Throughout the world, contemporary societies are facing the challenges posed by a set of heterogeneous phenomena of social change which are not only placing existing convictions and interpretations in question, but are already creating new and multiple realities that escape the established categories of thought. The emerging outlines of a Cosmopolitan World Risk Society cannot be grasped in terms yesterday’s sociology which takes its orientation from industrial society in the nation-state and from the exclusiveness of European (i.e. Western) modernity. Nevertheless, the multitude of social phenomena which point to epochal transitions towards a new future open up novel horizons of critical analysis and discussion and pose a range of pressing questions that must be addressed today if we are to be ready for the challenges of tomorrow.
The honorary Symposium "FUTURES OF MODERNITY" for and with Ulrich Beck brings together an avant-garde of critical thinkers to offer their interpretations of the coming challenges, their social dynamics and political implications. The starting point is today’s confusing patchwork of tangled processes of Reflexive Modernisation resulting from modern achievements and unintended side-effects, and leading to new, "super-reflexive" and sometimes even anti-modern phenomena and trends which need to be better understood.
Before we can embark upon detailed analysis, social science needs to work out the set of phenomena and driving forces to investigate, and must acquire a more precise understanding of how they are connected and what are their fundamental properties. We will approach this ambitious task of tracing an outline of possible future modernities, their various facets, sometimes similar, sometimes contradictory, and their diversity and implications under four headings:
- COSMOPOLITANIZING EUROPEAN MODERNITY
- WORLD RISK SOCIETY - CLIMATE CHANGE IN A COSMOPOLITICAL VIEW
- INEQUALITY, POWER AND GOVERNANCE IN THE GLOBAL AGE
- INDIVIDUALIZATION COSMOPOLITANIZED
The event will be held in german and english language.
Die Veranstaltung wird in deutscher und englischer Sprache durchgeführt.
REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!