Conferences

Livestreaming

Sunday, May 10^th 2015, at 11.00 a.m., in the Small Hall of the National Theatre, Prof. Dr. Vintilă Mihăilescu will hold a conference addressing the topic of Man and Technology. An anthropological history of the future.

About the conference

“If “eternity was born in the village”, then the future was born ... in Renaissance. Up to modern days, Man had a past; with modernity, the individual has a future. Man takes God’s place and affirms I am what I am; furthermore, I am what I become, according to the unrestricted freedom of the individual. A “mystical” optimism of the future and of the final state of equilibrium (civilization, communism, market, etc.) is established in modern societies, confident in evolution, progress, advancement. And humankind begins to evolve in all sorts of ways...

In time, this “evolution” becomes faster, first of all due to (new) technologies: the rhythm of change grows exponentially and “laws” that ascertain this fact are even issued. But where does this new “evolution” lead to? It takes us towards the elusive horizon of Man’s perfectibility, so dear to the pioneers of innovation – take into consideration the promoters of these new technologies and the Market that uses them. This optimistic “trans-humanism” faces the opposition of the “post-humanism” concerned with the excesses of Man’s domination.

We were told we have arrived at “the end of History”; what follows next? Another future of another type of Man has already begun?” Prof. Dr. Vintilă Mihăilescu

About Prof. Dr. Vintilă Mihăilescu

Vintilă Mihăilescu (born in 1951) is a Professor Ph.D. and the head of the Department of Sociology of the Faculty of Political Sciences, at the National School of Political and Administrative Studies. In 1993, he obtained a Ph.D. in Psychology, with his thesis The Magyars and the natives. An ethno-psychological analysis.

In 1990, he initiated the institution of The Romanian Society for Cultural Anthropology (RSCA), which he chaired from 1994 to 2000. He conducted an extensive research activity at The Romanian Academy’s Center for Anthropological Research. From 1992 to 2000, he was a member of the Société des Européanistes, occupying the position of secretary director for Eastern Europe. From 1997 to 1999, he was the director of The Bucharest Observatory within a PHARE program for Rural Development. Since 1998, he has been a permanent contributor to the Dilema Veche magazine, writing for his column the „Socio-hai-hui”. Starting the same year and up to 2000, he was chief editor of the Yearbook of the Romanian Society of Cultural Anthropology.

He is a member in the scientific council / director: Center for the Study of Balkan Society and Culture (Graz), Ethnobarometer (Rome/Amsterdam), International Association of South-East European Anthropology (London) and South-East European Academic League (Sofia).

He was the beneficiary of numerous scholarships at the Mission du Patrimoine Ethnologique. He was a Visiting Professor to various universities and centers for advanced studies in France, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Canada, Hungary and Bulgaria.

He was the general manager of The Romanian Peasant Museum of Bucharest from 2005 to 2011.

In 2006, he received a distinction from the Romanian President for his services to Romanian culture.

These are some of his works: The fascination of difference (1999), Socio hai-hui. Another sociology of transition (2000), Paysans de l’histoire (co-author, 1992), Neighbors and neighborhoods in Transylvania (coord., 2002), Socio hai-hui through the Archipelago Romania (2006), Anthropology. Five introductions (2006, 2007), Urban ethnographies. The everyday seen up close (coord., 2009), The end of the game. Romania of the past 20 years (2010), The nation’s diapers and the emperor’s clothes. Observations on public anthropology (2013), The story of the stray Leuțu (2013), The fascination of difference. The years of apprenticeship of an anthropologist. (2014).

Translated by Ana-Maria Albu

MTTLC, University of Bucharest