CFP: Science Shaping the World of Tomorrow

Submission deadline: October 31, 2014

Conference date(s):
March 18, 2015 - March 20, 2015

Go to the conference's page

Conference Venue:

University of Antwerp
Antwerpen, Belgium

Topic areas

Details


On 18-20 March 2015 UCSIA organizes an international academic workshop on
Science Shaping the World of Tomorrow. Scientific Imagination and
Development of Society at the University of Antwerp, Belgium.

We understand imagination in relation to the scientific context as the art
to creatively design, produce, discuss and  envisage societal alternatives
for the future. In that sense it opens a window on the future and
constitutes a source for societal development. Placed within a broader
context, imagination processes play a role in the development of sciences
and in the construction of societies, as well as in the interaction between
sciences and societies, the former stimulating the further development of
the latter, and the latter providing an environment in which the former
thrives. Sciences and societies shape and further one another’s imagination
processes.

The study of the creative and  productive use of imagination at the
intersection  of science and society in view of  building and shaping the
future constitutes the  main purpose of this workshop. This reflection will
be stimulated by focusing on four subthemes:

1. Imagination at work in the sciences

2. Sciences as  part of the imaginary of societies

3. Imaginaries of the future shaping contemporary reality

4. Politics of imagination

Confirmed keynotes:
· Peter Galison, Pellegrino University Professor of the History of Science
and of Physics, Harvard University (USA)

· Matthias Gross, Professor of Environmental Sociology, University of Jena
(Germany) / Head of the Department of Urban and Environmental Sociology,
Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ, Leipzig (Germany)

· Sheila Jasanoff, Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies,
Harvard Kennedy School (USA)

· Tom Moylan, Glucksman Professor Emeritus in the School of Languages,
Literature, Culture and an Adjunct Professor, SAUL - School of Architecture
of the University of Limerick, UK

· Helga Nowotny, Professor emerita of Social Studies of Science, ETH Zürich
(Switzerland) / founding member of the European Research Council

The workshop consists of a two-day international meeting with specialized
lectures and presentations and debates by invited senior and junior
scholars. It provides a forum of exchange of research from different
disciplines such as philosophy, history, literature and the arts, sociology,
economics, physics, science and technology  studies, political sciences,
policy studies, …

Researchers, doctoral students and other experts are welcome to submit their
application until 31 October 2014. Candidates should send in the completed
application form, accompanied by an academic curriculum vitae and an outline
of the proposed paper. The selection of participants will be communicated by
the end of mid-December 2014 at the latest.

The selected participant will present her/his paper in a panel session (20
minutes in English) and will afterwards send in an article to be considered
for publication (which will be submitted to careful selection). The aim of
the organizer is to publish a selection of articles presented at the workshop.

The organizer takes on charge all costs pertaining to participation and stay
in Antwerp of all selected participants, while travel arrangements and costs
are incumbent on participants themselves.

Full details on www.ucsia.org.

Organizing committee:
· Arthur Cools, University of Antwerp
· Raf de Bont, KU Leuven and Maastricht University
· Luc Braeckmans, Director of Academic Affairs ad interim, UCSIA
· Barbara Segaert, Scientific Coordinator, UCSIA
· Jean Paul Van Bendegem, VUB - Vrije Universiteit Brussel
· Maarten Van Dyck, Ghent University
· Frédéric Vandermoere, University of Antwerp
· Geert Vanpaemel, KU Leuven
· Gert Verschraegen, University of Antwerp

Contact: Barbara Segaert, Project Coordinator, [email protected], T
+32 (0) 3 265 45 94

More information: www.ucsia.org

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