INVITATION
Private Seminar in Berlin May/June 2004
THE SPIRIT OF SOCIAL/CULTURAL SCIENCE
AND THE KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY
Which opportunities does the European Knowledge Society offer to young
researchers?
MA, PhD and Post-doc students welcome!
Sociology, Cultural Studies, European Studies, Women’s Studies,
Political Science, Anthropology, History, Economics
Informal discussion and networking,
every Monday in May and June 2004
20:00 Reichenbergerstr. 81, Kreuzberg
(U1, U7, U8, Bus 129 Glogauer Str)
- please bring a bottle of wine -
after 22:00 somewhere along the canal
Dear Colleagues,
‘Globalisation’ and ‘Knowledge Society’ are genuinely social and cultural concepts.
Yet the strategic influence of social and cultural scientists in terms of research and
consultancy projects seems negligible as compared to economists, legal experts
and specialists in international relations.
Could something be done about this? And would this open new and different
opportunities for younger researchers?
The European Union has set itself the ambitious goal of becoming the globally most
competitive knowledge society. However one may judge EU intentions, this ambition
is shaping the emerging European Areas of Higher Education, Research and
Lifelong Learning. Moreover, the notion of the ‘knowledge society’ has begun to
structure all kinds of intergovernmental policies, entrepreneurial activities and non-
governmental engagement. It has become to EU enlargement in central and eastern
Europe.
I would like to invite you to consider the global and European implications of these
shifts. Social and cultural researchers often feel defensive about their discipline,
consider their influence to be limited and suffer from relative poverty – both
institutional and personal. Let me tickle you by asking: Could it be that the ‘golden
age’ of the social and cultural sciences is ahead of us? And would a stirring of an
enterprising spirit not offer us the chance to develop networks and institutions that
enable young researchers to do what they are trained for? And to conduct research
and consultancy projects as principal investigators? And to accumulate private and
institutional resources that allow investments for the future?
ACROSS, a limited liability partnership founded by postgraduates of Lancaster
University (UK) is raising a European Research Network (ERN) that would engage
in international, comparative and collaborative research and consultancy projects.
While we seek to co-operate with universities, the ERN will be autonomous in
organisation and finances. In particular we seek young social and cultural
researchers who have
- Bi- or multicultural experiences (as in completing degree studies in two or more
countries);
- An enterprising spirit, an idea, a project or a mission;
- An interest in comparative research: transnational, European, global.
My name is Chris Armbruster. I have recently spent six months as a Visiting Fellow at
Novosibirsk State University. Presently I am working in Berlin on a project for the
European Commission (DG Education) on the financing of higher education
(institutions) in OECD and EU countries. I speak English, German, Polish and
Russian. In September I am going as a Jean-Monnet-Fellow to the European
University Institute in Florence.
If you are interested to find out more, please turn up on any or all of the Mondays in
May and June. For further information please contact me by phone on 030 2140088
or 0160 97742861.
Dr Lars Christof Armbruster
Department of Sociology
Lancaster University
Lancaster LA1 4YL, UK
[log in to unmask]
|