About this blog.
Here, researchers from the University of Oldenburg and guest authors write about how societies perceive and thematise themselves, how they reassure themselves of their respective present and, in doing so, project themselves into the future.
How are these self-perceptions and self-designs connected to institutions, media and techniques for shaping nature, society and subjectivity? How do they model everyday life and encourage people to behave in a certain way? How are these interventions in the given justified and legitimised, but also criticised, rejected or undermined?
These questions, whose interdisciplinary reflection is one of the central concerns of the Research Centre "Genealogy of the Present", are explored by the bloggers from different specialist perspectives and contexts of activity with a view to controversial topics such as migration, inequality, digitalisation, crime, health and ecology.
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Shaping the future - film documentary
by Team
As part of the "Shaping the future" project, the WiZeGG hosted a series of events from 5 to 7 June 2019 entitled "Shaping the future. A week in June in Oldenburg". The "June Week" opened up the space for a public dialogue on topics that are considered to be particularly relevant for the transformation of contemporary society: Sustainability, migration and digitalisation. Discussions centred on how the interplay between science, politics and the media publicity gives rise to drafts for the future in relation to these topics, why some drafts are more likely to be heard than others, what interventions in social processes such drafts entail and what consequences this has or can have. The trailer available in this blog post provides insights into the series of events and allows the organisers, speakers and audience to have their say.
The following events took place in June:
5 June 2019, 5.30 pm, Edith-Russ-Haus for Media Art: The Imaginary of the Algorithm. Scenarios of a digitalised future.
Lecture performance by Zach Blas (artist in residence at the Edith-Russ-Haus) and panel discussion with Robert Seyfert (academic advisor at the Institute of Sociology at the University of Duisburg-Essen), Tilo Wesche (Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oldenburg), Nele Heise (media scientist, iRights e.V., Otherwise Network).
6 June 2019, 6 p.m., Exerzierhalle: Ways out of the present. Migration Society 2040
Performance by Fatih Çevikkollu "The mother of all problems" and panel discussion with
Yasemin Karakaşoğlu (Professor of Intercultural Education, Spokesperson for the Council for Migration), Max Czollek (poet, essayist, curator and member of the authors' collective G13), Aladin El-Mafaalani (Professor of Political Science; Head of Department at the Ministry for Children, Family, Refugees and Integration in Düsseldorf), Sheila Mysorekar (journalist; Chair of the association Neue deutsche Medienmacher) and Fatih Çevikkollu.
7 June 2019, 6 p.m., Polyester: Our common future (ability)? A long evening of discussion
Lecture by Björn Wendt (University of Münster) followed by a cartoon-based discussion.