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<DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><FONT
face=Tahoma><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt">We are pleased to invite you to the
First European Blue Sky Conference:<BR>Landscape of Crises - A New Age of
Uncertainty<BR><BR><BR>November 7-9, 2013, Budapest, Castle District<BR>Táncsics
Mihály st. 7, Institute of Musicology, Bartók Hall<BR><BR>Why are we still
struggling to overcome the prolonged global crisis? What are we learning about
the human condition today? Sensing the growing concern in societies about rapid
social, economic and political changes, and the need among experts and academics
to communicate beyond conventional disciplinary boundaries, the Institute for
Social and European Studies has initiated a series of events called “Blue Sky
Conferences”. The purpose of the first conference is to provoke discussions with
experts from wide disciplinary backgrounds: sociologists, economists, natural
scientists, political scientists, cultural analysts, artists, philosophers and
theologians. <BR><BR>The conference examines the questions: <BR><BR>Are we
approaching a new “Great Transformation”? Are we at the dawn of a new economic
and civilizational epoch which is beginning to crystallize new rules of social
conduct, wealth distribution, economic, social and political economic
organization? Are we entering an Age of New Certainties: new rules, a new logic,
a new systemic coherence that is waiting to be discovered? Many people are
seeking solutions to the current global crisis trying to reveal these new
certainties. <BR><BR>Alternatively, are we facing the coming of a New “Axial
Age”? There is a growing belief that the crisis is increasingly
multi-dimensional where history, society, culture and religion, the environment
and ecology, beliefs and behaviour play important roles – and in this cacophony,
we have no clue to the background logic of the age that is coming. Would we be,
then, entering a New Age of Uncertainty, in which all we know is that we need to
restart everything from scratch? Human existence has always been full of
uncertainty, but there have been epochs where uncertainty and the awareness of
uncertainty intensifies. Is this the age we are entering? <BR><BR>Whether a new
Great Transformation, or a new Axial Age, the question remains the same: do
contemporary guardian institutions, societies and nation states provide adequate
answers to questions arising from the current crises? Can they answer the call
of people who are uncertain, even afraid, of the future? What new challenges do
we face in order to cope with this uncertainty in life as well as in science?
What new kinds of thinking and acting are required?<BR><BR>Speakers and
discussants include: <BR>Zygmunt Bauman, Richard Falk, Benjamin Barber, Terry
Eagleton, Louk de la Rive Box, Elemér Hankiss, Stephen Whitefield, and other
distinguished scholars from Hungary and abroad.<BR><BR><BR><BR>REGISTER TO OUR
CONFERENCE AT info@ises.hu <BR><BR>CONFERENCE PROGRAMME ONLINE AT www.ises.hu
<BR><BR>CONFERENCE ON FACEBOOK AT </FONT></FONT><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"><A
href="https://www.facebook.com/events/234575473373374" target=_blank><FONT
face=Tahoma>https://www.facebook.com/events/234575473373374</FONT></A></FONT><FONT
face=Tahoma><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"> <BR><BR><BR>Contact: Péter Csigó,
csigo@mtapti.hu <BR><BR><BR>The conference will be a UNESCO
event.<BR><BR>Organised by the Institute for Social and European Studies
(ISES)<BR>Co-organizers: Centre for Social Sciences, Hungarian Academy of
Sciences ▪ Institute of Musicology, Research Centre for the Humanities,
Hungarian Academy of Sciences ▪ Central European Policy Centre, Budapest ▪
Hungarian National Commission for UNESCO ▪ <BR>Sponsors: Ministry of Human
Resources ▪ National Cultural Fund (NKA) ▪ Hungarian National Bank
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<DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Prof. Dr.
habil. Andrea
Peto<BR><BR>http://www.ceu.hu/profiles/faculty/andrea_peto<BR>Papers available
at: http://ceu.academia.edu/AndreaPeto</DIV></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>