Monday 6th December - Wednesday 8th December 2004 Vienna, Austria

This inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary research and publications project is a critical examination of the theme of 'pluralism' and the challenges it is posing across the world today. Pluralism has unleashed a reaction of paradigm consolidation in political, economic, social, religious and cultural areas that are having a major impact on all aspects of our lives.

In particular, the theme of the second conference is "Managing Pluralism". The significance of this theme is the special importance given to finding ways to manage processes, structures and processes differently. The theme is both timely and significant as tendencies to pull in different directions are causing tremendous frustrations amongst policy makers, administrators and recipients. There is a cry for “doing things differently” but there is an intellectual vacuum that the conference is intending to fill, namely, how to do things differently in the light of existence of pluralism.

The conference seeks to learn and inform from both successful and unsuccessful attempts to better manage pluralism. Pluralism in the context of this conference is conceptualized as being related to context rather than direction. It is not about differences but about alternatives.

Papers, presentations, reports and workshops are warmly invited on any of the following central themes (or their combinations):