Target participants: researchers in communication, social sciences, philosophy and related disciplines
Affiliation: ECREA Philosophy of Communication Section with the Department of Sociology, University of Padua
Venue: University of Padua
Date: May 15 2009
Contact: vincenzo.romania@gmail.com
Website: http://www.philosophy-of-communication.eu/
An informal workshop exploring recent research and theory development focussing on complexity, contingency and risk in communication.
Workshop programme
Click here to download the programme in pdf
8:30-9:00 Arrival, Registration
9:00-9:15 Welcome and Opening by the Director of the Department of Sociology
9.15-11:15
Uncertainty and Social Interaction Theory
Jan Fleck, Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH): Rumors: Introducing Uncertainty in the Communicative Process?
Rasco Hartig (Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH): What keeps Social Systems "On Track"? - Communicative Mechanisms and the Reduction of Uncertainty.
Johan Siebers (University of Central Lancashire / IGRS, University of London): Uncertainty in Dialogic Communication - A Phenomenological Approach
Chair: Vincenzo Romani
Department of Sociology, University of Padova
Coffee Break
11.30-13.30
Uncertainty and Global Communication
Steven John Thompson (Clemson University): Images of Horror, Words of Terror: Ambiquity, Risk and Suicide through Global Media
Ludovic Garavattini (Sorbonne): Toward the Concept of Complex Integration
Mabo Khamis, S. Mwinyimbegu (Centre Européen de Recherches Internationales et Stratégiques (CERIS), Belgium): Public campaigns and communication uncertainty in conflict areas in Africa: Evaluation of strategies used by Solidarité pour la Promotion Sociale (SOPROP) in its campaigns on sexual violence against women in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo.
Chair: Johan Siebers
University of Central Lancashire / IGRS, University of London
Lunch break
15.00-17.00
Uncertainty and Scientific Communication
Paolo Magaudda and Andrea Lorenzet (University of Padova): Misunderstandings and Uncertainty in Science Communication.
Mauro Turrini (University of Padova): The Thresholds of Risk as an Area of Negotiation of the Communication of Uncertainty
Vincenzo Romania (University of Padova): The Uncertainty in the Social Definition of Life and Death: Scientific Categories in the Eluana Englaro Case.
Chair: Federico Neresini
Department of Sociology, University of Padova
Coffee break
17.30-18.30 Plenary session and discussion: final remarks
Vincenzo Romania (moderator)
Johan Siebers (moderator)
All are welcome to attend, registration and travel/accommodation information via the organisers, Vincenzo Romania or Johan Siebers
Workshop brief
Any human communication carries an element of 'risk': uncertainty in communicative performances can occur at different stages and in different forms, involving both individual and collective actors.
In particular, it can regard:
(1) from an interactionist perspective, the framing of the situation - what's happening here?;
(2) the transformation of the intentions of the emitting actor(s) to a message adequately perceived and received by the interlocutor(s) - how to tell something that will be understood in the way I\we meant (and how do we know what we mean before we communicate)?;
(3) the possibility, after Luhmann, of a translatability or un-translatability of a message or a discourse between operative distinctions and contrasting codes among the actors involved - how can we understand each other?;
(4) in intercultural terms, a connected process of approximation to the other;
(5) finally, the process of communication itself, intended, in pragmatic terms, as a way to reduce uncertainties or, in the terms of conflict theory, as a way to negotiate among contrasting points of view and systems of meaning.
Because of the centrality of communicative action for the construction, reproduction, mediatisation and reflection of social structures, uncertainty in communication remains a complex and relevant issue for philosophy and for the social sciences.
In short, communicative uncertainties arise on account of different reasons. There is an inherent ambiguity in the communicative exchanges of everyday life due to the features of language, of role taking, and more generally of interaction.
Also, the environments in which communication occurs are becoming more and more complex because of different phenomena such as economical, cultural and political globalization, rapid social change, technological innovation.
We can perhaps say that studying the relation between communication and uncertainty is one of the best ways to understand the emerging features of large scale post-modern social structures.
Our workshop deals with the question how the social sciences approach uncertainty in communication processes in complex societies.
It aims to bring together researchers and educators who are working on uncertainty in communication or related topics.
The workshop will have an informal character, with plenty of room for discussion and interaction.
