International Conference
Social Changes in the South: interdisciplinary approaches
University of Évora, October 24-25, 2024
Looking at the global and plural South from crossed and interdisciplinary perspectives is the challenge that this congress poses to researchers. The South is understood as a social laboratory which brings together specificities which can be questioned from different points of view, crosses areas of knowledge and uses different methodologies, scales and/or geographies of analysis. Thus, looking to the South in diachrony and temporality, space and time, will allow us to question how human societies faced and face social challenges that had and still have an impact on societies today. Looking to the past in diachrony and temporality will allow us to question how human societies faced and face social challenges that had and have an impact in the present. Looking to the past allows us to understand contemporaneity, leading to constructing a society with knowledgeable and participatory citizens who are better prepared to face future social challenges.
Understanding the construction of the South in the long term, in all its ruptures and continuities, from the Humanities and Social Sciences, is the great objective of this Conference, which invites researchers, teachers, students and other professionals to reflect together on the social challenges of the South.
Interdisciplinary dialogue is intended to articulate the perspectives of thematic and disciplinary areas as diverse as History, Cultural Heritage, Tourism, Museology, Archaeology, Digital Humanities, Pedagogy, Linguistics, Architecture, Demography, Literature or Sociology.
Among the possible topics that could be addressed at this Conference are:
- identities, cultural and religious diversities and social and economic inequalities
- hierarchies and social minorities, resistance and participation of various social groups
- human mobilities, demographic challenges, depopulation and gentrification
- material and immaterial heritage and culture: critical heritage, difficult heritage, decolonisation of culture and challenges to the patrimonialisation of spaces and know-how
- creative industries in the consolidation of more inclusive societies
- tourist enjoyment of cultural heritage and impacts of tourism on contemporary societies
- digital humanities, common textual and linguistic heritages
- memory preservation institutions and other cultural infrastructures (e.g. museums, libraries, archives, local associations, NGOs or others)
- transfer of scientific knowledge to society
- sustainability, technological evolution and industrial transformation
- challenges and opportunities posed by the digital transition
The scope is, however, broad enough to include new and different perspectives on the social challenges facing the South in our global world.
The holding of the 1st International Conference of CIDEHUS in 2024, marking three decades of its existence at the University of Évora, aims to consolidate what has been the guiding principle of its research: looking at the South in its global context, without disciplinary, geographical or chronological ties, promoting the sharing of Knowledge, Understanding, and Science with the academic community and society.
This work is funded by national funds through the Foundation for Science and Technology, under the project UIDB/00057/2020