Toward a Buddhist Sociology: Alternative Perspectives on Relational Being

Wednesday, 9 July 2025: 15:00-16:45
Location: FSE018 (Faculty of Education Sciences (FSE))
RC35 Conceptual and Terminological Analysis (host committee)

Language: English

This session calls for wide range of papers that challenge the Global North canonical understanding of self/other dichotomy, social problems, social changes, identity, collective memory, etc. by exploring the potential links between Buddhist thoughts and Sociology. The Peripheral Turn in sociology is for Global Sociology and Citizenship. More than ever, we aspire more ethical, harmonious society based on the interdependence of individuals and the nature. Buddhist sociology according to Janine Schipper (2012) may challenge sociologists to awaken to the broader range of “illusions that we may not identify via the rational critical thinking mind alone.” Enlightenment by achieving inner peace and wisdom is the final goal for the Buddhist way of thinking. And such practices may contribute alternatively to re-socialize currently antagonistically fractured and/or atomized individuals as self-as-dependent-construct in the future (Immergut & Kaufman 2014).

Session Organizer:
Sachiko TAKITA-ISHII, Yokohama City University, Japan
Chair:
Alejandro BIALAKOWSKY, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina
Oral Presentations
Teaching the Zen of Ethnography: Cultivating Consciousness and Compassion through a Sociology of Awareness
Linda VAN LEUVEN, Independent Sociologist, USA; Sachiko TAKITA-ISHII, Yokohama City University, Japan
Storying the Good Life - Ghost Stories As Moral Medium
Sabine KRAUSE, Université de Fribourg, Switzerland; Siriparn SRIWANYONG, Srinakharinwirot University, Thailand; Michelle PROYER, University of Luxembourg, Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences, Luxembourg; Nawin KETRUAM, Bangkok University, Thailand