Euroacademia Global Forum of Critical Studies

• When:	Back to Calendar » November 23, 2017 – November 26, 2017 (all-day)
  Where:	Agora Cultural Center Lucca 55100 Italy	View Full-Size Map »
  Contact:	Euroacademia [email protected]
  Categories:	Conference Congress Convention Debate Euroacademia Events Project Symposia Workshop

  The 6th Euroacademia

  Global Forum of Critical Studies

  Asking Big Questions Again

   
   

  23 – 25 November 2017

  Agora Cultural Center
  Lucca, Tuscany, Italy

   
   

  Call For Panels and Papers

   

  Conference Description:

   
   

  Some say that the 21^st Century or modernity altogether made humans more concerned with doing rather than being. As the classical Greek civilization valued most the reflexive thinking as a form of freedom from natural necessities, contemporary times profoundly involve individuals and the imaginary accompanying social practices in a restless logic of consumption, competition and engagement that profoundly – or some would say, radically – suspends or indefinitely postpones the autonomous capacity of human beings to question and reflect upon the social order and the meaning of social practices. The fast advancement of a peculiar logic of post-industrial societies, the gradual dissolution of alternative models to the capitalist logic and a multitude of other alerting factors pushed ahead a global spread culture of one-dimensional productions of meaning that advances a closure rather than a constant reflexive re-evaluation of cultural and social practices.

   

   

  

   

  Many alternatives at hand are often condemned to marginality or lost in the quasi-plural practices where everything goes as long as it’s part of an intellectual market. The ‘fatal strategies’ of post-industrial societies to keep individuals captive, busy and seduced by contingent social arrangements and economic practices minimized the questioning detachment required to evaluate and give meaning through reflexive criticism and unlimited interrogation. Various labels were given to our unfolding times from apocalyptic ones to some more comforting yet, not by chance, lacking some vital optimism. Despite a wide-spread discontent and suspicion towards daily realities of our current societies, most of big questions are often left outside by the self-involved active pursuit of an imagined well-being that is no longer transgressed by harsh critical evaluation of its meaning. The academic arena itself also advances, supports, integrates and promotes limited particular methodologies that generate an effect of mainstreaming and often keeps researchers or practitioners out of the battle-ground for big questions.

   

  The ongoing economic crisis made reality even harsher and pushed ahead the need for more thinking as many habitual categories lost their meaning or relevance. New ways of thinking could transgress some inappropriate conceptions or misconceptions that preserve their centrality due to the mechanics of habit. This is a time when a call to thinking is well-placed. This is a call to arms for critical studies that promotes alternative, questioning and multidimensional thinking. It is based on the belief that thinking more is asking more and the answers come from creative constructive reasoning if left unbiased.

   

  The 6th Euroacademia Global Forum of Critical Studies aims to bring into an open floor the reflexive and questioning interaction among academics, intellectuals, practitioners and activists profoundly concerned with evaluative understandings of the world we’re living in. The focus of the forum is to initiate an arena where no question is misplaced and irrelevant as long as we acknowledge that evaluation, critical thinking and contestation are accessible trajectories to better understand our past, present and alternative scenarios for the future. The Forum is also an open stage for sharing existing or ready formed intellectual visions and expose them to dialogue and scrutiny in a critically reflective environment.