The Social Pathologies of Contemporary Civilization

ELTE Faculty of Social Sciences organises an international conference between May 20–21, 2022, titled The Social Pathologies of Contemporary Civilization.

The conference is organized by our lecturer, Dr. habil. Domonkos Sik ( (Department of Social Theory). Besides the Hungarian lecturers, many international scientists will give a lecture at the conference.

The home page of the conference is available here.

The conference languege will be in English. Everyone is most cordially invited to attend!

PROGRAMME

Day 1.  Friday May 20th

9.30 - 9.45h coffee

9.45 - 10.15h Welcome & introductions (conference room): 

• Domonkos Sik  (organizer & host)
• Bert van den Bergh  (on Social Pathologies of Contemporary Civilization)
• Kieran Keohane  (on “Bosch, Pleonexia and Mimesis”; and introducing Nidesh Lawtoo)

10.15 - 11.15h Keynote: Nidesh Lawtoo:  “Homo Mimeticus: A Mirror for Patho(-)Logies of the Future”  (conference room; chair -  Kieran)

11.15 - 11.30h coffee

11.30 - 12.30h Sessions 1 and 2 (parallel)

Session 1: Loneliness and isolation (room 1.71; chair: Bert)

• Keming Yang: “Religion and Loneliness in Europe”
• Jody Moore-Ponce: “Broken Signposts - The unmoored experience of modern individuals”    

Session 2: Paradoxes of Solidarity (conference room; chair: Carmen)

• Robert Bolton: “’Unacknowledged Shame’ in Modernity - The Obstacle to Solidarity”
• Domonkos Sik: “From the paradoxes of ‘organic solidarity’ towards the actor-networks of emergency”

12.30 - 14h Lunch A38 ship

14-15h Sessions 3 and 4 (parallel)

Session 3: Solidarity and Covid (room 1.71; chair: Jody)

• Felicity Daly: “Exposing fault lines in solidarity in the COVID-19 response: analysing the Houses of Oireachtas Special Committee”  (online)
• Angela Flynn:  “’We’re all in this Together’: Solidarity and Collectivism in the context of COVID-19”

Session 4: Kinship, Alienation and Reification (conference room; chair: Domonkos)

• Sara Abutaleb: “Kinship and its Effect on the Social Ties in the Middle East”
• Csaba Olay: “Lukács’s conception of reification in the light of recent interpretations”

15 - 15.15h coffee

15.15 - 16.15h Sessions 5 and 6 (parallel)

Session 5:  Psy Praxes (room 1.71; chair: Angela)

• Melissa Isabella Meyer: “Disconnect or Dissonant: Uncovering and exploring the origins and implications of what it means to be ‘untethered’ through through interviews with counsellors in Ireland”
• (Carmen Kuhling:  “’It would be good to talk to someone’: A Discourse analysis of Representations of Psychotherapy on Irish Radio”

Session 6:  Suffering and Euphoria (conference room; chair: Kieran K)

• Dominik Koesling: “From suffering to solidarity: Remarks from (early) critical theory’s critique of society”
• Kieran Bonner:  “Desire and Euphoria: Drinking, Thinking and Thoughtlessness”

16.30 - 17.30h “Musical – Visual Intermezzo” by Elke van Buggenhout, Adriaan Severins and Ans Mertens, followed by conversation & discussion  (conference room; intro: Bert)

17.30h City walking tour  (guide: Vigvári András )  and on to dinner, at Koleves

 

Day 2. Saturday May 21^nd

9.45 - 10h coffee

10 - 11h Keynote: Máté Zombory: “Social pathology in practice, or how the rise of memory politics put an end to international solidarity”  (conference room; intro & chair: Domonkos)

11 - 11.15h coffee

11.15 - 12.15h Sessions 7 and 8 (parellel)

Session 7: Transformative words and objects (room 1.71; chair: Kieran B)

• Kieran Keohane “’Love loves to love love’: good words that may turn things around”
• Blahoslav Rozbořil, Josef Daněk & Ken G. Hay: "Wooden web - Ground Plan of Togetherness"

Session 8: Public spheres: IRL and Online (conference room; chair: Czaba)

• Amin Sharifi Isaloo: “How tricksters form the public sphere and create schismogenic processes”
• Dániel Hegedűs:  “Solidarity in video blogger discourses online”

12.15 - 12.20h short break

12.20 - 13.20h Sessions 9 and 10 (parallel)

Session 9: Insurgencies and injustices (room 1.71; chair: Melissa)

• Anioke Blessing Nkiruka & Joseph Aigbolosimon Famous:  “Effect of Boko-Haram Insurgency on the Health Status of Internally Displaced Persons in Monguno IDPs Camp, Borno State, Nigeria”
• Sumit Kumar: “Decolonising Justice in India” 

Session 10: Seafarers and Students (conference room; chair: Amin)

• Marjorie Maido: “The ‘Key Workers’: Boosting Seafarers’ Morale and a Solidarity Call among Major Maritime Stakeholders”
• Verdi Ahern: “A re-turn to the University: mimesis reloaded, wherein ‘antidotes contra the pathologies of homo mimeticus…’ are developed and disseminated ‘…via therapeutic forms of mimetic practices’”

13.20 - 14.30h Lunch, A38 ship

14.30 - 15.30h session 11 (plenary)

Session 11: Against (neo)liberalism? (conference room; chair: Sumit)

• Bert van den Bergh: “Isolism and populism: the blood-curdling case of TB”

15.30 - 16.00h coffee; and Book Launch:  Domonkos Sik (2022), Empty Suffering: A Social Phenomenology of Depression. London: Routledge   (conference room; chair: Máté Zombory)

16.00h transport to Budapest Museum of Fine Arts for  Bosch exhibition

20h Dinner at  Mostbisztro

WHEN?

The conference will be held on the 20th and 21nd of May.

WHERE?

ELTE Faculty of Social Sciences, Room 0.100.A and 0.100.C (H-1117 Budapest, Pázmány Péter sétány 1/A)

Online: TEAMS

Day 1.  Friday May 20th

• 09:30 - 17:30h Section 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 11: TEAMS link
• 10:00 - 17:30h Section 1, 3, 5, 7, 9: TEAMS link

Day 2. Saturday May 21^nd

• 09:30 - 17:30h Section 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 11: TEAMS link
• 10:00 - 17:30h Section 1, 3, 5, 7, 9: TEAMS link