Plenary Speakers
The International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences will feature plenary sessions by some of the world’s leading thinkers and innovators in the field, as well as numerous parallel presentations by researchers and practitioners.
Rom Harré
Gerassimos Kouzelis
The Energy Cultures Team
Garden Conversations
Plenary Speakers will make formal 30-minute presentations. They will also participate in 60-minute Garden Conversations - unstructured sessions that allow delegates a chance to meet the speakers and talk with them informally about the issues arising from their presentation.
Please return to this page for regular updates.
The Speakers
- Rom Harré
Rom Harré was for many years the University Lecturer in Philosophy of Science at Oxford and Fellow of Linacre College. Currently he is Distinguished Research Professor in the Psychology Department of Georgetown University in Washington DC, teaching there in the Spring Semester. He combines this with the post of Director of the Centre for Philosophy of the Natural and Social sciences at the London School of Economics. He began his career in mathematics and physics, turning later to the foundations of psychology. His research has been directed to the use of models and other kinds of non-formal reasoning in the sciences, as well as a long series of studies on the role of causal powers and agency concepts in both natural and human sciences. He has been a pioneer in the development of advanced methods of research in social psychology. His publications include among others Causal Powers (with E. H. Madden); Varieties of Realism; Modelling: Gateway to the Unknown; The Explanation of Social Behaviour (with P. F., Secord).
- Gerassimos Kouzelis
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Gerassimos Kouzelis is Professor of Philosophy of Science and Sociology of Knowledge, and director of the Laboratory for the Study of Greek-German Relations at the Department of Political Science and Public Administration of the University of Athens. He has studied sociology and philosophy at the the Philipps University of Marburg and the Goethe University of Frankfurt (Ph.D. degree in 1986). Research areas: Critical theory, epistemology and methodology of the social sciences, ideology, scientific argumentation, adult education, minorities, philosophical and social aspects of information technologies. Main publications: Das symbolische Mehrprodukt. Entwurf einer Rekonstruktion der Autoritätsthematik der Kritischen Theorie, Frankfurt a.M. 1985; From the World of Experience to the World of Science. On the Social Reproduction of Knowledge, Athens 1992 (in greek); (ed.) Philosophy of Science. A Reader, Athens 1993 (in greek); (ed.) Discipline and Knowledge, Athens 1994 (in greek); Die Propädeutik am Beispiel der Lehrerausbildung. Eine Dokumentation, Frankfurt a.M. 1996; (ed.) Philosophy of Social Sciences. A Reader, Athens 1996 (in greek); (et al.) Critical Theory today, Athens 2000 (in greek); (ed.) Reading and Writing. On the Use of Language in Science, Athens 2001 (in greek); (ed.) In-use Knowledge, Athens 2004 (in greek); (ed.) Knowledge in the New Technologies, Frankfurt 2005; Against phenomena. Epistemology and Teaching Social Sciences, Athens 2005 (in greek); (ed.) Light-Image-Knowledge, Athens 2006 (in greek); A Friendly Society or a Users’ Society? Knowledge, Subjectivity and Culture in the World of New Technologies, Athens 2006 (in greek).
- The Energy Cultures Team
From left to right: Prof Gerry
Carrington, Dr Paul Thorsnes, Dr Janet Stephenson, Prof Rob Lawson, Prof Barry Barton, Dr Miranda Mirosa
Energy Cultures brings together a multi-disciplinary team of researchers in a 3 year project on household energy behaviours based at Otago University, New Zealand.
The ‘Energy Cultures’ research programme applies a novel combination of complementary social science methods to improve understanding of the drivers of household energy behaviours, and to deliver an effective strategy to achieve more energy-efficient behaviours.
Our disciplinary backgrounds include physics/engineering, economics, marketing, sociology/human geography and law. Prof Lawson, Dr Stephenson and Prof Carrington will co-present at the plenary.
Biographies
Prof Gerry Carrington is an Emeritus Professor of Physics, at the University of Otago, New Zealand. His professional speciality is in Energy end-user technology development and deployment; heat pump technology; drying and energy use; energy management education; and integrated energy systems.
Dr Paul Thorsnes is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Economics University of Otago. His current research interests include: Urban Housing; Economics and Policy; Environmental Economics and Policy.
Dr Janet Stephenson is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Agriculture, Food and Environment (CSAFE), University of Otago. Her areas of research interest include perceptions of landscape qualities; social conundrums in energy transitions; and indigenous management of resources.
Prof Rob Lawson is a Professor of Marketing at the University of Otago. He specialises in values, lifestyles and consumer behaviour research.
Prof Barry Barton is a Professor of Law at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. His speciality is in natural resources law and environmental law, including energy law, mining law and property rights in natural resources.
Dr Miranda Mirosa is the Energy Cultures Project Co-ordinator, based at the Centre for the Study of Agriculture, Food and Environment (CSAFE), University of Otago. Her research field is consumer behaviour with a focus on social activism.
