Language and the Scientific Imagination

[i]THE 11th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF ISSEI (International Society for the Study of European Ideas): [/i] 28 July – 2 August 2008 University of Helsinki, Language Centre According to UN-Habitat, the majority of world's population lives nowadays in cities. Urban studies, as academic discipline concentrating on this form of agglomeration, has become a relevant research field, both in the social sciences and in humanities. In this workshop, we would like to bring together scholars from various disciplines to discuss themes, approaches and methods of analysis related to the study of cities. Since the 1990s, culture and creativity have become new catchwords in urban development and a growing number of cities have started promoting themselves with tools ranging from local art scenes and heritage to technological innovation and urban regeneration, from urban design to architecture. At least on rhetoric level, authenticity and locality started to matter in a new positive way, reflected also at the level of representation. The cultural industries (popular music, tv, cinema, publishing...) rediscovered the city as a fruitful partner, inspiration or theme. We are particularly interested in the contemporary cultural turn in city development and in the way new narratives about urban creativity, regeneration, innovation, gentrification, urban decay and clustering are treated by different disciplines. In addition, we are interested in the popularization of these narratives by cultural industries and in the way policy-makers are using them. The main questions we would like to deal with are: - How do urban planning and urban policies influence the image of cities in art and popular culture, and vice versa? - How does the popularization of city narratives influence the political decision- and policy-making of cities and urban regions? The conference is divided into five sections: 1) History, Geography, Science 2) Economics, Politics, Law 3) Education, Women's Studies, Sociology 4) Art, Theater, Literature, Culture, Music 5) Language, Philosophy, Anthropology, Psychology, Religion Please send your abstract or ask for further information from the session chairs: Giacomo Bottà University of Helsinki [url=mailto:giacomo.botta@helsinki.fi]giacomo.botta@helsinki.fi[/url] Jussi Kulonpalo University of Helsinki [url=mailto:jussi.kulonpalo@helsinki.fi]jussi.kulonpalo@helsinki.fi[/url] Length of Paper: Papers should not exceed 3000 words or 10 double spaced pages, including Notes. Notes need not be included in the presentation of the papers but they should be in the version intended for the proceedings. Deadline: The deadline of submitting abstracts is April 15th. The registration fees and other information can be found on the conference website: http://issei2008.haifa.ac.il/