Dear colleagues and friends,

Please find below a call for papers for the next EAJS conference in Ljubljana (2014, August 27-30)

Looking forward to seeing you there

David Chiavacci, University of Zurich, Switzerland Sébastien Lechevalier, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris

**********

EAJS 2014 Conference
Ljubljana (Slovenia), August 27-30

Call for papers

Economics, Business and Political Economy (Section 6)

Diversity and Institutional Change in the Japanese Economy

The Japanese political economy system has been perceived as highly homogeneous (although segmented) and stable, because deeply rooted in a specific cultural and social environment.
Its trajectory for more than 30 years has deeply contradicted this vision of the Japanese capitalism with a gradual but nonetheless significant institutional change and an increasing diversity at the micro level. More precisely, it has been characterized by liberalization but absence of convergence towards liberal capitalism. It means that the research program on Japanese economics, business and political economy has to shift from an analysis of the so-called J model to a study that aims at understanding diversity and institutional change. This perspective requires new concepts and tools of analysis in order to capture discrete forms of heterogeneity and to understand the underlying dialectic and conflictual dynamics of institutional change and innovation.
We would like to invite individual papers for the following topics on Japanese economics, business and political economy:
• Evolution of the organizational diversity and performance dispersion • Evaluating institutional change, its mechanisms and its outcomes • Linking organizational diversity and institutional change • Decentralization, liberalization, disorganization and coordination • Interests groups, social dynamics, coalitions, conflicts, and politics • Life courses, gender roles, welfare state, and political economy • Diversity and its impact on inequalities • Forms of cooperation and competition in the world economy • The Japanese trajectory in historical perspective and international comparison Moreover, clearly focused panel proposals are also welcomed to other topics concerning economics, business and political economy of Japan.

Keynote speaker: Professor Mari Sako (Saïd Business School, Oxford University) will be the keynote speaker for our section. As one of the best specialist of the Japanese economy and Japanese firm, she has particularly contributed to the understanding of the relations between diversity and institutional change in the Japanese economy. More information can be found here: http://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/research/people/Pages/MariSako.aspx.

Post-conference Publication: We are planning to publish the papers in a special issue of a refereed journal. As the convenors of the economic section we are already in contact with publishers and editors of refereed journals. This would mean that a revised version of the conference paper must be submitted soon after the conference for the double-blind review process. In case you are wishing to be considered for the post-conference publication please submit not only the abstract but also a full manuscript by July 31, 2014.

Language: Papers at the conference can be given in English or Japanese. However, abstracts and papers for the post-conference publication should be in English.

Submission:
• Abstracts and panel proposals should be submitted no later than November 30, 2013.
• Please use the online submission system of the section:
http://www.eajs.eu/index.php?id=664
• For individual papers, we kindly ask you to submit an abstract of not more than 1500 characters.
• For panels, please submit the title of the panel and an abstract of up to 1500 characters explaining the overall focus, together with a 300 word abstract from each participant. We also need you to identify a chair.
• All proposals should be anonymous (i.e. the abstract should not include the author's name and affiliation, nor shall it be printed on the author's private or university letter head), but be accompanied by presenter name(s), institutional affiliation(s) and email address(es) to be entered into a separate form.
• Any audio-visual equipment requirements you might have need to be submitted together with your proposal.

Acceptance Notification: Applicants will be informed of the results of their submissions by the end of January 2014. Accepted presenters will be asked to submit a short, one paragraph biographical statement.
For further inquiries please contact the convenors at the following e-mail address:
economics[at]eajs.eu

David Chiavacci, University of Zurich, Switzerland Sébastien Lechevalier, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris