Matrix Distinguished Lecture: Dr. Helga Nowotny
Founding Member, European Research Council
Matrix is located on the 8th floor of Barrows Hall, on the UC Berkeley campus, near Telegraph and Bancroft Avenues, just up the hill from Sather Gate. There are entrances at both ends of the building, but only one of the elevators on the eastern side goes directly to the 8th floor. You can alternatively take the stairs to the 7th floor and walk up the stairs.
Social Science Matrix Distinguished Lecture
Dr. Helga Nowotny: "An Orderly Mess"
Social Science Matrix is proud to welcome Helga Nowotny, Professor emerita of Science and Technology Studies, ETH Zurich, and a founding member of the European Research Council. In 2007 she was elected ERC Vice President and from March 2010 until December 2013 President of the ERC. Currently she is Chair of the ERA Council Forum Austria, member of the Austrian Council and Vice-President of the Council for the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings.
Abstract
Messiness is a familiar condition – it forms the background of our daily life and of society. While we normally take it for granted, it is also an expression of resilience against disorder that threatens to take over once we face forces beyond our control. In her presentation, Professor Nowotny will focus on the temporal and spatial dimensions in which messiness becomes apparent today: broken time lines and fragmented spaces. Messiness is framed by a blurring of the world orderings inherited from modernity. Against the backdrop of rapid computerization and the rise of algorithms, we may find ourselves again in a phase of transition toward new ways of world ordering. What would it entail, especially for the social sciences?
Biography
Professor Nowotny holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Columbia University, NY. and a doctorate in jurisprudence from the University of Vienna. She has held teaching and research positions at the Institute for Advanced Study, Vienna; King’s College, Cambridge; University of Bielefeld; Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin; Ecole des Hautes Etudes an Sciences Sociales, Paris; Science Center for Social Sciences, Berlin; Collegium Budapest; Budapest. Before joining ETH Zurich, Professor Nowotny was Professor for Science and Technology Studies at the University of Vienna.
Among others, Nowotny is Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and continues to serve on many international advisory boards in Austria and throughout Europe. Just to mention a few she is Member of the Steering Board of the Falling Walls Foundation, President of the Board of Trustees of the Institute for Human Sciences Vienna and Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the L’Institut d’études avancées de Paris. She has published widely in Science and Technology Studies, STS, and on social time.
Throughout her professional career Helga Nowotny has been engaged in science and innovation policy matters and continues to serve as advisor at national and EU level. From 2001 till 2005 she was Chair of the European Research Advisory Board, EURAB, advising the European Commission.
Professor Nowotny has published more than 300 articles in scientific journals. Her new book The Cunning of Uncertainty, has been published by Polity Press in October 2015. Her latest book publications include Naked Genes, Reinventing the human in the molecular age, (with Giuseppe Testa), MIT Press, 2011, Insatiable Curiosity, Innovation in a Fragile Future, MIT Press, 2008, and Cultures of Technology and the Quest for Innovation (ed.), New York and London, 2006.
