Nachricht *Apologies for cross-posting!*


Dear colleagues,   at the CONTECS final conference, Steve Fuller, George Khushf and Alfred Nordmann will speak about the consequences of technological convergence for the Social Sciences and Humanities. Also, there will be a panel discussion with Steve Woolgar, Daniel Andler, Nigel Cameron and others. Please be invited to this conference and don’t forget to register.  Best wishes and looking forward to see you April 16th in Brussels,   Bernd Beckert and the CONTECS team   «Whither Convergence? What are the key research questions for the Social Sciences and Humanities?» CONTECS final conference Brussels, April 16th, 2008, 9:30-16:45
At the conference, the central results of the EU-project CONTECS (CONverging TEChnologies - and their impact on the Social sciences and humanities) will be presented and discussed. The partners in the project (Fraunhofer ISI, ITAS, University of Oxford and ENS Paris) will suggest a draft research agenda for the Social Sciences and Humanities in Europe in the light of technological convergence. An outline of the agenda together with directions to the venue will be sent to participants soon. Invited speakers will give their comments and assessments of the proposed research agenda and a panel discussion will allow participants to contribute to the discussion.
Questions to be discussed include:

• What are the origins of the convergence debate?
• What are concrete impacts of NBIC (Nano, Bio, Info, Cognitive Science) or
  CTEKS (Converging Technologies for the European Knowledge Society) on R&D activities?  
• What is the role of “Enhancement” and what other narratives of convergence exist?
• Which part does Cognitive Science play in the discussion?
• Is interdisciplinarity the common denominator of the converging technology concept?
• The question of naturalisation: Will natural sciences take over SSH domains?
• What are the relevant ethical questions and what can the technology assessment view contribute to the understanding?

The conference is free of charge. In order to participate you need to register by sending an E-Mail to contecs-conference@isi.fraunhofer.de. This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Please notice that the number of participants is limited to 60 people.

Project website: www.contecs.fraunhofer.de

If you have any questions, please contact:

Dr. Bernd Beckert (Tel. +49(0)721-6809- 171), Silke Just (Tel. +49(0)721-6809-189), Fax: +49(0)721-6809-315
at Fraunhofer ISI, Karlsruhe, Germany or just send an E-Mail  contecs-conference@isi.fraunhofer.de