Hyunjoon Park and Herbert L. Smith, with support from the Population Studies Center, Penn Sociology, and other organizations at Penn, are organizing the International Sociological Association Research Committee 28 (RC28) meeting on Social Stratification and Mobility. The conference will take place August 17-19 2015 at Penn, with the theme "Demographic Perspectives on Inequality." The official website for the conference can be found here: https://sites.sas.upenn.edu/rc28summer2015.
We had a chance to talk to Professor Park to find out more about the upcoming conference.
Professor Hyunjoon Park
The RC28 meetings have been held all over the world. How does it feel to bring this esteemed meeting to Philadelphia?
Hyunjoon Park: The Research Committee 28 on Social Stratification and Mobility (RC28) of the International Sociological Association is a community of international scholars who are interested in various issues in the field of social Stratification and inequality. Every year the RC28 organizes two international conferences on different continents where scholars share their latest projects and discuss urgent theoretical and empirical issues of social inequality. We are so excited to host the 2015 RC28 Summer Conference here at the University of Pennsylvania with support from the Population Studies Center, Department of Sociology, and other Penn organizations. Along with growing concerns for economic inequality in the United States and other societies, our international conference will provide a timely and important opportunity to discuss social inequality and mobility in global and comparative perspectives.
Why was the theme "Demographic Perspectives on Inequality" selected?
HP: We hope that our conference can bring together scholars of population studies and social stratification to advance our understanding of complexities of inequality. We believe that incorporating demographic perspectives to stratification research can be very productive to address causes and consequences of inequality. At the same time, demographers can greatly benefit from stratification research in their focus on socioeconomic differentials in demographic behaviors and their consequences. Note that our Population Studies Center at Penn, which supports the RC28 Conference in Philadelphia, is a renowned center for demographic research with the tradition of more than 50 years. Therefore, Penn is a great place where we can discuss demographic perspectives on inequality.
What do you hope to accomplish with this 3-day event?
HP: We expect about 200 scholars to come to Penn from various parts of the world. The conference will be structured with multiple parallel regular sessions (and possibly a poster session) during the three days of conference. These regular sessions will be composed of papers selected for presentation among those submitted. The conference will begin with a plenary session where all participants gather together to discuss the thematic topic of demographic perspectives on inequality. The plenary session will feature a few presentations that showcase how linking demographic processes to inequality can be productive. Then we will conclude the conference with another plenary session where presenters will discuss complexities of inequality by juxtaposing inequalities of different social and economic outcomes in interdisciplinary and comparative perspectives.
In addition to lively and serious academic engagement, our conference will offer various opportunities for participants to get to know each other. Specifically, in the second day of the conference, we will have a banquet dinner for all participants to attend. Before dinner, we plan to feature Penn’s beautiful campus on a group walking tour. This way, conference participants from various countries will get to know about the rich history of the University of Pennsylvania, its urban environments and enjoy the hospitality and academic atmosphere of the university.
How will this Summer's meeting differ from previous meetings?
HP: Our conference will continue the great tradition of RC28 meetings, which have served as a convention for exchanges of innovative research agendas and opportunities for collaborations among scholars of social stratification. Our conference at Penn will be the first meeting in the United States since the summer meeting in 2012. Moreover, with its rich American history accompanied by great art museums and interesting restaurants, the city of Philadelphia is an attractive place to visit. Therefore, we look forward to having many participants both domestically and internationally.
Importantly, inequality is a pressing issue globally. We hope that our conference can be relevant not only for academic community but also for public policy by stimulating conservations on international experiences of effective policies and interventions to address growing inequality across many countries. Finally, we will use social media such as Facebook and Twitter to effectively provide the latest news on the conference. We also hope that our social media platforms can enable people to continue discussion about inequality beyond the conference site.