CfP: INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE “TRANSFORMATIONS OF POSTWAR EUROPE: MEDICINE, BODIES AND TECHNOLOGIES”
Dates: 28 – 30 May 2024
Location: Sofia, Bulgaria
The postwar era was marked by the rapid growth of technologies that developed in different social, economic, and political contexts on both sides of the Iron Curtain. Was this development dependent on the specific contexts and how? Or, was it a universal tendency establishing itself regardless of the ideological settings? Did technology playback on ideology? Could it reshape political utopias and institutional practices? The conference aims to explore the transformation of post-war Europe through the lens of medicine, care and related technologies, thus contributing to a deeper understanding of the changing concept of care and hence the changes in relationships between the individual, the society, and the state. Based on the assumptions of the ERC-funded LEVIATHAN project, the emphasis is on the interconnectedness of Europe, on the entangled history that involves different forms of interaction – intersections, exchanges, competition, conflicts – between “the blocs”, between different societies and states.
Technologies are seen in a broad sociological-anthropological perspective as part of biopolitics, i.e., the social and political power governing over bodies and minds, intertwined with technologies of governing the Self. Special emphasis is placed on medical technologies and the variety of ethical issues associated with them and their essential role in defining and changing medical staff–patient relationships.
For more information: