Panels
Panels for researchers, teaching staff and professionals
Carmen Buzea & Horia Moasa - Transilvania University of Brasov
This sub-theme offers an opportunity to delve into the complex interactions between organizational structures, human resource management (HRM) practices, and the challenges posed by transformative events. Through empirical research and theoretical insights, we seek to examine how organizations adapt, innovate, and evolve during crises, with a particular focus on the role of HRM strategies in fostering resilience, managing change, and navigating transformative eras. By encouraging contributions that illuminate both organizational and HRM dimensions, we aim to deepen our understanding of workforce dynamics amidst crisis and offer valuable insights into effective responses to transformative challenges. Join us in this exploration to contribute to the advancement of knowledge in this critical area.
Gabriela Motoi - University of Craiova
This section aims to explore how innovative and reformed social policies can contribute to community resilience in the face of unprecedented global challenges such as climate change, pandemics, economic inequalities, and political tensions. This section will address the need for a fundamental revision of social policies, emphasizing the interconnection between social stability, justice, and sustainability. It will investigate how well-designed social policies can mitigate the effects of crises and promote equitable distribution of resources and opportunities, while also facilitating adaptability and innovation in crisis responses. Discussion topics may include: innovation in welfare policies; education and social policies; policies for reducing inequalities; public health and resilience.
Alina Coman - Transilvania University of Brasov
Digital space, recently configured in the last two decades by a various kind of actors have introduced a significant dynamic in our way of understanding the reality, personal disclosure and everyday social practices online as well in offline. The interest on its anatomy and architecture is increasingly on academic research platforms all over the world. This fact continues to challenge us to elaborate more subtle analyses of the ways in which personal and social life are shaped by digital space. This conference section is addressed to academics, researchers and professionals with a particular interest related to this topic. We invite proposals from various areas including psychology, sociology, communication, advertising, marketing, culture studies, social activism.
Diana-Cristina Bodi & Mihaela Gotea - Transilvania University of Brasov
Aging well is a multidimensional concept that encompasses various aspects of health, well-being and social participation. Effective analysis and intervention in aging well requires a holistic approach, taking into account the various factors that contribute to healthy aging: physical health, mental health, family life, social involvement, economic and environmental factors, social policies, technological integration. We consider that an integrative approach involves including all of these dimensions through collaboration between health care providers, social services, policy makers, community organizations, and the private sector to create a supportive environment for elderly people. By adopting a multidimensional and integrative approach, society can support elderly people to lead healthy, fulfilling and independent lives. The section is addressed to university teaching staff, researchers, specialists from social services, health care providers, policy makers, the private sector who work with the elderly, but also to doctoral and master's students who are interested in the field, who can contribute with researches, case studies, innovative interventions and models of good practice in this field of interest from today's society.
Angela Maria Romito - Università dagli Studi di Bari, Dipartimento di Scienze Politiche (Italy), Ana-Maria Bolborici - Transilvania University of Brasov
Political Science, International Relations, and International & European Law are fields of study that examine political systems, global interactions, and global governance. Through their contributions, the researchers explore the importance of these directions and their main subfields, providing valuable understanding of global dynamics, such as political institutions, power relations, diplomacy, international cooperation, conflict resolution, and sustainable development. From the perspective of these areas, this panel proposes to the contributors to emphasize the importance of these disciplines in shaping a more just, peaceful, and sustainable world.
Gabriela Dima & Marinela-Cristina Șimon - Transilvania University of Brasov
Transformations generated by the pandemic have changed the context and the process of intervention in the field of social work. Both practitioners and clients were faced with unprecedented challenges. The panel aims to attract empirical papers and reflective accounts about social policy, social work management and decision-making, social work practices and social work education during and after the pandemic focused on learnings that shape the present and future of the social work profession.
Bianca-Elena Mihăilă-Pințoiu, Iulian Oană & Marian-Gabriel Hâncean - University of Bucharest
We invite researchers from diverse countries, backgrounds, and disciplines who are interested in theoretical, empirical, and methodological work revolving around the quantitative or qualitative study of social networks. We welcome presentations based on studies at various stages of progress, including early stage, ongoing, or completed. This panel focuses on both the origins (antecedents) and the impacts (consequences) of social networks. Specifically, we are interested in the factors or generative conditions that lead to the formation of network structures (e.g., cultural factors, economic conditions, individual characteristics, historical context, etc.). Simultaneously, we are also interested in the effects or outcomes that result from the existence and dynamics of network structures (e.g., behavior change, information diffusion, contagion, economic impact, political mobilization, health outcomes). In the context of this panel, we give particular attention to oral presentations that highlight statistical models disentangling social selection, social influence, and social context. Studying both the antecedents and consequences of social networks helps us understand not only why and how social networks form but also their potential effects on society and individuals.
Laura Nistor - Sapientia Hungarian University of Transilvania and Andreea Mardache, Transilvania University of Brasov
Our societies are currently grappling with a wide range of crises. Pandemics, economic recession, wars, climate change and various forms of pollution are only the most salient examples of the challenges that shape the global institutional and everyday agenda. The current session will focus on climate change and the environment in this broad context by analyzing how sociological research captures these challenges. We aim to explore the specific attitudes and actions that shape responses to environmental issues at both institutional and individual, macro and micro levels. We invite submissions that seek to answer the following questions, among others: What are the theoretical frameworks for research on the relationship between environment and society? What are the current approaches and research methods in the study of environmental concerns? What types of social practices are associated with sustainability efforts at global and local levels?
Arabela Briciu - Transilvania University of Brasov
The digital landscape is transforming communication at an unprecedented pace. From social media's rise to the power of AI, we're constantly connected, yet face challenges like privacy concerns and the spread of misinformation. This panel delves into these emerging trends, exploring their impact on how we connect at personal, group, and global levels. Join us for a thought-provoking discussion on the ethical implications of the digital age. We'll examine issues like data privacy, manipulation through technology, and the widening digital divide. Together, we'll explore solutions to build a safer, more responsible communication environment. The workshop will focus on promoting transparency in data practices, user responsibility online, and fostering social inclusion to ensure a more equitable and beneficial digital future for all.
Arabela Briciu - Transilvania University of Brasov
Europe has a diverse cultural landscape and a mix of traditions and histories. This workshop explores the essential role of cultural heritage in cultivating a sense of common identity and strengthening European cohesion. The panel aims to explore narratives that transcend borders and languages, discovering the links that unite Europe's past, present and future and how cultural heritage can bridge divides and promote tolerance and understanding by empowering and enabling local communities to shape a shared future. This workshop is aimed at those interested in the intersection between cultural heritage, European identity, and promoting a more cohesive future across Europe.
Ileana Rotaru - West University of Timisoara, Anca Velicu - Institute of Sociology, Romanian Academy, Gyöngyvér Erika Tokes - Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania
In recent years, numerous voices in the public sphere have asserted that generative AI technology will permanently transform social life (from the individual’s uses and practices to the macro society’s actors - state or non-state behaviors and values). Conversely, other voices have been dismissive of this notion for various reasons (MIT Open Learning, 2023; World Economic Forum, 2023). In the worldwide context of a 2024 election year, the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into various facets of (digital) life, from education to medicine, from shopping to touristic practices – is profoundly transforming our way to engage in society, or, as some scholars argue, our digital citizenship. Digital citizenship, encompassing the norms, behaviors, and responsibilities of individuals in the digital realm, is being reshaped by AI in multiple dimensions, including privacy, security, ethical use, and participation (Choi, 2016). However, the advent of AI also presents significant challenges to digital citizenship. Issues related to data privacy are paramount, as AI systems often rely on large volumes of personal data, raising concerns about consent, data breaches, and surveillance. We therefore welcome any paper that critically engages with AI regulations, considerations on how algorithms are trained and what are the social implications of diverse policies and technical approaches. The ethical implications of AI decision-making –for instance, in medicine or the justice system –are another critical area, particularly the transparency and accountability of AI systems. The potential for AI to perpetuate biases and inequalities requires careful consideration and proactive measures to ensure fairness and inclusivity. AI's role in shaping digital citizenship also extends to its influence on digital literacy. As AI becomes more prevalent, there is an increasing need for individuals to understand and critically engage with AI technologies. This necessitates a shift in education to include algorithmic and AI literacy as a core component, empowering citizens to navigate and participate effectively in an AI-driven digital landscape. Papers that discuss how digital educators should answer to these challenges and who bears the responsibility in reshaping digital literacy to fit this new era are welcome under this stream of research. More generally, our panel invites contributors to tackle the AI's impact on digital citizenship, to discuss AI’s benefits and/or uses in terms of security and ethical digital engagement and to pose challenges related to privacy, fairness, and literacy. Addressing some of these challenges and furthermore, requires a balanced approach that emphasizes both the potential of AI to enhance digital citizenship and the importance of safeguarding the rights and responsibilities of individuals in the digital age.
Silviu G. Totelecan & Adrian T. Sîrbu - Romanian Academy – Cluj-Napoca Branch
Half of century of investments in the field of interconnectedness – both in the technological infrastructure of the internet and also into the devices that make use of it – have opened, for all of us, urbanites or rurals, located within the core of the global village as much as at its peripheries, the possibility of boundless communication. Notwithstanding the ever increasing part of our work, and leisure, already entangled with their digitization, by compulsively touching the screen of a smartphone or tablet, by incessantly gazing at whichever electronic display may be at hand (computer, tv, diverse billboards and various monitors) we both screen and absorb what is going on around us, with all our “sources of information” – relatives, peers, working colleagues, acquaintances, our real or virtual communities at large – “holding together” precisely as, atop of social divisions/differences, they are imparted in myriads of info-bubbles. Concomitantly, with every click and every second spent in screening the “outer” world (that is, already mediated by the screens) we give space and course to an uncanny, subtle, all pervasive transformative power upon our “inner” ones, as the latter are molded and (re)written by never-ending narratives, tropes and meanings designed elsewhere. Caught in an all-encompassing web of techno-sociability which, on the one hand, publicized our private realms and, on the other, furnished our subjectivity with a plethora of “how to” (do, make, think, believe, desire, imagine… individually, of course, but in ever more similar manners); providing us with ever increasing “content” instead of a direct grip on the bodies of our social knowledge (a “content” apparently offered by genuine others but, in fact, massively machine processed), we witness the ascension of a newly “synthesized” sociality while fully participating in this irresistible (techno-)social mutation: both as its happy agents, actors and, indeed, its co-creators among ourselves as well as its enfeebled patients (or even objects). It is also of the social scientist’s duty to unravel the “historic miracle”, in (full) progress, of this techno-social syn-thesis (i.e. its social backgrounds, contexts, means, catalysts, drives and motivations). That is, not just to inquire into the increasing co-adaption of its “developers” – the humans and the communicative machinery –, which is becoming the very naturalness of the sociality, but also to frontally approach the socio-cultural reasons favoring the extensive convertibility of the integral workings of information technology and (the meanings of) social research.
Marian-Cristian Bălăcescu - Associate Lecturer at Transylvania University of Brasov
This section includes studies and communications that are distinguished by methodological solutions given to research topics, regardless of their area of application, alternation or mix. Vectors of interest focus on the critical analysis of various research practices, on the proposals of experimental design variants and the formulation of working hypotheses, on, on the construction of own tools for investigating the social and on their validation. Reports of difficulties and limits of the socio-human research approach are welcome.
Mihai Burlacu - Transilvania University of Brasov and Kai Schafft, Pennsylvania State University
In this panel we approach the cultural construction of "The East" as the spatial practice of loading various geographical emplacements with distorted significances. Drawing upon Edward Said's "Orientalism" (1978) and James Carrier's "Occidentalism" (1995), we welcome sociological and anthropological papers in which the authors expound and expand different facets of "Orientalism" as modes of discourse. Orientalism is grounded on the ontological and epistemological distinction between the East and the West, in which the former is considered to be inferior and a threat to the latter. Conversely we encourage discussions regarding the opposite tendency, as it was described in the book edited by James Carrier.
Dan Chiribucă & Adriana Teodorescu Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca
The narrative turn (Randall & Kenyon, 2001/2016) and the emergence of narrative sociology (Plummer, 2001) proved that narrative methods, with their unique ability to capture the complexity and nuances of human experiences, offer valuable perspectives often missed by strict quantitative inquiries of the world. However we live now in a world where big data and artificial intelligence redefine and challenge not only how the data are collected, analysed and interpreted, but also the epistemological foundations of the social sciences, how knowledge is generated and validated, its ethical and normative frames, the public awareness related to what the scientific expertise and authority mean. It is a world where Big data and AI cover better than at any time before our need to know what is happening. Quite often though the new knowledge which is provided by the intersection between Big Data and AI is characterized by a structural tension defined by a trade off between the plentiness of hard, factual data and the erosion and scarcity of the relevant meanings. In this context, narrative perspectives and methods in social sciences – still not so well established within the general category of qualitative methods – could highlight a third way, a way in which the mapping of patterns and correlations are completed by a comprehensive understanding of the social reality. This panel invites scholars in social sciences to explore, demonstrate, debate and argue the roles of the narrative paradigm in comprehending, interpreting and explaining contemporary social phenomena, considering how Big Data and AI intersects all domains of life and science. Suggested topics include, but are not limited to: 1. Narrative epistemology: How narrative approaches and perspectives contribute in creating knowledge in the context of AI and Big Data 2. Narrative theory and methodology: Case studies or theoretical reflections on the use of narratives in social sciences; exploring key-concepts such as life story. 3. Narratives and identity: The interplay between narratives, Big data, AI and identities; How narratives and identities shape and are shaped by the data we produce and AI systems that analyze this data. 4. Narratives and social practices: Analysis of narratives in diverse social contexts, from local communities to global phenomena, in online or offline settings; narratives of parenting, narratives of motherhood, narratives of growing older, narratives of death, dying and afterlife; narratives of migration, etc. 5. Narratives and vulnerability: Narratives of care, narratives of illness, narratives of disability, narratives of dementia as de-storying or re-storying contemporary narratives of power, control, and individualism. 6. The intersection of narrative and technology: The impact of digital technologies, big data and artificial intelligence on the creation, dissemination and consumption of narratives.
Gabriela Rățulea & Florin Nechita - Transilvania University of Brasov
Given the somehow diffuse notions of European identity and European citizenship, this panel aims to explore their evolving concepts. Scholars are invited to examine how the EU's foundational values - human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, and human rights - shape contemporary European identities. Presentations may address topics such as the integration of diverse cultural and social policies, the role of common heritage and shared history, and the impact of social and cultural dynamics on creating a common European identity. Engage in discussions on pluralism, non-discrimination, and solidarity, and understand the necessary adaptations for a united yet diverse Europe.
