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How should the humanities be positioned in the face of general and higher education policies’ transformation processes? This question will be the point of departure of the three-day conference «Für eine neue Kultur der Geisteswissenschaften?» organized by the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences (SAGW) in cooperation with the University of Basel’s «Programm für Wissenschaftsforschung».
In an article, recently posted on the Politblog, Politik der Schweiz, the former ETH professor and member of the National Council of Switzerland, Jacques Neirynck, has criticized politicians’ perspectives on the humanities. From a profit-oriented perspective, he argues, the humanities are often considered useless, as opposed to technical or medical sciences. In his article, he offers a contrasting view, considering the humanities “the breeding ground for politics”. Read the entire article (in German only).
When: 22-27 January 2012
Where: Schloss Münchenwiler near Berne, Switzerland
Languages: English (main), German, French
ECTS: 6 | Costs: 500.- Swiss francs (travel and accommodation covered by organizer)
Application deadline: 27 November 2011
Prof. Dr. Christiane Schildknecht (Philosophy, University of Lucerne) An explication of the concept of knowledge, including its limits and an analysis of different forms of knowledge.
PD Dr. Roland Wenzlhuemer (History, University of Heidelberg) The changing relation between information and knowledge: new communication technologies and contemporary societies’ perception of them – the example of telegraphy.
Prof. Dr. Michael Hagner (Science Studies, ETH Zurich) Generation and transfer of knowledge in the digital age: the fate of the printed book and changing notions of intellectual property, reading, writing and interpretation.
PD Dr. Stefan Willer (Literary Studies, ZfL Berlin) Figurations of future knowledge: a rhetorical and epistemological investigation of knowledge-to- come in connection to current prognostic notions like ‘sustainability’, ‘security’, ‘scenario’, ‘contingency’.
In post-industrial societies, due to the impact of globalisation and technological development, we are witnessing a growth and diversification of the sites of knowledge production and the ways in which a variety of actors articulate and circulate knowledge. As a result, the privileged position of ‘scientific’ knowledge is contested, making knowledge the symbolic and material capital not only of academic ‘experts’. By the same token, the authorization of ‘knowledge’ becomes a matter of debate and changing power structures. The Winter School analyses and discusses these changes from a historical, sociological, cultural and philosophical perspective. It reflects in particular on the challenges thereof for the humanities and the social sciences regarding their role in the knowledge society of (post)modernity and their contribution to larger processes of transformation.
From 2012 to 2015, with the IASH as the leading institute, the Philosophical-Historical Faculty of the University of Bern organizes four international Winter Schools of one week each. Under the thematic umbrella “TransFormations”, the Winter School concentrates on the analysis and shaping of local and global processes of change in its various forms and formations at the intersections of knowledge, history, culture and society.
