1.University of Tampere and the Academy of Finland

organize

The 2nd International Conference, Tampere, September 6-8, 2010 titled,

"Power & Knowledge"

Inspired by the great success of the first conference (Power: Forms, Dynamics and Consequences, September 22-24, 2008), we carry on probing questions of power. This time the conference concentrates on the links between power and knowledge. As is well known, Michel Foucault argued that power and knowledge are like two sides of the same coin. There are however many other approaches and research traditions that tackle the role of knowledge production in affecting and constituting power relations. What are the roles of science, research and research-based knowledge production in promoting policy models? Does scientific research or evidence-based consultancy save the world and lead us to a better future? What effects does the key role of knowledge production in contemporary societies have on power and politics? How are the established databases and statistical classifications of the public and private organizations constructed and reproduced? What is the role of everyday knowledge in society? What is the relationship between knowledge and resistance? By bringing together scholars who approach these questions from different angles this conference will advance our understanding about power relations in social reality.

Keynote speakers will include:

• Patrick Carroll (University of California, Davis, US)
• Susan Haack (University of Miami, US)
• Sandra Harding (University of California, Los Angeles, US)
• Sakari Hänninen (National Institute for Health and Welfare, THL, FI)
• Michael Mann (University of California, Los Angeles, US)
• Yuval Millo (London School of Economics and Political Science, UK)
• Soile Veijola (University of Lapland, FI)
• TBA - Unfortunately Gili S. Drori had to cancel her presentation. Another speaker (tba) will replace her presentation.

Sessions include

• Authority, Experience & Power
• Bourdieuan elaborations of power, knowledge, body and emotions
• Capitalizing culture. Articulations of culture, knowledge and economy
• Dynamics of Knowledge Creation in Wikis
• Knowledge about the economy
• Knowledge production and the power of the academic profession
• Knowledge, Power and the Environment
• Language and Power
• Leadership for change in sub-national governments. How to deal with resistance?
• Meaning and the Power/Knowledge of the Social Sciences
• Motives and Powerbases in Group Relations, Strategies and International Economic Relations
• Post-colonial theory, power and the uses of knowledge
• Power & Knowledge in Social Work
• Power of Attraction
• The fall and rise of efficiency as a (restored) politics of truth
• The local-global interfaces and domestication of transnational models
• The Politics of Higher Education and Research
• The power of/over the past: re-politicizing the classics
• The Power of Visual Discourse. Theoretical and empirical developments after postmodernity

Call for papers is open from March 1 to May 15.

Conference Website:

Website: http://www.uta.fi/laitokset/isss/tamcess/sovako/power2010/
Contact name: Mr. Olli Nuutinen