The Culture & Lifestyles branch of the Social Trends Institute aims to identify and study contemporary cultural trends with an interdisciplinary and international perspective. To this end, STI organizes various Experts Meetings, assembling a group of scholars who contribute to the analysis of a selected cultural phenomenon. Although Culture & Lifestyles encourages projects of a broad scope and on many different themes, much of the current research has been developed within two broad thematic perspectives: the construction of identity and civil societies in the conditions of an increasingly globalized world.
Ana Marta González of the University of Navarra is the academic leader of Culture & Lifestyles.
Below is a list of all Culture and Lifestyles branch Experts Meetings. Further details about each meeting can be found by clicking on the title.
Being Human in a Consumer Society
In the spring of 2011, STI will invite some of the world's most renowned sociologists, philosophers, and business educators to discuss the implications of the modern consumption paradigm. The meeting will be held March 31- April 2 in Barcelona, Spain at IESE Business School.
Construction of New Realities in Medicine Experts from such diverse fields as psychology, sociology, the history of medicine, bioethics and law presented papers in this meeting in Barcelona from April 15-17, 2010. They were joined by discussants expert in bioethics, social and cultural theory, and philosophy to consider the relationship between the social and medical realms and medicalization in a range of areas such as: re-emerging diseases; addiction; "enhancement;" mental health; abortion and euthanasia.
Care and Professions in a Globalized WorldAt this experts meeting, held in Barcelona from November 5-7, 2009 and chaired by Professor Ana Marta González, STI took on the challenge of examining the tensions between the philosophy of care and modern society and the growing tensions within the caring professions themselves (e.g. nursing, social work, teaching, domestic care, child care, etc).
Family Structures and Globalization in Africa In a larger effort to study family structures and globalization, STI held an experts meeting to discuss these questions in the African context. Led by Ana Marta González, participants met from March 6-8, 2008 at IESE Business School in Barcelona.
Experts on Africa, including scholars from Africa, America and Europe, met to discuss many questions about the effect globalization is having on African family and cultural life. Some of those questions include: How do gender roles affect social change in developing economies, specifically in African contexts? What are the requirements and pitfalls, from a human rights and dignity stance, for African women and society to progress? And what are the cultural implications? Could an “African path” suggest new ways of linking family and economic growth?
Gender Identities in a Globalized World
Confronted with the changing way society views gender, STI undertook an experts meeting to explore the roots and elements of modern gender identity. The experts gathered at Hotel Berna in Barcelona from October 12-14, 2006. This topic, often ignored or dismissed by the old guard in academia, was discussed respectfully and with a view for the mental, spiritual, physical and emotional needs of the whole person.
Led by Professor Ana Marta González, many questions were asked and discussed among the diverse group of experts. Some included: What alternative ways have people found to develop and reinforce their gender identity? What is the role of the body and of social interaction in the definition of gender identity? In what sense have modernization and globalization affected the redefinition of modern identity and the proliferation of different lifestyles?
The varied approaches to these questions, and much more, are contained in
the resulting book, which bears the same title as the meeting.
Fashion, Image, and Identity
On November 26, 2004, STI held its first Experts Meeting on Culture and Lifestyles at the Jolly Hotel in Rome. Prof. Ana Marta González from the University of Navarra presented a background paper and participants were invited to write a paper with their views.
This private event explored questions such as: Why has fashion become so notorious in modern society? Is fashion linked mainly to consumerism? Has fashion anything to do with social identity? What is the best way to preserve subjectivity in an objectifying world? See the resulting book,
Fashion and Identity: A Multidisciplinary Approach.
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