Conference: Sustainability as a reform concept and as a concrete utopia

Conference in memory of Horst Peter (1937-2012)

The conference is a cooperative event of the Wissenschaftsforum Kassel with the Hesse regional office of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation and the journal spw.

September 23, 2022 is the 10th anniversary of the death of Horst Peter, who was active as an educator, as a member of the Bundestag of the SPD for Kassel (1980-1994) and through cross-organizational political work and journalism for sustainability as a reform principle. The conference aims to show that the commitment to social and ecological sustainability in politics and business, education and science is not a short-term fashion, but is part of a long line of socially understanding theory and socially transformative practice. Sustainability, radically thought through, thereby points as a concrete utopia beyond the existing society and can be a guideline for the renewal of socialist theory.

In five panels, people from social democracy, trade unions, movements and academia will discuss ways to achieve a just and solidary transformation to a sustainable society. The keynote lecture will be given by Klaus Dörre, author of the book "The Utopia of Socialism - Compass to a Sustainability Revolution." The event will take place in Kassel as the place of Horst Peter's work, an industrial site in transformation and the site of a university on the verge of sustainability research.

With, among others, Dr. Sabine Säck da Silva  (Director of the Kassel Institute for Sustainability), Prof. Dr. Felix Welti (Professor of Social and Health Law at the University of Kassel), Nilda Inkermann, (Research Associate Didactics of Political Education, University of Kassel)
Time: Thursday, 22. September 2022, 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. and Friday, September 23, 2022, 10:15 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Location: Tagungszentrum Kulturbahnhof, Franz-Ulrich-Str. 6, 34117 Kassel
Cost: Attendance at the conference is free of charge.
To the conference program
Registration and further information: Friedrich Ebert Foundation - Regional Office Hesse