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AULA MEETING OF MINDS
WORKSHOPS |
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From the perspective of self-organizing practice, five themes will be given special interest. They are:
The above five themes run through all of the case presentations. Focusing on these themes may help us define general principles of self-organizing real world social systems (see figure below). 
The workshops will be held on Saturday, 15 Sept. from 13:30 to 16:30. Workshop participants can already meet at lunch following Saturday morning's talks (there will be a restaurant cabinet reserved for each workshop near Aula). The workshops will take place in these cabinets during the afternoon. Workshop 1: Valta & demokratia (Power & democracy) Language: Finnish Organizer: Ari Tammi (Decretum) Discussant: Marko Latvanen (Valtikka.net) Tietoyhteiskunnan tunnusmerkit viittaavat myllerrystason muutosprosesseihin. Mitä tämä tarkoittaa politiikassa, poliittisessa vallassa ja perinteisessä demokratiassa? Onko paitsi antiikissa, erityisesti maatalousyhteiskunnassa kehitetty länsimainen ja pitkistä välimatkoista aiheutunut välillinen demokratia elinkelpoinen maailmassa, missä aika ja paikka menettävät kehittyvän teknologian seurauksena merkitystään? Millaista on kansalaisyhteiskunnan demokratia, joka rakentuu yhteistyön, verkostojen, uusien prosessien, palveluiden ja kansalaisten varaan? Muuttuuko lopulta mitään, vai eivätkö vallanpitäjät halua että mikään muuttuu? Digidemokratia herättää päivä päivältä yhä useamman mielessä ajatuksia uudenlaisen demokratian mallista. Mitä tämä tarkoittaa käytännössä? Millainen on suomalaisen yhteiskunnan digidemokratiamalli? Mitä käytännössä on jo kokeiltu, mitä lähitulevaisuudessa voidaan kokeilla? Voidaanko alhaalta ylös rakennettu edustuksellinen demokratia, joka käytännössä johtaa keskitettyyn vallankäyttöön ylhäältä alas, korvata tulevaisuudessa nykyistä paremmalla rakenteella? Monet varsinkin kansalaisjärjestöjen piirissä toteavat, että länsimainen demokratia ei enää toimi, mutta parempaakaan järjestelmää ei ole keksitty. Uskallatko sinä aloittaa keksimisen? Uskallatko ajatella demokratian ja kansanvallan uusiksi? Onko tulevaisuuden demokratia verkkokansan valtaa, vai verkossa välittyvää kansanvaltaa? Vai miten mahdollisen utopiasi rakennat? Workshop 2: Space Language: English Organizer: Tuomas Toivonen (Aula) Discussants: Timo Cantell (City of Helsinki), Hanna Harris (University of Helsinki) This workshop aims to identify mechanisms by which communication technology changes the way that physical space is used and designed. Material environments are shaped by a multitude of forces, many of them social. How are current shifts in technology and society affecting the way we build cities, live in them and work in them? Specific topics for further discussion include:
Workshop 3: Media & Technology Language: English Organizer: Markus Jokela (Aula) Discussant: Prof. Frans Mäyrä (University of Tampere) Discussion of the relationship between people and technology quickly turns into extremes and opposites: technology either enslaves or liberates, empowers or disempowers its users. Since the days of the Luddites, technology has been a contested and conflicting area of the cultural landscape. Today, new information and media technologies are posed either as the benevolent harbingers of the information society, or as the dehumanising and undemocratic playthings of the techno-elite. This workshop aims to explore the alternative models for our relationship to technology. The starting point is that technologies have their internal characteristics, but they gain their full significance when used in a particular context. The goal is to find some answers to questions like:
Workshop 4: Ethics Language: English Organizer: Aleksi Aaltonen (Aula) Discussant: Ulla-Maaria Mutanen (Institute for Design Research) According to philosopher Hans Jonas, new technology has extended the power of human conduct to such an extent that traditional ethics are no longer sufficient to regulate it efficiently. Traditional ’neighborhood ethics’, he argues, were developed in a context where the consequences of human activity were more limited both spatially and temporally.Today, we posses a technology of utopian scale, capable of realizing utopias (and dystopias) that were hardly imaginable a while ago. The realm of the artificial has swallowed the realm of the natural, leaving no place or being on earth immutable to human action, including yet unborn beings. Jonas declares:”The new order of human action requires a commensurate ethics of foresight and responsibility, which is as new as are the issues with which it has to deal. Read more... Workshop 5: Timing Language: English Organizer: Jyri Engeström (Aula) Discussants: Prof. Carole Groleau (Université de Montréal), Jussi Silvonen, Ph.D (University of Helsinki) (From Carole Groleau's introduction): I propose to look at organizations as web of interactions. Interactions repeated through time and space constitute patterns that contribute to ‘organize’ collective action. As communication changes with the integration of new technologies, ‘organizing’ processes sustaining collective actions also evolve. This raises a series of questions: How are web of interactions constituted in these new organizational environment? How do these patterns of interaction change from traditional organizations? How do they change the way members of organizations relate to one another? Does new technology contribute to shape new organizations? How are they different? Read more...
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