“ The Normative Anatomy of Society:
Relations Between Norms and Law in the 21st Century
The conference aims to promote an interdisciplinary debate about the role of norms in our society and their interaction with the law. Norms play a crucial role in defining the way we act in our society and influence our behavior telling us that, what we do is right or wrong. They are about how we behave and act in different situations in our lives. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the different types of norms and laws that influence our social behavior, what we have named for this conference the "Normative Anatomy of Society".
Identifying and questioning these different types of norms is not only a task for sociology of law, but is a field in which multiple disciplines interact. For this reason, the conference aims to promote scientific debate and communication across multiple disciplines. We would like to invite professors, researchers, practitioners, government officials and other interested professionals from different academic backgrounds to critically discuss society's normative structure.
The conference is organized by the Department of Sociology of Law at Lund University in Sweden, in close colaboration with the Nordic researchers in this area.
Important dates
Deadline for submission of abstracts:
February 10, 2012
Deadline for session proposals:
Register Now
The content of the conference
The Normative Anatomy of Society: Relations Between Norms and Law in the 21st Century is an interdisciplinary conference on norms, rules and laws and deals with society's normative structure.
There is reason to distinguish between the norms, rules and laws. In many cases, the terms are used interchangeably, but we believe that there is reason to keep the concepts separate. Norms, rules and laws (legal rules) have different characteristics. They are distinguished primarily by their different backgrounds. Norms are imperatives that may be said to grow spontaneously and preferably through social interaction. Rules are formalized in the framework of civil society and market and in this sense private. There are also rules in different knowledge systems, of which language is a clear and important example. Laws are legal rules adopted and published by the political system. Georg Henrik von Wright speaks in his book, Norm and Action, about legal rules in terms of directives.
The program is organized with introductory lectures and discussion panels, followed by thematic sessions and a final discussion. During the conference there will be also a book exhibition of recent publications in thematics related to the confrence as well as Sociology of Law in general.
Further comments on the background of the conference
More recently, norms in a broad sense have increasingly come into focus. The interest within Sociology of Law emerged in the 1990s and resulted in a number of articles, dissertations, and books such as Norm Science of Hyden, and About Norms by Matthias Baier and Måns Svensson. It is also the focus on Norms which served as a motive for the so-called Pufendorfprofessorship at Lund University currently is assigned to Hakan Hyden. Samuel Pufendorf devoted his scientific work during his time as professor in Law at Lund University, see De officio hominis et civis juxta legem naturalem libri duo, issued 1672 and translated into Swedish by Birger Berg, largely documenting the customs and norms of that time whether they had a background in social practices or in established sources of law.
Norms are about how we behave and act in different situations. They can be seen as action guidelines. Knowledge of norms can therefore tell us a lot about why society looks like it does. There are those who even talk about rules in terms of the backbone of civilization. Professor of Industrial Economics and Management at KTH in Stockholm, Claes Gustafsson, has in a recent anthology on Rules emphasized the paradox that while the world we live in is freer than ever, the life of modern man is permeated with rules, expressed or implied. It is difficult, Gustafson says, to find areas of human activity that is not regulated. Gustafsson goes so far as to equate human physiological structure, its phenotype, with rules. This idea is also expressed by the renowned evolutionary biologist, Richard Dawkins, in his book The Extended Phenotype.
Norms, rules and laws exist at different levels in society and affect in different degrees, ranging from family, company, municipality, the state and international cooperation, e.g. the EU and international conventions. The higher up from an organizational point of view, the greater likelihood of formal (legal) rules. We have thus legal regulation at a societal macro level of collective interests of various kinds. There are rules at an intermediate level, particularly in connection with various organizations´ internal structures and external relations. Finally, norms occur at the micro level regarding human mutual relations but also in relation to the other levels.
The norms play an essential function for society. Social solidarity is based on the existence of norms. They help us to act, without that we have to reflect on what and how we do it. Norms are embedded in the organization of a company or public authority. They are also reflected in what we call tradition. So you should do! So we have always done. So I have been taught that one should act, etc. The norms belong, so to speak, to the spinal cord. Norms are carriers of information over generations on how to act in different situations.
Economists have an increased interest in social norms. It is then related to game theory, theories that aim to describe the advantageous behavior in the interaction between different parties. Two basic concepts are maximizing profits and minimizing losses. It is fundamental that the players have conflicting interests. In addition, players can either have the same knowledge of the game (in chess), or they have access to different parts of the total information picture (as in poker). Game theory is an interdisciplinary field of research that is based on mathematics. Mainly game theory is used in economics, biology and computer science, but also increasingly in political science.
Goran Ahrne and Nils Brunson has in their book Rule Explosion revealed how there has been a shift from legal regulation to private regulation by rules imposed by all kinds of private law agencies, ranging from certification, to standards bodies at national and international level. Similarly, one can say that this type of agreements may become increasingly important as legal instrument, at the expense of the law. This is particularly true in an international context, where uniform law largely is lacking. An interesting hypothesis in this context would be to examine whether the number of rules are fairly constant, but that they vary between being publicly promulgated as laws or private rules and contracts.
As the public interest converge with self-interest in more and more industries and supported by various measures, normativity turns more and more from (public) law to (private) rules. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is one such example. Will this mean that rules replace regulations or norms replace the laws? In other words, what is the balance between the norms, rules, laws and what does it mean for society if this balance is changed? Similar trends in other sectors of society will also be commented upon.
Day 2:
Wednesday 25 of April
8:30 9:00
Coffee
9:00 9:30
Lecture:
Can Norms integrate a global society?
The role of Norms, Rules and law in a Multicultural World
9:30 11:00
Parallel Sessions
Abstracts and Papers will be presented by researchers from all over the world in different parallel sessions. The agenda for the sessions will be publish after the deadline for submission of Abstracts.
11:00 11:30
11:30 12:30
Panel Discussion:
The Normative Anatomy of Society: Conclusions from the Parallel Sessions
12:30 13:30
Lunch
13:30 15:30
Parallel Workshops
Open workshop:
The Future of Sociology of Law
Thematic Workshops
15:30
Closing
Day 1:
Tuesday 24 of April
10:00 11:00
Registration
11:00 12:00
12:00 14:00
Welcome speech:
The Normative Anatomy of Society in the 21st Century
Prof. Håkan Hyden
Panell Discussion: Relations between Norms, Rules and Law
• What can the law do in a changing society?
Prof. Inger Johanne Sand (Norway )
• Rules the Backbone of Civilization
Prof. Claes Gustafsson (Sweden)
Author of the book Rules the backbone of Civilization
• Social Norms in this century: privileges and rights
Prof. Hanne Petersen (Denmark)
14:00 14:30
14:30 16:30
Abstracts and Papers will be presented by researchers from all over the world in different parallel sessions.
Session 1: Norms in Education for Sustainable Development Session - Leader: Per Wickenberg
Session 2: Intersectionality in norms and regulation - Session Leader: Eva Schömer
Session 3: Cyber Norms - Session Leaders: Stefan Larsson and Måns Svensson
Session 4: Spatializing Norms: The Places of Law in Society - Session leader: Lucas Pizzolatto
Session 5: Law, Social Norms and Development: The Legal Empowerment Approach - Session Leader: Ana Maria Vargas
Session 6: The family: tensions between social and legal norms - Session Leader: Annika Rejmer
Session 7: Law, language and mind: The linguistic, metaphorical and conceptual approach on law and norms - Session leader: Stefan Larsson.
Session 8: Do's and Don'ts for Society: the Interplay between Law and Social Norms in non-Western Societies - Session leaders: Rustamjon Urinboyev and Muhammadrorfee-E Musor
Session 9: Environmental Norms for Sustainable Development - Session Leader Marie Appelstrand
Session 10: Norms, Victims and Criminology
Session 11: Theory of Norms and Law
Session 12: Institutions and Norms
16:30 17:00
17:00 20:00
Commemorative Dinner
In honor to Prof. Håkan Hydén
20:00 21:00
Public Debate
Being Norm-al?
Inclusion and Exclusion based on Social Norms and Laws
Abstracts and Sessions
We have received over 100 abstracts to the Conference and the evaluation committee will publish the selection results soon.
Call for papers:
Scholars, professors, and students studying the relation between norms, rules and law are welcome to participate and submit abstracts. We encourage innovative papers that contribute to a better understanding of the normative anatomy of society in the 21st century.
Abstracts and Papers will be presented by the author in a session and will be discussed by the participants and speakers. Information about the presentation format and guidelines will be provided to the selected authors. The topics of interest for the workshops include but are not limited to the following subjects:
- Norms in Education for Sustainable Development
- Intersections between Norms and Laws
- Cyber Norms
- Spatializing Norms: The Places of Law in Society
- Law, Social Norms and Development: The Legal Empowerment Approach
- The family: tensions between social and legal norms
- Law, language and mind: The linguistic, metaphorical and conceptual approach on law and norms
- Do's and Don't's for Society: the Interplay between Law and Social Norms in non-Western Societies
- Environmental Norms for Sustainable Development
- Norms, Victims and Criminology
- Theory of Norms and Law
- Institutions and Norms
Instructions for submission of abstracts:
Abstracts should be written in English 200-300 words and contain author's name, institutional affiliation, key words, introduction, method, results and conclusions. The paper should addressed to what extend the field of study is being regulated by norms, private rules or law.
Abstracts must be submitted to the following email address: Ana_Maria.Vargas_Falla_soclaw.lu.se
Books could be exposed at the conference stands. In case you are interested in presenting a book or a poster please contact the conference organizers.
How to register:
Please fill in the registration form by using the online registration form.
Click here to Register
Note: registration will only be completed after payment.
Go to online payment directly
Conference Fee:
1500 SEK ( 1875 SEK Inc. VAT) Conference Dinner included.
PhD students:
600 SEK (when submitting an abstract, dinner included)
Free for PhD students submitting an abstract (conference dinner is not included).
* Currency rate 2011-09-20
The registration fee includes conference materials, lunches, conference dinner and refreshments. The price does not include hotel accommodation, travel cost, or taxes (25% VAT).
Venue:
Palaestra Conference Hall
The conference will take place at Palaestra Building at Lundagård, Lund University area.
Adress:
Paradisgatan 4, Lund.
Accommodation
The accommodation situation in Lund is often difficult. We strongly recommend that you make your travel and accommodation arrangements as early as possible.
Note that you have to book these rooms yourselves!
This is a list of hotels that you can contact:
Hotel Sparta:
Hotel Ideon Gästeri:
Grand Hotel Lund
Hotel Lundia
Hotel Concordia
Hotel Djingis Khan
Stay At
Book online at Booking
How to get to Lund:
Lund is easy to reach from all around the world, regardless of whether you choose to go by plane, train, ferry or car. The nearest international airport are Copenhagen/Kastrup Airport in Denmark and Sturup/Malmö Airport close to Malmö/Lund.
By plane
Kastrup Airport in Copenhagen (Denmark)
Sturup, Malmö Airport (Sweden)
By Train
Skånetrafiken
SJ
By bus
Swebus
Lund University
Lund University has a long and vibrant history covering almost 350 years of teaching. It has evolved from just a few hundred students and professors being paid with meat and grain into its present form, with around 47 000 students and a position of excellence in international teaching and research.
More information about Lund University
More Information about the city of Lund
Scholars, professors, and students studying the relation between norms and law are welcome to participate and submit abstracts proposing new areas of discussion.
We encourage innovative papers that contribute to a better understanding of the normative anatomy of society in the 21st century.
For more information contact:
normsconference_soclaw.lu.se
Two Swedish and Danish research and developmental projects on education and sustainable development are in the focus for this session: "Implementation of education for sustainable development: the relation between the norm supportive structures and student´s moral learning" and "Öresundsklassrummet - young peoples participation in the sustainable society of the future". The projects are reporting some of their findings and results so far. Researchers and practitioners from Uppsala, Örebro, Stockholm and Lund and Malmö university, as well as from DPU - The Department of Education, Copenhagen, and Aarhus University - are participating. One of the key questions in these research projects is on how the relation between norms and action in the theme of sustainable development is constructed or developed.
For more information about this session contact the session leader:
Per Wickenberg
Per.Wickenberg_soclaw.lu.se
This session explores "Intersections between Norms and Laws" as a methodology of studying "the relationships among multiple dimensions and modalities of social relationships and subject formations" (McCall 2005).
In order to explore the interaction between everyday events and written law, this session examines some of the issues that such a situation raises when looking at multiple discrimination from the perspective of sociology of law and the study of norms.
An example of this type of studies is the use of an intersectional perspective to analyze how judicial bodies assess everyday behavior. Intersectionality is an analytical tool for explaining the ways that domination and subordination are constructed and maintained in various social contexts. The concept is based on the assumption that the experiences people have or are ascribed in terms of access to power and societal resources are shaped by structural power relationships and social identities.
For more information on this session please contact the Session leader:
Eva Schömer
Eva.Schomer_soclaw.lu.se
Cybernorms is a research group within the field of Sociology of Law that aims to explore norm structures (social and legal) that appear in the wake of the changing information technology. First and foremost it is about exploring the gap and the distance that today is at risk of emerging between the traditional societys rules and the social norms that are generated within the framework of young net cultures.
In this, we examine also how norms of the Internets architecture relates to standards, for example how the use of anonymisation services relates to file-sharing or how consequences of new legislation plays out in terms of behavioral or (socially) normative changes in the digital environment, etc.
The aim of this session is to enhance knowledge and discussions around how Internet creates new norms in society. Social norms that spontaneously grow within different net cultures, but also norms in the shape of legislation aiming to regulate and control activities on the internet.
For more information about this session contact the session leaders:
Måns Svensson
Mans.Svensson_soclaw.lu.se
Stefan Larsson
Stefan.Larsson_soclaw.lu.se
Visit: http://cybernorms.net/about/
The places of law in society have always been multiple, although traditionally the legal has been associated with notions of state-based territoriality. We believe that a focus on social norms instead of legal rules may contribute to grasp spatial plurality, challenge dominant understandings and foster new insights. Thus, we welcome to this session papers that critically discuss how to spatialize social-scientific analysis of norms.
Over the past two decades, a growing socio-legal literature has become concerned with the interrelations between law and space. Ranging from informal urban settlements, cultural policies and public spaces regulation to rural land conflicts, indigenous communities territorial claims, and transnational jurisdictions, many topics have been addressed. The so-called Critical Legal Geography became a research field of vivid interest, even if its theoretical foundations remain underdeveloped.
We hope to bring together contributions from different disciplinary fields that are interested in the spatial dimension of everyday life, such as sociology of law, human geography, urban planning, anthropology, and political science. We encourage studies that explore the recent spatial turn in social sciences from different theoretical perspectives. Whether a norm exists or not is an empirical question, so empirical-oriented research, undertaken in a diversity of settings is particularly welcomed.
For more information contact the session leader:
Lucas Pizzolatto
lucas.pizzolatto_unimi.it
"Empowerment is about changing unequal institutional relationships. Institutions are rules, norms and patterned behavior that may or may not take organizational form"
Deepa Narayan
Legal Empowerment can be defined as the use of legal arguments, discourses and other tools in order to make the law work. In this sense legal empowerment can be sees as a tool for social change, in which disadvantaged populations can use the law in order to protect their rights and promote their own benefit. However legal empowerment is not only about laws but mostly about how laws are used and understood in practice. For this reason this session aims to enable a discussion on the relations between Norms, Rules and Law for Legal Empowerment in the 21st century.
Law plays an essential role in the legal empowerment approach but it is not enough when social norms and cultural practices don't recognize the law or when informality limits the ability of people to make the law work. This session will explore these relations and the role of laws and norms for disadvantaged groups in the 21st century. Legal Empowerment wont work unless systemic change occurs in which not only laws are changed (top-down reforms) but especially social norms supporting the empowerment of the disadvantaged (bottom-up).
Ana Maria Vargas
Ana_Maria.Vargas_Falla_soclaw.lu.se
Christina Hajdu
christina.hajdu_undp.org
This session focuses on how social and legal norms influence family behavior expressing family and normative tensions.
The family has changed radically during the last hundred years. The family is smaller, not necessarily legalized and can have various compositions. The function of the family has changed from being society's fundamental unit for support and reproduction to become a source for adult emotional wellbeing. The family has also become more fragile and less stable.
Social norms play an important role in how we are living our personal lives and how we are doing family while the role of legal norms is to protect rights and solve family dilemmas. Sometimes social and legal norms are in accordance, sometimes they are completely or partially contradictory and somtimes law enforcements give rise to unintended effects in social life, circumstances which can cause tensions.
This session hopes to bring together contributions from different disciplinary fields to explore the tensions between social and legal (e.g. family, criminal, social law) family norms from different theoretical perspectives.
Annika Rejmer
Annika.Rejmer_soclaw.lu.se
This session puts and emphasis on lingual, metaphorical, symbolic and other fundamental communicative tools role for how law and norms operate, function or are constructed.
Questions that can be asked regards: To what extent is language relevant to study from a norm perspective? To what extent can we as socio-legal scholars learn from disciplines such as cognitive linguistics about how choices of words, metaphors, categorisation, symbols, narratives etc. is not only an embellishment or decoration of legal and normative language but a fundamental part of its construction?
For instance, how important is it to distance oneself from legal language when studying law from a sociology of law or critical perspective? Further, to what extent are these visual surface phenomena somehow connected to normative structures relevant for the depiction of subsurface thought structures and conceptions that may or may not be unaware to us? To what extent can we think outside these conceptual thought structures, and what this mean for a norm-centred approach? To what extent is law and norms embodied, that is, depending on reification and to be spoken about as things for us to be able to analyse, think and understand them?
For more information contact the session Leader:
This working session is based on the notion that there is no any single, integrated set of rules in any society, whether encoded in law or sanctified in religion or enshrined as the rules of daily social behaviour. Quite simply, there is no uncontested universal normative code that guides peoples lives ––- the very nature and outcomes of social order is characterised and determined by the interplay between different normative orders.
The state's laws and regulations must contend or coexist with other informal norm structures (social and religious), very different types of sanctioned behaviour. Such struggles and interplay between law and social norms are particularly evident in non-Western, traditional societies where the states are often severely constrained by their domestic environments in implementing their public policies. In this regard, cases of non-Western, traditional societies present an interesting example for studying the interplay between law and social norms. This session welcomes submissions addressing these issues with particular emphasis to non-Western societies.
For more information contact the session leaders:
Rustamjon Urinboyev
Rustamjon.Urinboyev_soclaw.lu.se
Muhammadrorfee-E Musor
Muhammadrorfee-E.Musor_soclaw.lu.se
Conflicting demands of environmental governance have produced new political dynamics, paving the way for interrelated systems of formal and informal rules and norms, rule-making mechanisms and actor-networks and partnerships at global, national and local levels of society. Socio-ecological system dynamics embraces steering processes where 'softer' governance structures challenge the role of law, and this development raises questions of legitimacy, accountability and democratic quality. Management regimes must be resilient in terms of trust, reciprocity, exchange and, not least important, produce common norms. How these norms emerge – and their sustainability – is a key question for this session.
To explore various trends and trajectories in natural resource governance, we invite paper submissions that analyse the “localization of regulation” in the light of collaborative environmental governance structures, from various theoretical perspectives. We aim at a broad discussion of the Normative Anatomy of sectors such as forestry and agriculture, water governance, climate change and biodiversity protection.
Marie Appelstrand
Marie.Appelstrand_soclaw.lu.se
Julija Naujekaite
Julija.Naujekaite_soclaw.lu.se
Johanna Alkan Olsson
Johanna.Alkan_Olsson_soclaw.lu.se
The session “Norms and Criminology” is a broad session that includes topics from both penal law, for example about prevention in relation to norms, victimology like the relationship between victims and offenders or criminology about criminal behaviour, legal and social reactions, constructions and causes in relation to crimes.
Mine Özaşçılar
Mine.Ozascilar_soclaw.lu.se
The session “Theory about law and norms” is a broad session that includes both topics from legal philosophy and sociology of law.
From an ontological point of view, norms can represent a potential integrating factor between the normative (legal) and the empirical (societal practice) as Håkan Hydén has point it out (Hydén 2011: 126), because of their duality between “is and “ought”. But this duality can be understood and criticised from different theoretically perspectives like for example Ehrlish, Kelsen, Hart, Luhmann or some contemporary perspectives as legal pluralism, developed by legal sociologists and social anthropologists, or legal cultures introduced by Lawrence M. Friedman.
From an epistemologically perspective, both rules and norms often function as a transformation from knowledge about the actual world in relation to something desirability. This aspect brings up methodological and cognitive question about how we can study norms and rules, but also the distinction between an internal and an external perspective upon law. Legal practice and discourses can in turn function as a source for understanding what it means to follow and create a norm or a rule, in the light of the late Wittgenstein or performatives as Austin has describe it.
Karl Dahlstrand
Karl.Dahlstrand_soclaw.lu.se
The main theme of the conference is the relationship between norms, rules and law in society. In different ways, norms, rules and law can be understood to regulate or steer social action and organizing. The purpose of the session is to address this theme from an institutional perspective, where social norms, legal rules and regulations can be viewed as parts of broader cultural institutions, affecting how organizations and actors think and behave.
Among several other traditions, the new institutionalism within organizational theory has devoted this theme vast interest. For example, Richard W Scott states that Institutions are comprised of regulative, normative and cultural-cognitive elements that, together with associated activities and resources, provide stability and meaning to social life (Scott, 2008:48). This tradition has also been strongly developed in the Nordic countries, sometimes labeled Scandinavian institutionalism.
Hence, institutions and norms can affect behaviour and as theoretical perspectives help to understand how and why formal organizations make informal decisions, inter-organizational collaboration processes takes form, or reform policies are spread and implemented, among many other interesting research questions. For this session, abstracts are encouraged to address institutions and norms with examples from different empirical areas in society, and/or from different theoretical points of departure. Researchers from various disciplines such as sociology of law, sociology, social work, political science, legal science, economy, administration and management, and others are most welcome in order to promote a fruitful discussion about different perspectives on institutions and norms during the session, as well as to stimulate future networking and collaboration.
Susanna Johansson
Susanna.Johansson_soch.lu.se
Contact Information:
On matters concerning the conference planning please contact Ana Maria Vargas:
+46704520168
We welcome you to the International Conference
“The Normative Anatomy of Society: Relations Between Norms and Law in the 21st Century
”
24-25 April 2012, Lund University, Sweden.
Arranged by the Department of Sociology of Law at Lund Univeristy with the support of the Torsten Söderberg Foundation
For further information please contact Ana Maria Vargas at Ana_Maria.Vargas_Falla_soclaw.lu.se or + 46 462223016. http://www.soclaw.lu.se/o.o.i.s/4047
