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INTEGRO Charitable Foundation
Krayina Dobrodiy foundaton
Nova Doba newspaper about Kyiv and Kiev region
NGO parliamentary club
Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union
Civicua.org

 

 NEWS


1st Global Conference Hope: Probing the Boundaries Monday 8th -

May 11, 2005.

    Grenzen der Hoffnung, Prag 8.-10.8.05
    
    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@inter-disciplinary.net
    
    Stephen Morris
    Independent Scholar,
    New York, USA
    Email: smmorris58@yahoo.com
    
    Stephen Neff
    University of Pennsylvania, USA
    Email: stephenneff@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
    
    
    Location: Prague
    Deadline: May 13, 2005
    Website: http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/ptb/hope/h1/cfp.htm


Supported by Eurasia Foundation Supported by Eurasia Foundation

 Self-organization of population Institute