Academic Events
The Immigration Challenge
Saturday, September 22nd 2012 | 9:30-17:30 | Onassis Cultural Centre-Athens
Alexander S. Onassis Foundation Cultural Center non-profit Organization in cooperation with the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens organized a one-day workshop entitled The Immigration Challenge on Saturday September 22nd 2012 from 9.30 until 17.30 at the Onassis Cultural Centre-Athens. Prominent scientists from around the world as well as from Greece participated in this event.
Modern societies experience rapid political and economic changes such as the economic crisis, the new social movements, the rise of unemployment, poverty, new epidemics etc. As a result, they are expected to adopt a new attitude towards today’s responsibilities and tomorrow’s challenges. These conditions as well as the transitional and turbulent context, in which modern societies have found themselves, render the need to re-examine the issue of immigration quite urgent.
This workshop aimed at creating a communication channel where different opinions will be expressed by representatives of the political and social sciences, the humanities and the arts, thus allowing for a fruitful and creative dialogue on the issue of immigration, to be seen as a challenge within the new conditions that have been formed on an international level and with a strong presence in Greece today as well. The workshop was part of the wider problematic in Platonic philosophy that questions the responsibility of the state and focuses on today’s responsibilities and tomorrow’s challenges.
The discussion focused on four thematic sessions which attempted to analyze the immigration challenge: social sciences, education, urban landscape and art.
The speakers for each session were the following:
Social Sciences: Professor Riva Kastoryano (CNRS, Paris) and Professor George Prevelakis (Sorbonne, Paris I)
Education: Professor Leonie Herwartz-Emden (University of Augsburg) and Professor Thalia Dragona (University of Athens)
Urban landscape: Professor Guy Burgel (Paris Ouest-Nanterre) and Professor Panayotis Tournikiotis (National Technical University of Athens)
Art: Professor Ulrike Hanna Meinhof (University of Southampton) and Mihalis Afolayan (ΑSANTE, ANASA)
Chairs for each session: Professors Konstantinos Tsoukalas, Georgios Babiniotis, Ioannis Polyzos and Vana Xenou.
Respondents for each session: Nikodemos Maina Kiniwa, Christina Veikou, Thomas Maloutas and Heracles Moskoff.
