Europe is changing - partly voluntarily, partly forced by the
restructuring of the world economy and accompanying processes. During
these turbulent times we invite to a symposium in Vienna, at least
geographically at the heart of central Europe, to join our intellectual
forces. A necessary step to master Europe's metamorphosis, to design a
civilized and democratic path to an improved European unification
process, is to understand how the current problems emerged. As
scientists our social responsibility consits in providing a description
of reality that is as adequate as possible and thus helps to anticipate
future options. This is exactly what this symposium is aiming at. So
let me welcome you to two days of intense discussions in an open and
highly transdisciplinary environment.
Hardy Hanappi
As the workshop has successfully taken place, we want to thank all participants for their constructive input. We would also like to let you know, that the project "Metamorphosis" is not over. Therefore we will also provide a list with information about all participants as an entry point for further connection and communication and we gladly invite you to watch the videos that captured our whole discussion.
Please click the respective topics for further diagrams related to
the issue.
You can find the full (preliminary) program here for dowloading:
Program and Schedule
This meeting will focus on an analysis of the currently endangered further unification of Europe’s political economy. After the severe internal troubles that the handling of the government debt crisis in Europe caused, now the external flow of immigrants to Europe is challenging the European Union. Both types of difficulties showed that the current institutional setting of the EU is rather inadequate – to say the least. And in both cases it is evident that the apparent deficiencies cannot be reduced to a sub-optimal institutional design (a matter of legal design) or an inappropriate communication strategy (a ‘marketing’ failure). The roots of these challenges are deeply ingrained in the basics of the political economy of the whole unification process.
The first International Workshop on the Metamorphosis of Europe that took place in Vienna in December 2013 was already confronted with the situation that the global crisis that started in 2008 would force Europe to undergo substantial changes, changes in economic and political structure and changes in decision mechanisms. In a very fruitful debate this workshop not only enhanced the knowledge of the participants with respect to the object of investigation, we also had a vivid discussion on adequate methods of the social sciences. The upcoming Symposium Metamorphosis of Europe – Step 2 will take this structure to the next level.
As we are already observing in the last two years, metamorphosis has set in. Be it the outcome of EU elections or several national elections, be it the fact of further disintegration of labor markets, be it the more and more Germany-centered decision hierarchy, the signs of a possible EU-exit are getting hard to ignore. But given the tremendous increase in general welfare, which the European integration process has brought about during the last 60 years, the stakes are high for those who propose to leave this trajectory. At the same time it now is evident that growth of welfare can only continue with a more sophisticated relationship to changes in the production sphere and its environment. A particular focus has to be laid on the global environment, the economic and geopolitical place of Europe in the world - troubles on a new South-Eastern border are pending.
On the first day of the meeting we thus will focus on most important recent developments in Europe: Immigration, unemployment, finance, and inequality. As in our first workshop, the result of day 1 shall be a (revised) vision of Europe’s future.
The second day will focus on the methods with which scientists can support economic policy to get Europe closer to this vision. Here we will focus on econometrics (and the data it needs to be helpful) as well as on simulation models providing (quantitatively specified) scenarios. The result of day 2 could eventually be the formation of working teams further developing the ideas elaborated during the meeting.
The sessions will be structured by short introductory statements (20 minutes) followed by extensive open debates. Participation in the conference is free, snacks and coffee will be provided. Moreover some arrangements for lunch and dinner will be offered.
We cordially invite you to a dinner together at the end of the first day at Restaurant Wiener Wirtschaft, which is close to our workshop venue and the recommended hotels.
The conference will be hosted by the Austrian Chamber of Labour: Vienna (Austria), 1040, Theresianumgasse 16-18.
Following you can find a list of recommended hotels which are all
located in proximity of the Technical University of Vienna and
therefore
also the location of the event, the Austrian Chamber of Labour.
They are sorted by price category (special offers might change the
order). All of them have very good to excellent ratings on sites like
Booking.com:
Hardy Hanappi
Ad personam Jean Monnet Chair for Political Economy of European
Integration
hanappi@tuwien.ac.at
If you have any questions regarding the organization, please contact
Markus Rohringer
markus.rohringer@tuwien.ac.at
This workshop is organized by viper:
