NOVEMBER 2014
In this special issue of our journal, several conference papers are published that are based upon lectures delivered by members of the NSU study group called “Crisis and Crisis Scenarios: Normativity, Possibilities and Dilemmas” at the 2014 NSU Summer Session, held between 24th July and 31st July 2014 in Sauðárkrókur, Northern Iceland. The overall theme of the meeting was the notion of crisis, broadly and differently understood, though special attention was paid to the sub-theme entitled “Neoliberalism, Economic Crisis and a New Economy”. The general discussion was a continuation of the work by the same NSU study group on topics such as: the concept of crisis; democracy in crisis: the European Union and the public sector; crisis, existence and culture; crisis in the Arctic (especially climate change and environmental issues); crisis and the paradoxes of new technologies; globalization and crisis. Given the defining spirit and the stated mission of Nordicum-Mediterraneum, which fosters and investigates cultural exchanges between Nordic and Mediterranean countries, it should be noted that some of the lectures published hereby were delivered by Nordic-based academics making extensive use of Mediterranean scholarship and thinkers (e.g. Lyotard, Castoriadis, Piketty). We thank all participants for their contribution.
JUNE 2014
This special issue of Nordicum-Mediterraneum contains the proceedings from the first meeting of the third NSU study group called “Crisis and Crisis Scenarios: Normativity, Possibilities and Dilemmas”, held March 14-16 2014 at the Lysebu Conference Centre in Oslo, Norway, and having a research programme that runs from 2014 to 2016 aimed at examining the concept of crisis as this is used today in academia’s many declinations. In this collection of papers we present some of the different ways in which the topic of the study group has been addressed.
MARCH 2014
This year, two issues of Nordicum-Mediterraneum are published jointly in the month of March.
The former, issue 9(1), is the regular annual issue of our scholarly journal. It contains six new articles that passed our blind peer-review process of assessment, for which we thank the collaborators acting as referees. In addition, it comprises several book reviews, one authorial reply to a book review published previously and four further contributions. Among them, one is the first installment of a much longer historical study about the return of Catholicism to Iceland, in the true spirit of the exchanges between Northern and Southern Europe constituting the original research theme of Nordicum-Mediterraneum. Another is the keynote speech at the 2014 Zeitgeist international conference, held this month at the University of Toronto, by FSRC fellow Prof. John McMurtry, who thus continues and enriches his contribution to the journal’s ongoing reflection on the economic crisis. Naturally, we thank all contributors to this new regular issue of the journal.
The latter, issue 9(2), contains some rather special conference proceedings. March 26th, 2013 marked the 70th birthday of Mikael Karlsson, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Iceland and former Dean of the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences at the University of Akureyri, which publishes Nordicum-Mediterraneum. The same year marked also the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences at the University of Akureyri, under Mikael Karlsson’s leadership. To celebrate this twofold festive occasion, the local School of Humanities and Social Sciences, which is the direct descendent of that 2003-born Faculty, organised on April 19th, 2013 a colloquium in Mikael Karlsson‘s honour. Researchers from within and beyond Iceland delivered presentations related to the colloquium’s theme – “what is morality?” (chosen by Prof. Karlsson himself) or on other topics related to his philosophical interests. One presentation was devoted entirely to Mikael Karlsson’s manifold and significant contributions to the University of Akureyri and to the practice of philosophy in Iceland. The opening address by the Rector of the University of Akureyri, Stefán B. Sigurðsson, and the official programme of the colloquium are also included in this special issue of Nordicum-Mediterraneum, which wishes to record and reinforce such a twofold festive occasion and, especially, honour further Mikael Karlsson, to whom the Icelandic academic community owes so much.