Proiectul european se clatina: ideologic, cultural, politic, geostrategic slabiciunile sale nu au fost niciodata mai evidente si mai periculoase. Europa este acum butoiul cu pulbere al economiei si stabilitatii globale. Europa de Est a devenit din nou – gratie eternului geniu impolitic german si maniacalei ambitii imperiale rusesti – spatiul tentatiilor si pericolelor descrise tehnic de Mackinder, Ratzel si discipolii lor, geopoliticeni care au reusit intotdeauna sa ilustreze perfect Teorema lui Thomas: ceea ce oamenii isi inchipuie ca este real, este real in implicatiile sale.
Functionalismul institutionalist, asumptia pe care intreaga teorie si practica a integrarii europene se bazeaza, isi releva astfel limitele. Un experiment social unic – integrarea europeana dirijata – pare sa fie pus in sfarsit in pozitie de evaluare intr-o noua lumina.
Ce mod mai constructiv de a te angaja intr-o conversatie evaluativa decat a revizita si reconsidera gandirea si personalitatea celui mai important, inteligent, realist si in acelasi timp uitat si marginalizat teoritician si designer al intregii idei, ganditorul anglo-american de origine romana David Mitrany?
Universitatea Bucuresti prin Institutul de Cercetari Avansate, Sectiunea Stiinte Sociale, organizeaza pe 1 iulie, la ora 12:00 la sediul vechi al Facultatii de Sociologie din str Schitul Magureanu (langa Cismigiu) o discutie anuntata public sub titlul:
FUNCTIONALISM, INSTITUTIONALISM, AND BEYOND: REVISITING DAVID MITRANY’S INTELLECTUAL LEGACY.
A CONVERSATION.
Sussemnatul – in calitate de Visiting Fellow al Institutului de Cercetari Avansate, Sectiunea Stiinte Sociale – va fi prezentator si moderator. Dincolo de aspectele teorietice si aplicate voi incerca sa prezint si cateva observatii bazate pe cercetarile de arhiva pe care le-am facut la Londra si Washington in jurul ideilor si biografiei lui Mitrany. In ciuda anunturilor si sumarului in engleza, totul va fi in limba romana.
PS: Mai jos este nota oficiala, cu multumiri d-lui profesor Laurentiu Leustean directorul ICUB si d-lui profesor Marian Zulean, directorul Sectiunii de Stiinte Sociale a ICUB, care mi-au facut generoasa invitatie:
FUNCTIONALISM, INSTITUTIONALISM, AND BEYOND: REVISITING DAVID MITRANY’S INTELLECTUAL LEGACY.
A CONVERSATION
The Research Institute of the University of Bucharest (ICUB) invites you to a public conversation aiming to introduce, reconstruct and establish the contemporary importance of the work of a significant but forgotten author of Romanian origins, active in the first half of the 20th century, David Mitrany, whose ideas (the functionalist theory of cooperation) – if refurbished and recalibrated to the current landscape of social sciences and public debate – may become a significant element in the construction of the new generation of theories of governance. Reassessing and reconstructing “functionalism” leads however sooner or later to an effort to revisit the fascinating and puzzling life and personality of its originator, David Mitrany. Some excerpts from his bio as presented on the London School of Economics archives page offer a rather intriguing picture of this scholar:
Professor of Political Economy; Assistant European Editor, Economic and Social History of the World War, sponsored by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1922-1929; Visiting Professor, Harvard University 1931-1933; Dodge Lecturer, Yale University, 1932; Nielsen Research Professor, Smith College, 1951; Member, British Coordinating Committee for International Studies, 1927-1930; Professor in School of Economics and Politics, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey, 1933-1939 and 1946-1956.
Far from being a neglected author at the time, Mitrany was a preeminent figure. He was considered so important a thinker that when the Princeton Institute for Advanced Studies was created, Mitrany was invited to become one of the fellows representing social sciences alongside a figure like Einstein, representing natural sciences. However, despite the recognition he received during those times and the recognition he receives today as being one of the key theorists inspiring the European integration project, his theoretical and scholarly legacy has been neglected. And although his ideas inspired an entire development in International Relation Theory (called “neoliberalism”, “neoliberal institutionalism” or “functionalist liberalism”) via a lineage of authors including K. Deutsch, R. Keohane and J. Nye, he left posterity no real disciples or school of thought under his name.
Dragos Paul Aligica, visiting fellow at ICUB, will lead the conversation by presenting some introductory considerations regarding the nature, context and applicability of Mitrany’s ideas, with a view to their relevance for the contemporary agenda. In addition to that, Aligica will share some of the preliminary findings of his pioneering work in the David Mitrany Archives at London School of Economics.
(Foto: ejournals.epublishing.ekt.gr)
