CFP: Globality, locality and contact

Mon Apr 14 13:23:42 UTC 2008

Dear All,

forwarded, CFP to an interdisciplinary symposium in Helsinki, with themes
potentially interesting for many of us. For more information please contact
the organizers.

Best
JL
-- 
Univ.-Prof. Dr. Johanna Laakso
Institut für Europäische und Vergleichende Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft
Abteilung für Finno-Ugristik
Universitätscampus AAKH, Spitalgasse 2-4 Hof 7, A-1090 Wien
Tel. +43 1 4277 43019, (VoIP) +43 599664 43019 | Fax +43 1 4277 9430
johanna.laakso at univie.ac.at | http://homepage.univie.ac.at/Johanna.Laakso/

------ Weitergeleitete Nachricht
Von: <meurmans at mappi.helsinki.fi>
Datum: Mon, 14 Apr 2008 16:14:41 +0300
An: <johanna.laakso at univie.ac.at>
Betreff: Re: CALL FOR PAPERS

CALL FOR PAPERS

GLOBALITY, LOCALITY AND CONTACT
          LANGUAGE AND CULTURE
An interdisciplinary symposium to be held at the
HELSINKI COLLEGIUM FOR ADVANCED STUDIES
17-18 November 2008

The planned symposium will bring together linguists, anthropologists and
scholars from other fields in the Humanities and Social Sciences looking at
their subject matter from the global and/or the local perspective, and
interested in how motivations stemming from the global and the local
compete and converge in shaping human behaviour and culture in general and
language in particular. A central factor in this interplay is contact 
between distant/unrelated cultures and languages on the one hand and
adjacent/related local habits and languages/dialects on the other. However,
we would also like to invite contributions on other motivations, for
example on how general cognitive and pragmatic factors are reflected in
flows towards globalized varieties.

It is our common conception that languages differ the more the more distant
they are from each other in terms of geography and genealogy (historical
relatedness). Linguists have, however, become increasingly aware of the
fact that different dialects of one and the same language may show
important structural and lexical differences. Clearly then, there are other
important factors than just areal and genealogical distance that can be
responsible for differences between languages. The aim of the symposium is
to identify and describe situations that are interesting in terms of global
similarities and local differences, and to discuss historical developments
and motivations behind these situations. The symposium will also address
similar questions in other spheres of human culture and interaction, one of
the aims being a better understanding of whether and how language differs
from these other spheres in terms of the local and global forces driving
similarity and difference.

While two of the keynote speakers, Professors Peter Mühlhäusler (University
of Adelaide) and Tom Güldemann (University of Zurich and the Max Planck
Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig) approach the above-
mentioned questions from the point of view of language, the expertise of
the third, Professor Deborah Kapchan (New York University), permits us to
widen the scope of the conference to include themes such as the interaction
of local and global forms of music making, examining the intersecting
structures of both music production and music performance. The former deals
with the question of what kinds of accommodation happen when different
systems of organizing and rewarding music making come together (e.g. the
application of global concepts such as copyright and ownership in Africa),
while the latter looks at the kinds of semantic and conceptual modification
that take place in a particular performance genre when it travels from
local to global contexts (e.g. Moroccan healing music winning large
international audiences). Other media of artistic expression are also
included in the thematic scope of the symposium.

In line with the keynote speakers¹ research emphases, we envisage a
programme of contributions taking shape around the following topic areas:
- Typological micro- and macrovariation, i.e. similarities and
differences between linguistic/cultural varieties viewed from the
perspective of different points on the scale from local to global
-  The role of common origin vs. contact in the areal distribution and
diffusion of linguistic and other cultural features
-  How globalization and contact give rise to new forms of language and
culture
-  How globalization and contact (or lack thereof) affects the simplicity
vs. complexity of linguistic and other social structures
-  Theory and methods of a comparative description of practices and
varieties
-  Identities, coalitions and communities as social and cultural constructs
-  Contacts and networks between varieties and variant practices
-  Mechanisms of diffusion within and beyond local practices
-  Mechanisms of borrowing and re-contextualisation
-  Interaction of local and non-local concepts of authorship and ownership
in music or art production and exchange
-  The role of music/art/performance genre in the codification or
objectification of cultural identity
-  (Re-)interpretation of function and meaning of local music/art or
performance genres in a global context and of global genres at the local
level
-  Emergent semantic forms and aesthetic formations in the global music or
art market 
-  Traveling and non-traveling meanings/concepts in music/ art/ performance
-  The role of intermediaries as translators/negotiators of meaning

Keynote speakers

Professor Tom Güldemann, University of Zurich / Max Planck Institute for
Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig
http://email.eva.mpg.de/~gueldema/index.html
Professor Deborah Kapchan, New York University
http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/music/Kapchan.html
Professor Peter Mühlhäusler, University of Adelaide
http://www.arts.adelaide.edu.au/humanities/people/linguistics/pmuhlhausler.h
tml

Abstract submission

The deadline for the submission of abstracts (in English; max 500 words) is
May 31, 2008. Please submit your abstract by e-mail to <Glob-
Loc_AT_helsinki.fi>. The abstract should be included in the body of the
message. Participants will be notified about acceptance by June 15, 2008.
The abstracts will be published on the web pages of the conference
<http://www.helsinki.fi/collegium/events/GlobLoc.htm>.

Organizers

Anneli Meurman-Solin (Research Unit for Variation, Contacts and Change in
English, University of Helsinki)
Matti Miestamo (Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies Department of
General Linguistics, University of Helsinki)
Tuulikki Pietilä (Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology,
University of Helsinki)

Collaborating institutes and research units

Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies
Department of General Linguistics, University of Helsinki
Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Helsinki
Research Unit for Variation, Contacts and Change in English, University of
Helsinki

Symposium website
<http://www.helsinki.fi/collegium/events/GlobLoc.htm>

------ Ende der weitergeleiteten Nachricht

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