The Political Anthropology of Artificial Creation: Technology in Politics, in Economics and in Art

About

The theme of our 2015 Summer School is technology, understood as a modality of ‘artificial creation’. The central aim is to problematize the taken for granted character of technology, most of the time considered as merely the main engine of economic growth and social progress. Indeed, in modern times, many social issues are merely considered 'technical issues', that is, matters of utility or functionality, devoid of any moral or political content, which indicates the extent to which technological thinking predominates in our world. The Summer School will rather turn attention to the problem that ‘artificial creation’ represents for the integrity of beings, as the precondition of artificial change and technological growth is the prior destruction of the authentic integrity of entities, whether inorganic or living, vegetative, animal or human.

Course leader

Dr. Agnes Horvath

Target group

Postgraduate Students of anthropologically-related disciplines or where relevance to post-graduate, phd research is evident.

Course aim

The central aim is to problematize the taken for granted character of technology, most of the time considered as merely the main engine of economic growth and social progress.