About SASE
Founded in 1989, the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE) is an international, inter-disciplinary organization with members in over 50 countries on five continents. The academic disciplines represented in SASE include economics, sociology, political science, management, psychology, law, history, and philosophy. The membership of SASE also includes business people and policy makers in government and international organizations.
About the SASE Research Networks
This section provides a description of each of SASE's research networks and links to bios and contact information for SASE's network organizers. You can also contact the network organizers through this page.
Submissions to the SASE conference must be made through one of the research networks below (or through a mini-conference). Paper and session abstracts as well as full papers for grant, prize, and stipend applications must be submitted to all networks by January 15, 2012. Candidates will be notified by April 2, 2012. Please note that some networks may also require that a full paper be submitted by June 1, 2012 for the purposes of assigning a discussant or awarding a prize. For further information, please contact the organizer of the network to which you are submitting.
Click on any of the following for a full description and contact information of each Research Network.
- A: Communitarian Ideals and Civil Society
- B: Globalization and Socio-Economic Development
- C: Gender, Work and Family
- D: Professions and Professionals in a Globalizing World
- E: Industrial Relations and the Political Economy
- F: Knowledge, Technology, and Innovation
- G: Labor Markets, Education, and Human Resources
- H: Markets, Firms and Institutions
- I: Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration
- J: Rethinking the Welfare State
- K: Law and the Social Sciences
- L: Regulation and Governance
- M: Spanish Language
- N: Finance and Society
- O: Global Value Chains
- P: Accounting, Economics, and Law
- Q: Asian Capitalisms
A: Communitarian Ideals and Civil Society
This network focuses on the moral underpinnings of human thought, practices, and institutions. It examines the communal roles of both individual autonomy and social order in the building of a viable civil society. The network's core is social and scientific. Yet, while it relies on social-science theory and research, philosophers and ethicists are considered essential partners in examining communities and societies as cultural and social phenomena. Communities and societies are looked upon as much more than the aggregated products of free-standing individuals motivated merely be calculative self-interest.
Click here to meet Network A Co-Organizers Miguel Llofriu and Jose Antonio Ruiz San Roman
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B: Globalization and Socio-Economic Development
The current political and organizational structures of the world economy, combined with the reorganization of production, have been viewed as both a boon and a bane for national prospects for socio-economic development. The aim of this network is twofold: (1) To test the ambiguous effects of globalization on local socio-economic development and (2) To compare dominant and alternative models of country development and to assess the strengths and weaknesses of development policies for developed, developing, and transition countries.
This network considers how transnational and international institutions, often characterized by their fluidity and informality, and acts of cross-border institutional bricolage by state and societal actors influence the contours of developmental opportunities in the global economy. The network welcomes papers on the domestic social and political arrangements that provide better opportunities for socio-economic development; it also solicits research that addresses how the effects of current forms of neoliberal globalization are affecting developing and developed countries alike, and how those effects vary across social classes and domestic political arrangements. The network is also interested in work that considers whether these new forms of transnational organizations, globalized production, and institutional bricolage are creating new forms of dynamic capitalism that mark a significant departure from extant forms of advanced capitalism. The network particularly welcomes papers that engage with these issues from a multi-disciplinary and cross-regional perspective, including political, sociological, geographic, economic and other perspectives, and especially encourages empirically grounded work drawn from any part of the developing world.
Click here to meet Network B Co-Organizers Caroline Arnold, Douglas Fuller, and Aaron Major
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C: Gender, Work and Family
This network focuses on exploring the current state, and the changes in institutions concerned with gender and family roles and workplace organization. A particular interest of the network is theory and research on social policies that produce greater compatibility between institutions geared toward production for the market and reproduction in the family. The network also focuses on cultural and social barriers that prevent positive integration of family and work, examines gender inequalities in work and family, and looks at the inter-relationship of gender roles across these institutions. Empirical as well as theoretical contributions are welcome.
Some possible themes for presentations and sessions (you can organize a session with 3-4 papers) include the following: care issues, work-life articulation, parental leave policies, working time and gender, elder care, the role of the State and firms in work-life issues, social policies and care regimes, international comparisons, etc.
Click here to meet Network C Co-Organizers Diane-Gabrielle Tremblay and Bernard Fusulier, and assisted by Pascal Barbier.
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D: Professions and Professionals in a Globalizing World
Professions and professionals have long had a central role in economy and society, and in the current era they remain as central as ever. In particular, professions and professionals play a central role in addressing some of the key socio-economic concerns of our time, from climate change to corporate governance, ageing populations to trade regulation. There are, however, some distinctive features of the contemporary role of professions and professionals compared to earlier eras. The meaning of the term profession and professional has evolved. Alongside the ‘traditional’ professions such as accountancy, architecture, law and medicine, a series of ‘new’ professions and professionals have emerged, such as management consultancy and project management, that rely on discourses of expertise, ethics and client service to carve out a role in markets and legitimise claims to a role in issues ‘old’ professions also claim jurisdiction over. Professionals frequently work in large, often multinational organizations that they shape with discourses and identities while being at the same time inserted in new forms of division of labour with other occupational groups. Professions and professionals increasingly operate in and form transnational regimes, and practice in and exert influence through large and global professional service firms but also non-professional organizations as diverse as charities, lobby groups and non-governmental organizations. They also form compacts with corporations, states, and inter-governmental organizations to advance one-another’s interests. Hence, change, re-scaling, redefinition, and re-organization are core themes at the heart of work on professions and professionals.
Through the Professions and professionals in a globalizing world network we seek to develop critical analysis of contemporary developments. In particularly, we are interested in the way changes place professions and professionals at the centre of topics that are at the heart of the SASE agenda, such as transnational governance, varieties of capitalism in a global world, and global economic development. Thus papers might address, but are certainly not limited to, topics such as professions and professionals:
• In global organisations, from the professional service firm to inter-governmental organizations
• In transnational governance, lobbying and standards
• In developing and emerging markets (particularly from post/neo-colonial perspectives)
• In global issue control, such as in relation to climate change and trade
The network invites contributions from a variety of intellectual traditions and disciplines, including sociology, political science, social geography, anthropology and management studies.
Click here to meet Network D Organizer Didier Demazière, James Faulconbridge, Sigrid Quack, and Leonard Seabrooke
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E: Industrial Relations and the Political Economy
The general goal of this network is to advance a conceptually and empirically rigorous qualitative and quantitative study of comparative and international political economy. The specific aim is to better integrate research on changing labor markets and industrial relations with the study of contemporary capitalisms. Of particular interests to this network is the analysis of the dynamics of change in industrial relations, and its theoretical and conceptual contributions to the debate on institutional change in contemporary political economies. The network encourages interdisciplinary dialogue among sociologists, economists, and political scientists whose research draws on a variety of theoretical perspectives. Among more specific topics of interest are: state and societal actors' responses to increasing competition and integration of national economies; the role of strategic, purposeful action in changing industrial relations institutions; conditions, mechanics, and results of social concertation; emerging new institutions for labor regulation in global supply chains; international migration; and interest representation and collective action in the informal economy.
Click here to meet Network E Co-Organizers Sabina Avdagic and Lucio Baccaro
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F: Knowledge, Technology, and Innovation
The network promotes theory and research on the socio-economic role, antecedents and consequences of knowledge, technology and innovation. The network promotes studies that examine the inter-relationships between socio-economic institutions and the creation, diffusion, and consequences of innovation. The most important socio-economic institutions for innovation may be found at the micro-, meso- or macro-levels or, indeed, cut across those levels. The network contributes to an interdisciplinary and critical perspective on firms’ development of innovative capabilities and their consequences for socio-economic development.
Topics of particular interest are: national, regional, local and industrial systems of innovation; science, innovation, and technology policies; the distributive consequences of technological change for societies; the influence of socio-economic institutions on firms’ development of innovative capabilities; knowledge-based economies; firms as knowledge systems; varieties of knowledge and knowing in organizations; knowledge work and workers; the socio-economic constitution of knowledge transfer and organizational learning; technological path dependence, break, and creation; the social and organizational conditions for entrepreneurship and innovation; the diffusion of innovation and markets for innovation; intellectual property rights regimes; and product piracy.
Click here to meet Network F Organizers Matthew Allen and Matthew Keller
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G: Labor Markets, Education, and Human Resources
Social institutions and social structures exert a huge influence on the workings of labor markets, the links between jobs and vocational education and training, and the way firms manage their human resources. The network welcomes contributions on the general issues of labor market segmentation, unemployment, and the link between training, skills and jobs, as well as on the implications of the new human resource management practices of firms for the future of skills and employment, and on the new incentive and reward structures that support these. It also welcomes theoretical work on the interaction between 'competitive' and 'institutional' forces in labor markets.
Click here to meet Network G Organizer David Marsden
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H: Markets, Firms and Institutions
This network focuses on the interrelationships between markets, firms, and institutions. New approaches to the study of markets are needed to understand better how different markets (e.g. capital markets, product markets, etc.) and market processes (e.g. competition, cooperation, speculation, risk) are related to the changing strategies, structures and governance of business firms. Moreover, both markets and firms are themselves embedded within various institutional contexts at the sectoral, regional, national and international levels. Institutional diversity impact the capacities of firms and patterns of cooperation and competition in markets, while markets and business interests themselves are important factors in the politics of institutional change. We welcome a wide range of theoretical perspectives (e.g. political economy, economic sociology, management studies, neo-institutionalism, and comparative institutional analysis). Recent topics have included financial systems, corporate governance, inter-firm networks, strategy, national business systems, varieties of capitalism, internationalization and regional integration, business interest associations, and processes of institutional change.
Click here to meet Network H Co-Organizers Gerhard Schnyder and Christina Ahmadjian
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I: Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration
This network addresses processes, patterns, and changes related to socio-economic aspects of race, ethnicity, and immigration in all parts of the world, and from different historical eras. The network seeks to develop a forum for theory and research on the study of these processes, which include but are not limited to: cooperation and conflict, inequality, identity, ideology, measurement and classification systems, policy implications, labor market incorporation, segregation, and stratification. The network welcomes research from diverse disciplinary, theoretical, and methodological perspectives, which address issues of race, ethnicity, and immigration.
Click here to meet Network I Co-Organizers David Bartram, Maritsa Poros, and Victoria Hattam
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J: Rethinking the Welfare State
This network focuses on the contours, causes, and consequences of state policies aimed at insuring, supplementing, redistributing, or assuring growth in income by a diverse means including income or in-kind transfers, services, jobs policies, economic stabilization, and competitive policies. The network also examines reciprocal effects of policies and politics, including diverse political strategies and political and social movements from all parts of the political and institutional spectrum that bear on the fate of a broadly conceived definition of the welfare state.
Click here to meet Network J Organizer Alex Hicks
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K: Law and the Social Sciences
Network K is on a momentary hiatus.
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L: Regulation and Governance
This network will serve to promote the interdisciplinary study of the manifold forms, functions, and domains of regulation and governance at the national and global level at a time when these domains have never been more central or important. It has been formed to foster interaction among regulatory governance scholars and scholars of political economy, socio-economics, law, public policy, development, the welfare state, institutional analysis, risk management, and democracy. The substantive concerns of the network include the political, economic, social, and historical aspects of regulation and governance. Governance and regulation necessarily implicate politics and state power, but they also extend beyond the state to define and shape the authority and power relations that permeate modern societies. They intertwine in ways that can either allow or impede the development of complex, democratic, and efficiently functioning forms of social organization, including markets, firms, associations, political parties, public and private bureaucracies, and international organizations. By broadening our purview beyond the institutional confines of the state and legalistic policy mechanisms, this network seeks to expand our understanding of how regulation and governance impede or in processes of democratization, state building and institutionalization, liberalization/marketization, development, and legitimation of political economic orders.
Click here to meet Network L Organizers John W. Cioffi, David Levi-Faur, and Frans Van Waarden
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M: Spanish Language
Participation in this network was unprecedented in Madrid. A lively Spanish-speaking section was established in 2011.
Click here to meet Network M Co-Organizers Santos Ruesga and Julimar da Silva Bichara
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N: Finance and Society
The goal of this network is to promote cross-disciplinary dialogue on the study of finance and include perspectives from social sciences outside of economics. Specifically, we encourage research that highlights the social embeddedness of finance (for instance, the continuing importance of social networks and the role of ideas, theories and devices in shaping financial practices), or examines the links between finance and a number of other topics including public policy, legal and economic development, inequality, and corporate governance, inspired particularly by the recent financial crisis; investigates historic origins of modern financial instruments, analyzes regional or international differences in financial markets, or focuses on the social and cultural consequences of the redistribution of resources through financial markets, the financialization of everyday life and the expansion of credit. We welcome a wide range of methodological approaches, including but not limited to archival research, ethnography, interviews, formal network analysis and survey research.
Click here to meet Network N Organizers Bruce Carruthers, Alya Guseva, and Akos Rona-Tas
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O: Global Value Chains
The revolution in information and communication technologies (ICT) and trade liberalization have created new possibilities for breaking up and integrating global value chains (GVCs). While value chains in manufacturing have long since taken on global dimensions, knowledge-intensive business services are also increasingly managed in a value chain involving dispersed locations and ownership. This network aims to bring together social scientists interested in analyzing the causes and consequences of this offshoring-outsourcing phenomenon. In particular, it welcomes work that applies the GVC framework to knowledge-intensive business services, analyzes questions of economic and/or social upgrading, or explores the role that institutions play in shaping GVCs. It also welcomes conceptual work on either the theory or metrics of GVC analysis.
Click here to meet Network O Organizers Gary Gereffi, Mari Sako, Eric Thun, and Tim Sturgeon.
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P: Accounting, Economics, and Law
This network focuses on the intersection of accounting, economics and law. Institutional design, rules and social norms are critical to the working of organizations in economy and society. Financial, economic, social, and legal processes and languages play an influential and largely neglected role in this working, and raise broad societal and global concerns. They lie at the heart of control, governance and regulation. The network will explore their influence in the context of social, cultural, and political economy and history. It will foster disciplinary cross-fertilization, novel investigations and institutional analyses of their role in the dynamic relationship between individuals, organizations and institutions. Among others, issues of control, valuation, finance (and financialisation), accountability, responsibility, governance, and regulation will be central to the concerns and development of the network. Methodological tolerance and pluralism are also essential to the overarching purpose of enhancing our understanding of the phenomena of interest.
Click here to meet Network P Organizers Reuven Avi-Yonah, Yuri Biondi, and Shyam Sunder
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Q: Asian Capitalisms
In the context of the extensive debates in social, economic, and political sciences about the diversity of capitalisms, and in contrast to the US or Europe, Asian capitalisms have largely been under-researched. Comparative capitalism (CC) theories and concepts have yet to be applied to Asia and tested within its specific institutional configurations. Capitalism in Asia is particularly challenging when faced with the key questions of CC approaches, such as the nature of capitalism, the internal diversity of capitalism, and institutional change. Many important questions posed by CC approaches remain unanswered; these questions include: the apparent lack of coherence and immense heterogeneity of capitalist production and regulation and the related institution building in the case of China; the different rates of institutional change in Japan and Korea despite seemingly similar institutional arrangements; the specific institutional structures of city states as Hong Kong and Singapore; the rapid integration of different models and levels of economic development within the “China Circle”, particularly between China and Taiwan; idiosyncratic industrial specialization in India based on textile, IT or services such as call centers, requiring a renewed analysis of institutional comparative advantage; and the interaction of various modes of capitalist growth at very different levels of development within the regional context.
Concrete topics of panels within the network will be state and capitalism, industrialization/deindustrialization, emergence of inequalities, innovation and specialization, welfare states, the dynamics of a new labor division at the global level, etc. While these subjects are, at least to some degree, also reflected in the existing networks we think that it would be helpful to establish a network specialized on Asia given the lack of research on Asia as well as the challenges of CC theories to be tested on the Asian ground. We would like to structure the discussion into the following subsections:
(a) De- or Re-industrialisation?
(b) Innovation and Knowledge Creation
(c) Beyond Market or State?
(d) The Future of Asian Capitalism
Interesting papers that do not fit to these four categories may be included in an additional subsection.
The basic idea of this first area network within SASE is thus to make Asia a central field of investigation for theories of institutional change and diversity of capitalism; in so doing, we expect to promote a fruitful dialogue between Asia specialists and comparative capitalism specialists, including those working on other regions. Papers focusing on Asian capitalisms and papers adopting a comparative perspective with other capitalisms are welcome. We are interested in papers dealing with fields that traditionally play a role in SASE, such as “industrial organization”, “production networks”, “technology and innovation”, or “labor and labor markets”.
Click here to meet Network Q Organizers Tobias ten Brink, Sebastien Lechevalier, Boy Lüthje, and Cornelia Storz
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