Knowledge Politics and Intercultural Dynamics: Actions, Innovations, Transformations

14-16 December 2011

The objective of the meeting is to promote research by creating a space for dialogue that will enable the participants to work on the texts submitted. One of the aims of the format is to prioritise discussion over presentation. Consequently, each panel will commence with an introductory talk on the subject by the panel director, after which the participants will have 10 minutes to present the main arguments of their papers. The panel director will then provide a critique of each of the works. From this point on, the space is thrown open to the discussion.

Wednesday 14

Mieke Bal presents her movie A Long History of Madness (2011)

Viçent Altaió, Director, Arts Santa Mónica
Mieke Bal, Cultural Theorist and Critic, Video Artist, Professor at the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA), University of Amsterdam

Venue: Arts Santa Mónica, Ramblas 7, 08001 Barcelona
Hour: 18:00
Free attendance unconfirmed

Thursday 15

Venue: CIDOB. Sala Maragall. Elisabets 12. 08001 Barcelona
Hour: 9:00

Opening Session: Mieke Bal (Cultural Theorist and Critic, Video Artist, Professor at the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA), University of Amsterdam)

Panel I – Categories and Grammars of Intercultural Dynamics

Chair and discussant: Sanjay Seth (Professor of Politics, Goldsmiths College, University of London)
Coordinator: Martín Savransky (Forum of Young Researchers in Intercultural Dynamics - FJIDI)

In the first session of the Training Seminar, we will discuss categories, concepts and discourses that make it possible to develop an "intercultural" perspective. Some possible questions to address will be: what demands and requirements do we need in order to articulate discourses and categories that will foster intercultural knowledge? To what extent can we adapt the intercultural to the grammars of other disciplines (history, sociology, politics, philosophy, communication, social psychology, etc.) and to the implicit rules that govern each disciplinary discourse?

Panel II – Strategies and Resistance from the Politics of Knowledge

Chair and discussant: Alexandra Zavos (Senior Researcher, Centre for Gender Studies, Panteion University)
Coordinator: Ana-Cristina Aguirre (FJIDI)

In this second panel we will discuss the ways in which academic knowledge is produced, as well as the intentions and conditions that underpin such production. The researchers who will participate in this panel should make full use of their areas of study and methods of research in order to propose alternative ways of acquiring knowledge. Basing their arguments on their own works, they should highlight the strengths and recognize the ambiguities and contradictions of their own research. From this perspective, we propose to analyse the following issues: what are the challenges that derive from your research? To whom is the knowledge you produce useful? From where and for what are you producing knowledge?

Panel III - Contemporary mobility and alterations

Chair and discussant: Ramin Jahanbegloo (Professor of Political Science, Center for Ethics, University of Toronto)
Coordinators: Eloi Mayordomo and Rayen Rovira (FJIDI)

This panel will reflect on the potential of praxis, understood as a counter-hegemonic strategy able to generate, reproduce and reflect knowledge. In the contemporary framework of growing mobility, we ask ourselves: who participates in these practices and to whom are they addressed? How does this knowledge reach its public(s)? What are the responses and aspirations of the ‘2.0 individuals’? From this perspective, we will analyse the ecologies of practices that guide knowledge and the ways in which the production of knowledge establishes ties with the other.

Friday 16

Venue: CIDOB. Sala Maragall. Elisabets 12. 08001 Barcelona
Hour: 9:00

Panel IV - Paths of Culture and Inculture?

Chair and discussant: Gonçal Mayos Solsona (Professor of Philosophy, Universitat de Barcelona)
Coordinator: Antar Martínez (FJIDI)

This panel addresses the difficulties and limitations that currently mark both knowledge and the possibilities for intercultural dynamics. It will also investigate the alternatives and new potentials that can be built through common effort. What new and old servitudes should be emphasised? Why is the knowledge society threatening to fall into ignorance? What alternatives and proposals can we imagine? How can we specify a global theoretical framework that can place these limitations and potential alternatives in order to overcome the current confusion? Let us assume this pressing challenge of political and cultural empowerment.

Panel V - Methodological Panel

Director: Elisenda Ardèvol (Professor of Antropology, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)

In the methodological panel we will reflect on how the methodology used in specific research comes together to create knowledge. In particular, we will analyse "e-research" and the ethics of online research, in order to highlight the relationship between research and new technologies.

For more information:

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