The ISOTIS team participated in the mid-term conference of the European Sociological Association Research Network 03 (RN03) ‘Biographical Perspectives on European Societies’, in Łódź, Poland, on September 17-18. The theme of the conference was “Theoretical and empirical reflections on social disorganisation and “otherness” in modern European societies: Following the biographical and discursive approach of Thomas and Znaniecki’s legacy of “Polish Peasant in Europe and America”.

Our colleagues presented on the personal stories of migrant, Roma and low-income parents, collected through qualitative in-depth interviews. These presentations were included in the special panel session “ISOTIS project: The mothers' story of inequality and otherness in contemporary Europe: bringing up children in low income, immigrant and ethnic minority families”. ISOTIS researcher Lyudmila Nurse (University of Oxford) was an organiser and a convener of this panel session. Colleagues from Poland, Czech Republic, Italy and the Netherlands were presenters.

From left to right: Ayça Alayli (Utrecht University), Kateřina Sidiropulu-Janků and Jana Obrovská (Masaryk University), Lyudmila Nurse (University of Oxford), Alessandra Mussi (University of Milano-Bicocca), Paulina Marchlik (University of Warsaw), Katarzyna Gajek (University of Łodz), and Elżbieta Czerska-Szczepaniak (University of Warsaw).

ISOTIS researchers also participated in other conference sessions:

- Lyudmila Nurse (University of Oxford) chaired the session “Women’s Biographies in Various Contexts”. During this session, Jana Obrovská and Kateřina Sidoropulu-Janků (Masaryk University) presented “Between kidneys and skin. How Czech Roma mothers cope with ethnic othering”.

- Elżbieta Czerska-Szczepaniak (University of Warsaw) participated in the session “Communities and Institutions: Different Aspects of Otherness”. She conducted the presentation “Institutional and informal support systems in raising a child in low income families- Polish mothers’ biographical reflections”.

Visit the conference website: http://esamidterm2018.uni.lodz.pl/

Find the conference programme: https://www.europeansociology.org/sites/default/files/public/PDFs/ESA_RN03_mid-term_conference_Programme_August_2018_.pdf