Suchergebnisse

Operations of the Global – Explorations of Dis/Connectivity
6th-8th October 2011

organized by:
Prof. Dr. Urs Stäheli
Dr. Sven Opitz
Ute Tellmann, PhD

How to Think the Global?

Recent debates on globalization have challenged the idea of the globe as a pre-existing and all-encompassing entity. The focus has turned towards different and situated modes of doing globalization. This conference suggests understanding the global as the effect of particular, fragmented and material operations. We seek to explore and compare different forms of dis/connectivity. Finance, diplomacy, law, consumption, transport and migration depend for their global reach on specific forms of connectivity. While finance is tied by networks of information; global commodity chains depend on logistical organization of space. Where political and legal norms travel by citation and standardization, security measures enlist contagious logics of affect. Each form of connectivity is constitutively linked to different materialities and media and is characterized by different temporalities and intensities. At this conference we will ask how different materialities and logics of connectivity intertwine. How do these modes differ in terms of density, speed and diffusion? How can we theorize the materiality of these connective links? Are there tipping points that turn connectivity into disconnectivity?

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On WED, Nov 9, 2011 Richard Bellamy (University College London) will give a talk on "Are International Human Rights Conventions democratically legitimate? Political Constitutionalism and the Hirst Case".

For more information, see the website of the Center for Globalization and Governance

This new volume on language contact and contact languages presents cutting-edge research by distinguished scholars in the field as well as by highly talented newcomers. It has two principal aims: to analyze language contact from different perspectives – notably those of language typology, diachronic linguistics, language acquisition and translation studies; and to describe, explain, and elaborate on universal constraints on language contact. The individual chapters offer systematic comparisons of a wealth of contact situations and the book as a whole makes a valuable contribution to deepening our understanding of contact-induced language change. With its broad approach, this work will be welcomed by scholars of many different persuasions.