[eccr] First Global Conference: Hope: Probing the Boundaries

>1st Global Conference
>Hope: Probing the Boundaries
>Monday 8th - Wednesday 10th August 2005
>Prague, Czech Republic
>
>Call for Papers
>(please cross post where appropriate)
>
>This inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary
>conference aims to explore contemporary
>definitions, meanings and expressions of hope. In
>particular, it will seek to examine the
>individual, social, national and international
>contexts within which hope emerges as well as its
>counterpart, hopelessness.
>
>The theme and the sense of uncertainty pervades
>the start of the twenty-first century. Although
>young, the past bears witness to the brutality of
>genocides, atrocities, terrorism which acts to
>counter-balance economic, political, technological
>and ecological aspirations. Medicine and
>bio-ethics are split between those who foresee the
>worst implications for persons and those who
>foresee the promise of genetic engineering.
>Cultural conflicts likewise offer scope for grave
>apprehension or the hopeful anticipation of a
>culturally enriched shared world. This project is
>committed to the view that now is the time look at
>the main spheres in which there seems to be a
>pendulum between fear and hopeful expectation,
>with a view to thinking out constructive
>strategies for exploration.
>
>Papers, workshops and reports are invited on any
>of the following possible areas for discussion:
>
>1. Human awareness of the passage of time;
>changing attitudes to what H.G. Wells
>called 'the shape of things to come'. What are the
>possible bases for thinking about the future?
>
>2. Expressions of these attitudes in contemporary
>culture ­ portrayals in art, cinema, literature,
>radio, science fiction, theatre, tv.
>
>3. The psychological basis of fear of the future.
>Why millennial hopes are matched by millennial fears.
>
>4. The concept of a new age. Utopian thinkers;
>Dystopian visions. The connection with political
>movements. What do new agers want? Hedonism and
>the simple life. The fear of longevity. The fear
>of loneliness.
>
>5.Hopelessness, despair, indifference and
>resignation. The meaning of life.
>
>6. The science of the future. Prediction, risk and
>disaster management.
>
>7. The phenomenology of hope. What is this
>phenomenon that we call hope? How does it
>live and seemingly thrive in difficult times? How
>is it sustained? How is it invoked? Is there any
>difference between those who seem to be more
>hopeful than others?
>
>8. Does hope and the act of hoping/or the
>predisposition to hope differ from culture to
>culture? What are those variances and what
>accounts for them? How is hope differently
>instantiated among cultures? What are those
>instantiations?
>
>9. The notion of open and closed futures.
>
>10. The role and place of religion and religious
>movements.
>
>11. Risk, possibility and hope.
>
>12. Envisaging possible futures. The question of
>choice. Cultivating hope. To boldly go.
>
>These are indicative themes. Papers are welcome on
>these and related themes.
>
>Papers will be considered on any related theme.
>300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday
>13th May 2005. If an abstract is accepted for the
>conference, a full draft paper should be submitted
>by Friday 15th July 2005.
>
>300 word abstracts should be submitted to the
>Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word,
>WordPerfect, PDF or RTF formats.
>
>Dr Rob Fisher
>Inter-Disciplinary.Net
>Priory House, 149B Wroslyn Road
>Freeland, Oxfordshire OX29 8HR
>Email: (rf /at/ inter-disciplinary.net)
>
>Stephen Morris
>Independent Scholar,
>New York, USA
>Email: (smmorris58 /at/ yahoo.com)
>
>Stephen Neff
>University of Pennsylvania, USA
>Email: (stephenneff /at/ hotmail.com)
>
>The conference is part of the 'Probing the
>Boundaries' programme of research projects. It
>aims to bring together people from different areas
>and interests to share ideas and explore various
>discussions which are innovative and exciting.
>
>All papers accepted for and presented at this
>conference will be published in an ISBN eBook.
>Selected papers will be developed for publication
>in a themed hard copy volume.
>
>For further information about the project please
>visit:
>http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/ptb/hope/hope.htm
>
>For further information about the conference
>please visit:
>http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/ptb/hope/h1/cfp.htm

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Carpentier Nico (Phd)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Katholieke Universiteit Brussel - Catholic University of Brussels
Vrijheidslaan 17 - B-1081 Brussel - Belgium
T: ++ 32 (0)2-412.42.78
F: ++ 32 (0)2/412.42.00
Office: 4/0/18
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Vrije Universiteit Brussel - Free University of Brussels
Centre for Media Sociology (CeMeSO)
Pleinlaan 2 - B-1050 Brussels - Belgium
T: ++ 32 (0)2-629.18.30
F: ++ 32 (0)2-629.28.61
Office: 5B.401a
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
European Consortium for Communication Research
Web: http://www.eccr.info
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
E-mail: (Nico.Carpentier /at/ kubrussel.ac.be)
Web: http://homepages.vub.ac.be/~ncarpent/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------  


----------------
ECCR-Mailing list
---
To unsubscribe, send an email message to (majordomo /at/ listserv.vub.ac.be)
with in the body of the message (NOT in the subject): unsubscribe eccr
---
ECCR - European Consortium for Communications Research
Secretariat: P.O. Box 106, B-1210 Brussels 21, Belgium
Tel.: +32-2-412 42 78
Fax.: +32-2-412 42 00
Email: (info /at/ eccr.info)
URL: http://www.eccr.info
----------------