[Discussion] Hope: Probing the Boundarie

[Sule Tarakcioglu]

1st Global Conference
Hope: Probing the Boundaries

Monday 8th - Wednesday 10th August 2005
Prague, Czech Republic

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



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