Public and Private in the contemporary age: Sliding Borders

Public and Private in the contemporary age: Sliding Borders. Spaces society arts and changing

" We take great pleasure in announcing the Congress Public and Private in the contemporary age: Sliding Borders, organized by the Centre for Comparative Studies of the University of Lisbon, and to be held in the Faculty of Letters of the University of Lisbon in October 13-14, 2011.
This conference proposes a reflection on the theme of Public and Private and on the changes related to these two concepts from the second part of 20th century. The borders between these two concepts have been gradually sliding, as well as our needs and sensations.
Man as social animal and as entity in continuous cognitive evolution tries to develop new strategies for his protection and exposition, relation and isolation. Our intimacy is more represented, exposed, nevertheless more and more unreachable and protected, distant from the other because of a continuous over-exposition. And above all does public means belonging to Everybody or to Nobody nowadays? To what extent does Privacy correspond to Intimacy and vice versa?
Our intent in this occasion will be to determine the alteration of our time considering fundamental paradigms of our social living and questioning them beside the contemporary age. The main interest of this conference is the exchange of opinions and scientific results between different areas of study, but our reflection will focus on the way the concepts of private and public are changing, and how these changes are recognizable in our society: in the organization of spaces, in its rhythms and in its relationships, in its juridical organization, in the description of its demands and frustrations, even in the concept and image of the human body and its exposition and manipulation.
Our need of privacy and of public exposition changed deeply in the last 60 years, we propose to start from this point of view in order to define the main paradigms to understand our own reality and man's new necessities and expectations. "

Keynote speakers:

· Professor Thierry Paquot , Urban philosophy

· Professor Stefano Rodotà, Juridical Sciences

· Professor Jorge Figueira, History of Contemporary Architecture, Coimbra University

· Professor Julien Glauser, Anthropology and Urban studies

· Doctor José Pedro Regatão, History of Art

· Architect Didier Fiuza Faustino

· Journalist and author Bernardo Carvalho.

Speakers should be prepared for a 20-minute presentation followed by questions. Please send a 250-word abstract, as well as a brief biographical note (100 words) to: publicoeprivado@fl.ul.pt Este endereço de email está protegido contra spam bots, pelo que o Javascript terá de estar activado para poder visualizar o endereço de email by June 30, 2011. Proposals should list paper title, name, institutional affiliation, and contact details.

Possible topics include but are not limited to the following:

· Public/Private and the medias;

· Description of private space in Literature and in the other arts;

· New conflicts between public and private in architecture and site-specific art;

· Psychological changing related to the experience and the interpretation of private space/public space;

· Anthropological interpretation of public places and the social dynamics;

· Diatopic vision of Public and Private, comparison between different cultures and criteria;

· Intimacy and Migration, leaving intimacy behind: this topic can be developed in the context of the analysis of literary and artistic works as well as referring data of socio-anthropological researches.

Conference fees:

· Paper presentation: 50€ (including dance performance on October 12, 9 pm).

· Participation with certificate: 10€.

· Participation without certificate: Free entrance.