UNIVERSITETETS HJEMMESIDE

ICON: Interculturality, Conflict, and Value Studies

 ICON is an interdisciplinary research unit housed at the department for philosophy and the history of ideas at Aarhus University. The task of ICON is to generate and coordinate research and scholarly inquiry on values from a cross-cultural and intercultural point of view.  Our focus is on both the content of fundamental cultural values and on general issues such as the ontology of values, the role of values in decision making, and the grounding of values (e.g., in religious beliefs and experiences).  

The aim of ICON is to develop and promote intercultural value theory as

1. a theoretical contribution to world philosophy and the history of ideas
2. a practical tool for the constructive transformation of culture-based conflicts at the level of public discourse, in education, international organizations and corporations,  and in social praxis (NGO work).

ICON is the current coordinator of the MINT Global Dialogue Community, an interdisciplinary global network of  researchers and scholars in philosophy, history of ideas, conflict research, psychology, anthropology, sociology, theology, journalism studies, and political science. MINT--which stands for Meetings in Intercultural Thought-- organizes

• a world conference series, the Interculturality Congress Series (2008-2016) which opened in 2008 in Aarhus   (see ICON2008 : Understanding Conflicts--Cross-Cultural Perspectives),  ICON2010 will take place in

    China (Shanghai (to be confirmed)), ICON2012 in South Africa (Cape Town).

• the Global Dialogue Conference Series Aarhus (2009-2011), opening this year with the  Global Dialogue Conference 2009: Responsibility--Climate Change as Challenge for Intercultural Inquiry on Values  
• the biannual assignment of the Global Dialogue Prize (2009-2017 ) .

The unit is to foster the collaboration between AU and VIA on issues of research and education in intercultural competence.

NEWS:

See press releases at www.globaldialogueprize.org.  Download conference brochure for GDC2009 here.