Global events such as the Syrian refugee crisis, the growing challenges to austerity and for a living wage, the protean nature of social media as a news source, and many other situations present us with scenes of chaos, order, and the transitions in between. Such phenomena can result in varying degrees of devastation and destruction, but may also be catalysts for revisiting, reorganizing and rebuilding currently existing institutions on local, national and global scales.
The aim of this conference is to reflect upon sociological questions of social order, chaos, cohesion and conflict, broadly understood. To place these concepts within a wider field of sociological discussion, we present works that consider the diverse ways in which order and chaos manifest.
The conference hosts five panels with a total of 14 presenters from all over the country and abroad. We are proud to announce Associate Professor Katherine Chen (CUNY-GC), and Professor Diane Vaughan (Columbia University) as opening and keynote speakers of the conference.
Diane Vaughan, the keynote speaker, also the presenter in the video above, is a sociology professor at Columbia University. Her areas of interest include the sociology of organizations, sociology of culture, deviance and social control, field methods, research design, and science, knowledge and technology. Since 1980, Professor Vaughan has been working on analogical theorizing: developing theory from qualitative data based on cross-case analysis. Her interest in how things go wrong in organizations has thus far resulted in Controlling Unlawful Organizational Behavior, Uncoupling, and The Challenger Launch Decision. She also has a book in progress, Theorizing: Analogy, Cases, and Comparative Social Organization. Professor Vaughan received her Ph.D. in sociology from Ohio State University.
The NSSR Sociology Graduate Conference is an annual event organized by the sociology graduate student body at the New School for Social Research. Graduate students as well as post-doctoral students and faculty are invited to present their work. The conference is free and open to the general public.
