Workshop 1: Human Values in a More-than-Human World

The “person”, understood as a right-bearing, responsible agent, is a central concept in modern democratic societies. But now this notion of personhood is increasingly contested in the light of current societal challenges: 

• Rights are ascribed to non-human entities too, such as nature (posthumanism)
• human physical or mental capabilities are enhanced through robotics and AI (transhumanism).  
   

This poses new key questions on how to understand human values: 

• What does it mean politically, socially, technically and economically when the notion of personhood is expanded to non-human entities, e.g. through the increased focus on biodiversity?
• Can the notion of the person as a unitary entity be developed when human capabilities are enhanced or altered by medico-technology, virtual reality and AI?
• How can human values be expanded and developed to be able to set the set the agenda and drive the development of collaborative forms of AI and other emerging technologies? 
   

Workshop 2: Human Values in Desirable Transitions

How to engage people in the green transition? Europeans live in societies of affluence and materialistic overabundance, spurred by an ideology of growth. A change of consumer practices is therefore a prerequisite for a more sustainable future.

Until now, the dominant strategy for bringing about sustainable change has been to appeal to rational and moral choices; however, this has not been effective because people make choices also based on desire. To mobilise people for sustainable practices therefore requires an acknowledgement of the pleasures of sustainable consumption. 

Key questions to be addressed: 

• How to become a joyful consumer within the boundaries of sustainability?
• How can “alternative hedonism” be developed as an attractive way of life and an economy of well-being?
• How can shared beliefs in “alternative hedonism” be promoted and what kinds of social symbolism does this imply? 
   

Workshop 3: Human Values in a Globalised World

 

The value of Western ideas about democracy and human rights has been increasingly contested by emerging political and economic powers as ethnocentric and biased and thus not applicable on a universal basis. On the other hand, globalisation has itself destabilised and polarised the relations between social groups inside Western societies. In connection with this, the transfer of manufacturing to emerging economies has led to loss of jobs in Western societies, deskilling parts of the labour force, and the emergence of a new ‘precariat’. In Western societies, conflicts between elites and masses, centre and periphery and urban and rural areas have thus been reconfigured in economic as well as cultural and political terms

Key questions to be addressed are: 

• How can the tensions between universal human values (rooted in physical, psychological, or existential properties, shared by all or most members of the species) and cultural relativities (due to historical, social and/or contextual factors) be understood and negotiated?
• Can Western values be explained, developed and disseminated in a world that is increasingly multipolar?
• What is the fate of concepts like human rights, or universal freedoms and privileges, in a world deeply in torsion around such concepts?
• How can a new cultural concordance of mutual recognition between distinct social, cultural and economic groups be furthered in Western societies?