[Commlist] Call for Papers - Reimagining Voices and Identities in Uncertain Times

*Biographic, Narrative and Lifecourse Research Group (BNLR) of the 
Sociological Association of Ireland (SAI)*

*First Biennial Conference Online – 12^th March 2022*

*Call for Papers*

**

*Reimagining Voices and Identities in Uncertain Times: Social 
Transformation, Fragmentation and Post-Pandemic Futures*

*Overview*

The Biographic, Narrative and Lifecourse Research Group (BNLR) of the 
Sociological Association of Ireland (SAI) was established in 2019 as a 
forum for critical discussion and debate among Irish, European and 
international social scientists on the multidimensionality of narrative, 
biographic and lifecourse inquiry, to address methodological questions 
and challenges and advance scholarship in these interlinking fields. Our 
first biennial conference engages critically with national and 
international biographic, narrative and lifecourse scholarship on voices 
in uncertain times; how voice is conceptualised, why and how some voices 
are accorded greater or lesser social legitimacy depending on context 
and how the voices of some social groups that have traditionally been 
marginalised from social debates, might be given more primacy in 
contemporary social and political debates. We are also interested in the 
interplay between voice and visibility, i.e. how voices may become 
noticeable and seize public spaces.

The Covid-19 pandemic has wrought unprecedented changes in global 
societies, irrevocably transforming governance and social relationships, 
everyday interactions, touch practices, and emotional displays. At the 
same time, international debates rage about climate justice, inequitable 
impacts of environmental degradation in majority and minority world 
contexts, while major transformations take place globally and locally in 
how society is organised and governed. The social and cultural effects 
of these events on people’s lived experiences are long-lasting affecting 
how we talk, touch, move, and interact in private and public spaces. In 
contemporary society, voices are continually repositioned and their 
legitimacy is reimagined due to profound cultural transformation with 
regards to rights, freedoms, membership of online communities, political 
protests and the impact of non-human actors (e.g. viruses, animals) on 
human worlds (and vice versa).

For this first biennial conference, we invite abstracts for papers and 
proposed conference roundtables and panels from narrative, lifecourse 
and biographical researchers which engage with one or more of the 
following themes/topics relating to voice and social transformation:

§The meaning of voice in contemporary societies; positionalities, 
legitimation and de-legitimation of particular voices;

§Methodological innovations, challenges and novel solutions to 
capturing, analysing and interpreting voices and lived experiences in 
times of unprecedented social and cultural transformation;

§Research with groups often considered to be ‘marginalised’ and/or ‘hard 
to reach’;

§Effects of recent social transformations on lived lives and everyday 
social experiences, including concealed and unspoken aspects of daily 
living;

Interdisciplinary or Transdisciplinary research which incorporates 
distinctively biographic, narrative or lifecourse research focus;

§Research on socially fragmented professional and working lives (e.g. 
working arrangements, emotions, social isolation, innovative 
technological responses; ‘blurred’ boundaries of professional and 
personal living arrangements, impacts on particular professional groups;

§Voices of young people in contemporary education systems and novel 
challenges of learning and teaching online;

§Societal perceptions of Covid-19, risk, trust and governance;

§Research on built space, urban/rural environments and our relationships 
with non-humans;

§Reflexivity and research impacts upon individual researchers and/or 
research teams.

*Submission of Abstracts*

Abstracts for papers should be 200-250 words approximately and must also 
contain an indicative title, list of authors’ names, institutional 
affiliation and 2-3 keywords.

Proposals for individual panels, roundtables or workshops should be 
approximately 700 words in length and must contain a title, list of 
convenors, outline of the key focus, and description of workshop/panel 
activities (if appropriate).

*Please submit all abstracts and panel/workshop proposals to 
**(bnlrgroup /at/ gmail.com)* <mailto:(bnlrgroup /at/ gmail.com)>*. Deadline for 
submissions: 10^th December 2021*

Authors will be notified of the outcome of their submission by email 
on/by 8th February 2021.**

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