ISCAR Regional Conference 2026
Upcoming Event
Development, acceleration and alienation: Cultural-historical Activity Research on Temporality and Intersubjectivity
When: September 24 & 25, 2026
Where: Humboldt University of Berlin
Development is movement and therefore takes time. It takes place individually and socially at different speeds and against different speed horizons. Lev S. Vygotsky's theory of development and his concept of the zone of proximal development emphasize the importance of intersubjectivity, learning and education as a “motor” for human development. Cultural and social developments - from the early forms of shared affects, to the development of spoken language and written symbols, to networked communication using digital media and AI - are helping to accelerate the systems of activity in which we think, feel and act.
As the sociologist Hartmut Rosa has pointed out, modern subjects increasingly experience the growing acceleration of social life through new technologies, the economy and social change as alienation and isolation. If, on the other hand, human development is to succeed as a prerequisite for a good life, it requires the experience of intersubjectivity as a meaningful resonance space.
In view of a highly automated social world in which countless interactions take place simultaneously, communication and decisions are optimized by algorithms and everyone and everything appears to be constantly accessible and available, a number of questions arise:
How much acceleration can development tolerate? What is the current relationship between individual and social development processes? How can the counterforces of deceleration and resonance be strengthened?
Against this background, the conference will examine the connection between temporality and intersubjectivity.
Organization Team: ISCAR Central Europe - Thomas Hoffmann (HU Berlin), Stefanie Müller (HU Berlin), Marco Mazereeuw (University of Groningen), Vera Schurmans (University of Groningen), Loes Meijer (UMC Utrecht), Jan Steffens (EH Darmstadt), Monique Verhoeven (Utrecht University)
About ISCAR: https://iscar.org/