World System in Flux

Transformations since the end of the Cold War and the start of the War on Terror

Please note: This page refers to an event that has already taken place.

Time: Wednesday, 22 March 2006 14:00-15:30
Place: PRIO, Hausmanns gate 7, Oslo

World System in Flux

Almost 40 people took part in the CSCW seminar with Georgi Derluguian, Professor of Sociology at Northwestern University, Chicago.

Many spontaneous and shocking crises in the world system - from the riots in the suburbs of Paris to the uprisings in Andijan, Uzbekistan and Nalchik, Russia, to the angry protests agaist 'blasphemous' cartoons - are triggered by deeper tensions and accumulating disbalances.

Theories and conceptual schemes typically invoked for explaining these events - from the much-abused 'clash of civilizations' to the hopeful 'post-communist transition' - are at best misleading and all too often useless.

There is a need for 'New Political Thinking' - a cliche invented by Mikhail Gorbachev some 20 years ago - that would combine macro-sociology and political micro-analysis. This thinking is in the making.

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