Toward the end of the twentieth century, the Cold War ended and “globalization” became a key word in public discourse. The new configuration allowed people to ask, with relief or anxiety, what might happen next. A small but lively intellectual industry rose to the challenge, creating scenarios for a born-again world. As the world turned, new worlds could be imagined, assumes Ulf Hannerz.


9/11 sparked another wave of global commentary. Hot wars in Central Asia and the Middle East, followed by economic upheavals that spread rather unevenly across the world, affected shifts in global centers of gravity. This again generated more new scenarios for the world. Often the future visions could be encapsulated in striking catch phrases: “the end of history,” “the clash of civilizations,” “Jihad versus McWorld,” “soft power,” and others.

The 2014 Eric Wolf Lecture scrutinizes world scenarios as a genre of creative writing, while also considering their role as a set of representations of the world, which are now circulated, received, and debated in a worldwide web of social relationships. As a contemporary sociocultural phenomenon, the scenarios emerge from a zone of knowledge production where academia, media, and politics meet. The authors are “global public intellectuals.” While anthropology has contributed little to world scenarios directly, these writings deserve attention for the way they offer a “big picture” of the world and mobilize cultural understanding.

Am Folgetag, dem 11. November, besteht die Möglichkeit zur Diskussion mit Ulf Hannerz.
Moderation: Ayşe Çağlar (Institut für Kultur- und Sozialanthropologie, Universität Wien)
Zeit: 16.00–18.00 Uhr, Ort: IFK, [E]


Eine Kooperation des IFK mit dem Institut für Sozialanthropologie (ISA) der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften und dem Institut für Kultur- und Sozialanthropologie der Universität Wien.

Programm 9th-Eric-Wolf-Lecture Programm_9th-Eric-Wolf-Lecture.pdf (510,7 kB)