Speakers


HANKISS, Elemer


Curriculum

Elemer Hankiss received his bachelor's degree from Budapest University, followed by a Ph.D. He has been Director of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Sociology since 1996. Dr. Hankiss is also Senior Scientist at The Gallup Organization (Princeton). His research fields include social values and belief systems, contemporary Western civilization, contemporary mythologies, and the sociology of the consumer civilization. His recent books include Humans and Antelopes: Conversations about Some Ultimate Concerns, 2001 [in Hungarian]; Fears and Symbols: An Introduction in the Study of Western Civilization, 2000; and Proletarian Renaissance: An Essay in Contemporary Civilization, 1999 [in Hungarian]. He is currently Visiting Professor at the European University Institute, Florence, and the Central European University.

More: http://www.internetkonferencia.hu/eloadok/hankisscv.html

Measuring the Emotional Economy in Europe

Elemer Hankiss suggested that objects have lost their significance in our post-modern world; their place is now taken by the objects' aura or halo. The objects' relevance lies in their aura, which is dependent on the setting the objects are encountered -- the experience they induce. He defined the experience as the "human side of the objects". Dr. Hankiss used the example of car advertisements from the 1910s to the present day to illustrate the process where the experience takes over the space -- even literally -- from the objects themselves.

References

http://www.ssrc.org/sept11/essays/hankiss.htm
http://www.socres.org/vol55/issue551.htm
http://www.nzz.ch/english/background/background2000/background0003/bg000323hungary.html


Recent Publications

Hongrie: Diagnostiques. Essai en pathologie sociale. Geneve:
Georg Editeur, 1990.

East European Alternatives. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990.

The Human Adventure. An Essay in the Theory of Culture.
Budapest: Helikon, 1997.

The Appeal of Sovereignty. Hungary, Austria and Russia.
Gombar, Csaba, Hankiss, Elemer, Lengyel, Laszlo, Varnai, Gyorgyi,
Eds. Highland Lakes, N.J.: Atlantic Research and Publications,
1998. (Distributed by Columbia University Press)

Proletarian Renaissance. Essays in European Civilization.
Budapest: Helikon, 1999.

Abenteuer Menschheit. Skizze einer Zivilisationstheorie. Frankfurt:
Budapest: Helikon, 1999.

Europe After 1989: A Culture in Crisis? (Ed.). Washington: Georgetown University. 1999.

Civilization? (With Csaba Gombár, László Lengyel and Ákos Szilágyi)
Budapest: Helikon. 2000.

Fears and Symbols. An Introduction to the Study of Western
Civilization. Budapest: Central European University Press, 2001.

New Diagnoses. Budapest: Osiris, 2002.

In an Alien World? An Autobiography. Budapest: Helikon, 2002.