Academy of Social Sciences in Australia
Western realism and romanticism
presented by Professor John Braithwaite
You are invited to a special evening in honour of former UQ Professor of Sociology John Western AM. Professor John Braithwaite from the Australian National University will present the inaugural John Western Memorial Lecture 'Western Realism and Romanticism'.
The error of realism as a theory of international relations is analysed by pondering the 'romantic' though partial rise of democracy in places like the Philippines (the 'people power' revolution of 1986), Eastern Europe 1989, Tunisia and Egypt 2011, and the realism of how Australia responded to the invasion of East Timor after 1975.
Reasons and remedies why a networked democracy movement might develop into a governance of tyranny are then considered. The lecture moves on to address realist managerialism versus a politics of hope for the future of the social sciences including sociology and for Australian universities more broadly. It concludes with some consideration of John Western as both realist and romantic, and certainly as a scholar whose legacy is a politics of hope for the future of Australian academic work.
Professor Braithwaite is an Australian Research Council Federation Fellow and Founder of RegNet (the Regulatory Institutions Network) at the Australian National University.
WHEN
Wednesday 28 September 2011
6.00pm to 8.00pm
(Refreshments included at 7.00pm)
WHERE
Auditorium (Level 2)
Sir Llew Edwards Building (14)
The University of Queensland
St Lucia campus
RSVP
Cassandra Mellor
c.mellor@uq.edu.au or 3346 7344
by Friday 23 September 2011
The late Emeritus Professor John Western became the first professor of sociology at UQ and Head of the Department of Anthropology and Sociology in 1970. Some 26 years later, John retired but continued to be an active researcher, writer and doctoral supervisor. He was made a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia in 1984, and was elected to the Swiss Academy of Development in 1989. In 2009, John's dedication to tertiary education and more specifically the development of sociology nationally and internationally was recognised when he became a member (AM) in the General Division of the Order of Australia. John Western passed away on 6 January 2011. The John Western Public Lecture is a biennial public lecture jointly sponsored by the School of Social Science and the Institute for Social Science Research at The University of Queensland to commemorate John Western's contribution to the social sciences.
Last modified: 22 August 2011.