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Preparatory Events

The procedure of INST may be a little unusual, but it has shown that science and research do not only have to accept what is given, but that suggestions are absolutely encouraged.

For example, an INST-Delegation in 1996 visited the then EU-Commissioner Edith Cresson, in order to discuss the cultural sciences in Europe. This was followed in 1998 by a presentation on the topic "Cultural Sciences and Europe" in the Committee on Culture of the European Parliaments and in 2000/2001 by participation in the development of the project "Cultural Policy of the EU-Member States. Perspectives for the 21st Century". On 3 September 2003 the General Director of UNESCO, Matsuura, presented the book "Knowledge for Sustainable Devolopment"at the UN-Summit in Johannesburg, which included two INST-contributions on the topics "Culture, Civilization and Human Society" und "Literature and the Fine Arts."

The conference "The Unifying Aspects of Cultures," which took place from 7 to 9 November 2003 in the Austria Center in Vienna, was extensively prepared by a series of events and projects.

1. Conferences

Multilingualism, Transnationalism, Cultural Sciences
Vienna, 6 to 9 December 2001
TRANS 13

The Contemporary of the Uncontemporary
Vienna, 6 to 8 December 2003
TRANS 14

2. TRANS-Presentations

On the occasion of 5 years of TRANS, the book "TRANS. Dokumentation eines kulturwissenschaftlichen Polylogversuchs im WWW (1997-2002)" was presented at the book fair in Frankfurt am Main which took place from 9 to 14 October 2002. Additional world-wide presentations followed. These presentations serve to introduce the methods and procedures of INST and to make its public relations work known.

3. Encyclopedia of Multilingual Cultural Sciences

The Encyclopedia, despite its limitation to three working languages (German, English, French), serves to make possible knowledge of the content and context of key terms in other languages. For example, of the concept "culture."

4. The Names of the Mountains

At the initiative of INST the General Assembly of UNESCO on 31 October 2001 passed a resolution, which declared that the UNO-Year of the Mountains was not only limited to aspects of agriculture, but that culture was also to be considered an essential factor. This idea was also taken into consideration at the Global Mountain Summit in Bishkek, where the INST-World Project of Mountains was presented.

5. Additional Events

Smaller events and cooperations also play a role in the preparation of the conference. They include:

5.1. "The Refrigerator Revolution"

3. Memminger Conversations in the Landestheater Schwaben on 12/13 April 2003

5.2. Section: Interkulturality, Transnationality, Multilingualism"

6th Congress of the Germanists in Sibiu, to be held from 26 to 29 May 2003.

5.3. Workshops for the preparation of the theater section and a Cyber section.

THE UNIFYING ASPECTS OF CULTURES

WEBDESIGN: Peter R. Horn
LAST UPDATE: 2003-03-05