"Futures of Sustainability: Modernization, Transformation, Control"Annual Conference of the Humanities Centre for Advanced Studies

22. Januar 2021

Foto: UHH/Lutsch

The digital annual conference of the Humanities Centre for Advanced Studies takes place on the 11. and 12. February 2021. Registration is open now.

"Unsustainable Past - Sustainable Futures?"

Annual Conference (digital) of the Humanities Centre for Advanced Studies
"Futures of Sustainability: Modernization, Transformation, Control"
11. and 12. February 2021

In its digital Annual Conference 2021, the Humanities Centre for Advanced Studies "Futures of Sustainability" asks whether a sustainable future is still possible regarding the 200-year long history of disastrous ecological development of the earth. To pursue this question, it is necessary to further define the situation we find ourselves in. We must clarify how to describe our present of global warming, species extinction, and the poisoning of soils, water, and air more accurately. Moreover, in order to know whether the historical path of ecosystem destruction is reversible, we must ascertain what has led to this path and what continues to stabilize it.

For this purpose, the annual conference adopts different perspectives. Drawing attention to humanity as a whole on a planetary scale, the age of the Anthropocene elucidates the tremendous extent to which humanity has now become an all-encompassing geological force. What follows from these considerations for the social and cultural sciences?

By differentiating humanity historically, economically as well as culturally, more specific social constellations come into view. Is the exploitation of nature a characteristically "Western" phenomenon rooted in an instrumental understanding of nature requiring far-reaching cultural change to be overcome? Or does the economic mode of capitalism mainly produce the destruction of the ecosystem? Can there be a social-ecological transformation at all within an economic regime of permanent capital accumulation?
All prospects for socio-ecological change depend on what futures are assumed to be likely. Can "sustainable futures" be achieved through ecological modernization or profound societal transformations, given that we are dealing with a crisis that is, in principle, still surmountable? Or is the earth system already leaving the planetary boundaries of a habitable planet? Are we heading for a global civilizational collapse?

Registration is open:

If you would like to participate, please register by sending an e-mail to: zukuenfte.der.nachhaltigkeit"AT"uni-hamburg.de 

Registered participants will receive further information and the Zoom access details shortly before the conference.

For more information on the conference program, please visit the Website.