Wednesday 12 September 2007

The Open Society: Outflanking the "Afterworld"



A timely rejoinder to yesterday's post may be found in recent discussions of the legacy of Karl Popper. I imagine that gaining a critical purchase on Afterworld type scenarios, with respect to the fate of "the masses" [sic], could be assisted by thinking through some ramifications of Popper's ideal of the open society in relation to media cultures. At stake is a different kind of openness than a limitless frontier, a milky way of possible consumers, awaiting commodification (haven't yet found out what George Soros does with Popper's "open society", but, as I recall, he's not associated with the academic conference linked to below).



Anyone interested in these related topics might wish to check out the video lectures from a recent conference held at the Institute of Communication, University of Lund at Helsingborg, Sweden:

The official topic of the conference was ‘The Open Society: the Role of Science, Multiculturalism and the Media’.

Go to the link below:

http://www.icomm.lu.se/index.php?id=988

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