'Just Enough: Sufficiency and the Cultural Imagination'

Grand Challenge of Sustainable Cities
UCL English Language & Literature
UCL Arts & Humanities
A symposium and evening roundtable debate, 'Just Enough: Sufficiency and the Cultural Imagination', will be held on 4 December 2009.

This symposium will examine how different cultures and contexts (institutions, disciplines, places, periods) have characterised and fleshed out the idea of 'enough'. Several academics at UCL and other universities will speak about the particular resonances of the idea of 'enough' in their discipline or period, followed by roundtable discussions in which questions that emerge in response to short papers will be explored by panellists and audience members.

Members of UCL English Language & Literature will offer part of a linguistic and cultural history of 'enough' as it has been manifested in Britain over the centuries, and will be joined by representatives of other disciplines, including history of medicine, history of architecture and social anthropology.

In the evening, representatives from the day's symposium will be joined on a panel by non-academics working in the field of sustainability communication in Britain today for a larger roundtable discussion. Here the focus will be on thinking about the continual mediation of culture in our ethical and political decisions concerning sustainable living. What is general and what is particular about our own cultural moment in relation to other contexts? How does the current cultural framework shape our desires and limit our capacity for action?

This event is hosted by UCL's Grand Challenge of Sustainable Cities, UCL English Language & Literature and UCL Arts & Humanities.

To find out more or to register, use the link at the top of this article.