Boundaries in Process-Oriented Social Research

Friday, 11 July 2025: 11:00-12:45
Location: ASJE017 (Annex of the Faculty of Legal, Economic, and Social Sciences)
RC20 Comparative Sociology (host committee)
RC56 Historical Sociology
RC33 Logic and Methodology in Sociology

Language: English

The concept of “boundary” has been explored in various perspectives in sociology, including symbolic, moral, cultural, and social boundaries. However, after Nobel Laureate, Paul Crutzen proposed the concept of Anthropocene, it has gained additional importance because of its central concept: “planetary boundaries” in the realm of atmospheric chemistry. In this new usage, it has become a time-sensitive concept, whereas it was previously mostly spatial. In this respect, it is important to discuss this concept from the viewpoint of process-oriented social research, which pays special attention to time. There will be several topics, such as the transformation process of boundaries of various types, and boundaries that determine whether to change or not because the process concept inevitably includes “change.” This session welcomes all types of papers investigating this area.
Session Organizer:
Fumiya ONAKA, Japan Women's University, Japan
Oral Presentations
Social Processes and Their Boundaries: Causal Versus Teleological Explanations
Georg MUELLER, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
Boundaries in Case Study Research - a Process-Oriented Perspective
Lisa WALTHER, University of Hannover, Germany
Process-Oriented Analysis of Brain Drain: A Key to Understanding Institutional Inefficiencies in Iran
Zeinab alsadat FATEMI AMIN, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran; Majid FOULADIYAN, Associate Professor, Iran