Institute for International Relations

International Conference Session

Media and Cultural Aspects of Civil Society - The Unifying Aspects of Cultures
Vienna, Austria, 7-9 November 2003

The conference session entitled Media and Cultural Aspects of Civil Society will be chaired by Zrinjka Peruško, Head of Department for Culture and Communication, IMO.

Revitalized in the recent decades and updated in the past two hundred years, civil society remains a multi-dimensional concept that has become unavoidable in discussions about post communist transitions and democratic consolidation. If transition is a discursive construction of democratic society, the media and the public domain are the locus where developing elements of values of civil society (like trust, civility, tolerance, as well as diversity, and pluralism) and its definitions may first be recognized. If civil society is a manner of organization of citizens, what new ways of cooperation and communication created by the new information and communication technologies can we recognize? How does the networked society function in the field of culture (which should be most receptive to new forms of civil organization)? Is there an emerging global civil society, created by the networks of communication (and technology)? Can the development of civil society be encouraged by public policy and how does civil society influence the public policy in the field of culture?

Is the contribution of the media positive and enabling, or is the corporate and profit motive predominating? Is insufficient democratic consolidation in European post-communist states the result of a lack of development of independent civil society? What about the democracy and civil society tie in established democracies?

The aim of the session is to explore the multiple issues of communication, media and cultural aspects of civil society, with relation to the processes of democratic transition (in East and West, North and South).

The session invites contributions from different theoretical or methodological persuasions, disciplines, and geographies. The session will be in English. The papers will be published.

Contributions to this section of the conference's Culture/Civilization session include:

• Zrinjka Peruško (University of Zagreb): Media and Civil Society in Central and Eastern European Democratic Transitions
• Nada Zgrabljić (Croatian Radio, Zagreb): Dialogue - Communication Interaction as Ethical Imperative of the Policy of Civil Society
• Hrvoje Butković (Department for Culture and Communication, Institute for International Relations (IMO), Zagreb, Croatia): Research and Theory on Civil Society in Croatia
• Aleksandra Uzelac (Department for Culture and Communication, Institute for International Relations (IMO), Zagreb): Virtual Networks in Culture: Between Citizens and Consumers
• Nina Obuljen (Department for Culture and Communication, Institute for International Relations (IMO), Zagreb): The Role of Civil Society in the Policy-Making Process: Examples of Cultural Policy-Making in Croatia
• Orlanda Obad (Jutarnji list) / Goran Goldberger (Zagreb): Who Is To Blame? An Analysis of the Representation of Responsibility/Guilt in Croatian Print Media

The Unifying Aspects of Cultures

In collaboration with some 250 Section Leaders, the Research Institute for Austrian and International Literature and Cultural Studies (INST) is organizing an international conference under the title The Unifying Aspects of Cultures, which will take place in Vienna, Austria on 7-9 November 2003.

The goal of the Conference "The Unifying Aspects of Cultures" is to analyze and present the importance of culture in contemporary processes in a new way. In particular, the unifying (transnational) aspects of cultural processes will be examined. In this connection special attention will be given to the UNESCO-Documents Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity and UNESCO and the Issue of Cultural Diversity 1946-2000.

The conference theme will be dealt with in the following sessions: Methods/Views, Culture/Civilization, Cultural Processes, Transnationalism, Literatures/Aesthetics, Languages/Communication, Translations, Pedagogy/Education, Culture and Economy, Virtual Space, Culture of Peace.

For more information, see the conference homepage and the detailed sessions listing.