the organizers made every effort to make the conference visit comfortable and easy for all the participants and attendees. Even at the exit from the subway station Dejvicka one could see volunteers with the ESA posters who were directing the attendees towards the conference venue. In addition, at the conference registration all participants received city maps and schemes of the university buildings, which also helped to navigate the area.
The conference program included a large number of oral presentations in various areas of sociology, many workshops and poster presentations. One of the most popular events at the conference was a workshop, where editors of the leading sociological scientific journals explained the finer points of academic paper submissions, including the features which a research paper should have in order to be accepted for publication in an authoritative journal. On the ground floor of one of the university buildings, there were stands of the major academic publishing houses, such as Routledge, Springer, Elseiver etc. The conference participants could buy books related to their working fields, or practical guides on qualitative and quantitative methods in social science research.
There were a massive amount of workshops, lectures and thematic sections at the conference. Most of them ran concurrently, which made the choice between them very difficult. An event of such a scale provides an excellent opportunity for finding likeminded colleagues for further cooperation. Several SESL projects were also presented at the conference. Sofia Semenova made a presentation at a section on the usage of quantitative methods in the sociological research. She presented the results of a cross-county comparison of the style of teenager responses based on a Likert scale. It was found that children from migrant families give more extreme responses to questions, which can be explained by their uncertain social position in the host country. In addition, it was found that children from countries which highly value obedience usually gave neutral answers (middle position on the Likert scale). The audience appreciated the presentation, asked a number questions, and made several suggestions on the further direction of research.
Vadim Voskresensky made a presentation at a section on the sociology of childhood and gave the results of his research on two clubs for teenagers in two small towns of the Leningrad region. From his observations made in clubs, and through interviews with teenagers and club mentors, he arrived at an interesting conclusion: the specific features of each club depends on the socio-economic situation in their town. In a town with favourable life conditions, clubs don’t play a significant role in attracting children from dysfunctional families. In contrast, in towns with difficult economic situations and undeveloped infrastructures for extracurricular education, clubs are basically one of the most important extracurricular institutions. In addition, they can perform inclusive functions, organize leisure activities for children from various social groups, and include them into the city context.
The audience warmly received this presentation, and at the end of the section Vadim was presented with the opportunity to discuss it with other researchers who had extensive experience in the area of adolescent leisure. Jonas Steur from the Malardalen University in Sweden found many similarities between his findings in sports sections and the study presented by Vadim. This provides a deeper insight into the problem in the international context, and, hopefully, will eventually develop into international cooperation.