“Globalisation during the Cold War: Culture, New Geopolitics and Che Guevara” – the Fourth WeberWorldCafé
16 November 2015, 4:30-8 pm
Literaturcafé im Haus des Buches Leipzig / Gerichtsweg 28, 04103 Leipzig

Che Guevara in Havana (1) (photo: puyol5 under CC BY 2.0)
At first glance, our time appears to be fundamentally different from the period preceding it. During the Cold War, the bipolar conflict generated a comparatively high degree of predictability and apparent certainty. Today we increasingly operate in a very complex transregional political space (global village) in which state and non-state actors, such as international NGOs, multinational corporations and individuals, seek to influence regional and global developments for better or worse. But the process of growing internationalisation and transregionalisation we are currently facing it is by no means a surprising or new phenomenon – and we would like to discuss why.

RE-61-F001 (photo: Johan Oomen under CC BY-SA 2.0)
How much was today’s world order shaped by the Cold War era and its end? What events represent important caesurae of the East-West conflict besides the year 1989, for instance the founding of the United Nations, the Decolonization starting in the 1960s and the catastrophe of Chernobyl etc.? What role did new social, political, and ecological movements, as well as regional and international organisations play in this? How were literature, the visual and performing arts deployed as salient battlefields in the global Cold War? And which changes are difficult to explain from an European point of view or are not a direct outcome of the end of the conflict?
At nine different “topic tables”, participants and experts of the WeberWorldCafé take these questions as their starting point to discuss the era of the East-West conflict from interdisciplinary and transregional perspectives by linking them to a variety of societal, political, economic, cultural, ecological and other points of view from several regions worldwide.
The WeberWorldCafé is an interactive, biannual event format that brings together a diverse group of international experts, young scholars and the interested public. Six to eight people sit at a table and participate in a series of four conversational rounds lasting 25 minutes each. At the end of each round, two experts (“table hosts”) remain at each table while the others travel to the next table.
The WeberWorldCafé “Globalisation during the Cold War: Culture, New Geopolitics and Che Guevara” is an event hosted by the Max Weber Stiftung – Deutsche Geisteswissenschaftliche Institute im Ausland and the Forum Transregionale Studien Berlin in cooperation with the Centre for Area Studies Leipzig and the GIGA German Institute for Global and Area Studies Hamburg. It is curated by Jens Boysen (Deutsches Historisches Institut Warschau) and Steffi Marung (Centre for Area Studies Leipzig). The series WeberWorldCafés is planned and organized by Gesche Schifferdecker (Max Weber Stiftung).
Please register via wwc@maxweberstiftung.de if you like to attend.
3 Antworten
[…] German Institute for Global and Area Studies Hamburg dreht sich am 16. November in Leipzig um “Globalisation during the Cold War: Culture, New Geopolitics and Che Guevara”. An neun Tischen werden Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler in einer Kaffeehausatmosphäre […]
[…] WeberWorldCafé “Globalisation during the Cold War: Culture, New Geopolitics and Che Guevara” will take place on 16th November 2015, 4:30-8 pm at the Literaturcafé im Haus des Buches Leipzig, […]
[…] WeberWorldCafé “Globalisation during the Cold War: Culture, New Geopolitics and Che Guevara”, curated by Jens Boysen (DHI Warschau), Steffi Marung (Centre for Area Studies Leipzig) and Gesche […]