News

Prof Bernhard Giesen to Speak on the Challenges of Understanding Social Reality Today

06 September 2010

On Monday, 13th September at 4:30pm Professor Bernhard Giesen of the University of Konstanz will deliver his presentation on “Inbetweeness and Ambivalence – Towards New Horizons in Understanding Social Reality.”

Professor Giesen's presentation will focus on the challenges to identity thinking that emerge from new conditions of global interconnectivity. Traditionally, both in politics and in academic research, society has become used to treating social reality in terms of distinctions, e.g. of class and gender. Social groups are seen and see themselves as having a collective identity. This identity sets boundaries: you are either "in" or "out".

Due to current conditions of global interconnectivity, however, which arise from factors such as economic interdependence, [tele-]communicative interrelations and direct interpersonal relationships in multicultural societies, this kind of thinking is increasingly perceived as problematic, as it can foster fear of “otherness”, ultimately leading to a breakdown in social cohesion and violence.

Professor Giesen’s presentation is open to all, and forms part of DCU’s School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies’ (SALIS) celebration of 30 years as Ireland’s foremost language and intercultural studies school. The presentation will be followed by a question and answer session with discussion, and will finish with a wine reception, sponsored by the Goethe-Institut, Dublin.

Professor Giesen’s presentation will take place in the Seminar Room at the top floor of the DCU INVENT centre. Full details on how to get to DCU are available at www.dcu.ie/info/get_to.shtml.

For planning purposes, please email Caroline Whitston at SALIS to confirm your attendance: caroline.whitston@dcu.ie

About Professor Giesen
Professor Giesen holds the Chair of Macro-Sociology at the University of Konstanz, Germany and is a key partner in that university's cluster of excellence "Cultural Foundations of Integration". Apart from his work on collective identities he has numerous monographs on other topics and is co-author and co-editor of several books. Noteworthy books include his ”Intellectuals and the Nation", "Triumph and Trauma" and "Religion and Politics: Cultural Perspectives".

Professor Giesen is no stranger to DCU. In 2000 he gave the keynote public lecture during the SALIS "Cultural Trauma and National Identity" conference; in 2002 SALIS launched its Cross-Currents in German Studies series with a symposium on his work on collective identity ("Identities under Construction”).

Professor Giesen’s latest book will be published next month: "Zwischenlagen, Das Ausserordentliche als Grund sozialer Wirklichkeit” (Inbetweeness - The Extraordinary as the Foundation of Social Reality), Velbrueck, October 2010.