“Facing Inequality from the Perspective of Islamic Organizations”, XVIII ISA Congress 2014, Yokohma

Dear all,

We would like to invite you to submit an abstract for our Roundtable 1B (RC22) at the XVIII International Sociological Association Congress
(13-19 July 2014, Yokohama). The Roundtable is entitled: “Facing Inequality from the Perspective of Islamic Organizations”.

The deadline for submission is September 30, 2013.
Please register your abstract online at the following address: https://isaconf.confex.com/isaconf/wc2014/cfp.cgi

The purpose of this session is to comparatively discuss how organized Muslims perceive the changing public discourse on Islam, how they respond in their organizational developments, and which challenges they have been confronted with during the turbulent last decade. Muslims living in countries where Islam is not the majority religion have received increasing public and media attention after the 2001 terrorist attacks in the USA and subsequent attacks worldwide. Although Muslim communities (their organization, their integration or discrimination against them) were already subject to scholarly studies in previous decades, this research area has gained prominence since the turn of the 21st century.

In contrast to existing studies, which often stress differing institutional systems in a top-down perspective (focusing on integration policies and state-church relations), this session underscores the benefits of a bottom-up perspective focusing on Islamic organizations.
Scholars from various schools of sociology applying different theoretical, empirical, and comparative approaches are invited to discuss their research on Islamic organizations in different parts of the world. With regard to the conference topic of facing inequality we seek studies that address Islamic organizations as advocates of societal change and equal recognition as well as studies that analyze Islamic organizations’ adaptation to changing environments and societal inequalities.

We especially welcome paper proposals from sociologists from different countries who analyze Islamic organizations from a bottom-up-perspective. Comparative papers are also especially welcomed.

We are looking forward to meeting you in Yokohama.

Best regards,
Matthias Kortmann
Kerstin Rosenow-Williams


Dr. Matthias Kortmann
University of Munich
Department of Political Science
Oettingenstr. 67
80538 München
Tel. +49 (0) 89 2180 9047
Matthias.Kortmann@gsi.lmu.de