The Power of Knowledge: Asia and the West

Western intellectuals, and thus also media and the political elites,
have long based their approach to reality on the fundamental
assumption that the same basic processes underlie all human thought.
In other words, how people make sense of the world around them was
the same for everyone and everywhere. The implications of this
assumption are many, from plain intellectual arrogance to war, over a
wide array of misunderstandings and animosities, resulting in a host
of lost opportunities.

Contemporary engagements with Asia be they political or intellectual
are often based on routine presumptions of either universal
similarity or cultural difference. However, in an era of increasing
globalization and shifting world order, both these presumptions
appear problematic.

Undoubtedly culture matters. Through massive and longitudinal survey
research it has been documented that cultural traits change much
slower than most other societal phenomena, such as politics,
economics, technological levels etc. Recently biology, neuroscience,
and not least cross-cultural psychology has documented that culture
not only “sticks”, it is situated in the human mind as a subconscious
guideline. Culture seems to have physical repercussions. Over time
our cultural heritage impacts our habits of thought. Not that culture
becomes written into our genes, but what we describe as cultural will
be perceived as natural to carriers of a given culture.

However, globalization is challenging locally rooted cultural
patterns, as well as mainstream social sciences and humanities.
Although culture sticks, ideas travel. How does this affect social
reality in Asia and the West? Ideas, concepts and theories do not
stay put with their place of origin, they travel and questions arise
as to what happens during their journey, and at the place of arrival?

The travelling of ideas may be welcomed, resisted, or adopted to
local conditions to serve specific social or political purposes.
Regardless of the approach, the possession of knowledge of ideas may
thus become a source of power, or bestow empowerment to certain
groups. Ideas may have an impact on local culture, bringing changes
to the place of arrival. On the other hand, the ideas themselves may
change by being suited to local conditions, or even met with
counter-ideas, thereby challenging the hegemonic position that
Western ideas until recently has sought, and this despite the fact
that Western thinking historically owes much to ideas and
inspirations from the East.

As the movement of thoughts from East to West seem to increase, it is
high time to realize the opportunities of a multipolar world and
seriously consider all existing human experiences and knowledge
systems. The present conference and PhD workshop will limit itself to
Western and Asian experiences, in an effort of bringing the two into
a creative and fruitful dialogue. In light of this, area studies and
the different disciplines need to come together and share insights
and identify theoretical and methodological approaches that might
strike a reasonable balance between universal concerns and particular
cultural understandings. This is not only an exciting new situation
for academia; it is a serious obligation for us to contribute in
producing knowledge that indirectly or directly can promote
inter-cultural understanding and ease tensions, whether they occur in
the suburbs of big cities or between states with different ideas and
interests.

These and more topics will be discussed at the 7th Annual NNC
Conference and PhD course to be held on November 4-8 at the
University of Southern Denmark at its Sønderborg campus.

Topics:
- The concept of power, Asia and the West
- Gender knowledge: Power and Empowerment (Asia and the West)
- Technology transfer, ideology transfer?
- Western values in the Asian cultural fabric, Asian values in the
  Western cultural fabric
- The power of knowledge: individual, civil society and the state
- Asian and Western perceptions on majority versus minority, center
  versus periphery
- Theory travelling, translation, appreciation and localization
- Minorities Knowledge, a universally lost resource

Opening and registration 4 November
Conference 5-6 November
PhD Course 7-8 November

Contact:

Katrine Herold, Project Coordinator
Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (NIAS)
University of Copenhagen
Øster Farimagsgade 5
DK-1353 Copenhagen K
Denmark
Email: [email protected]

For more information please visit the conference website: