Anti-Semitism and the Emergence of
Sociological Theory

2 – 3 November 2008

http://www.mucjs.org/antisemitism.htm

The Centre for Jewish Studies and the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in the Arts, The University of Manchester, co-host a conference on ‘Antisemitism and the Emergence of Sociological Theory’ on the last friday of October/ the first weekend of November of this year. Keynote speakers to date will include Prof. Detlev Claussen (Hannover University, Germany) and Robert Fine (Warwick University, UK).

Modern antisemitism and modern sociological theory not only emerged in the same period but, as much as these discourses might have been antagonistic or even hostile to each other, they also overlapped and complemented each other. Both responded to the same set of causes: the limits and crises of modern society, especially the capitalist mode of production, and the desire, or urgency, to limit what their proponents saw as the negative impacts of modernity. Furthermore, many of those who formulated the classic contributions to both discourses shared a general intellectual background in nationalist liberalism. The conference is designed to explore this constellation.

Call for Papers

Contributions are encouraged that do at least one of the following:

• discuss comments by sociologists (or those who helped, especially in the last third of the nineteenth century, constitute the discipline) on antisemitism and ‘the Jewish Question’;
• explore the antisemites’ opinions on sociology, such as the notion of its supposed ‘Jewishness’;
• examine and compare what antisemites on the one hand, sociologists on the other, had to say about those subjects that were central to the thinking of either group, including money, usury, modernity, labour, individualism, community, society, social reform, socialism, state, culture, religion, the spirit of capitalism, and capitalist development;
• investigate the extent to which classical sociology was either influenced by antisemitic ideas or was constructed in opposition to antisemitic ideas.

Comparative approaches with respect to persons, texts and national contexts are particularly encouraged. Also those who anticipate they will not be able to attend but would like to contribute to subsequent publications (a relevant scholarly journal and/or an edited volume) are encouraged to get in touch. Please address enquiries concerning this conference to Marcel Stoetzler.