POINcaré
All major challenges with which our society is faced require a multidisciplinary approach. And yet almost all our scientific institutions are organised within the boundaries of a single discipline. To change this, in the autumn of 2016 we brought together a group of researchers of all ages and from some very different fields of science. Two project groups have gradually emerged: one on the idea of a humane city, the other on the social consequences of robotisation.
The POINcaré think tank is a loose-knit group of researchers who work on very different things every day. But what unites and drives them is that, inspired by the values inherent in our university, they have an eye for what is at stake in society today.
Education, research, and social services at VUB are based on a radical humanism that translates into the principles of freedom, equality, and solidarity.
- For us, freedom means free research: the rejection of any purely authoritative argument and a guarantee of free judgement.
- For us, equality means the recognition of equal value and diversity.
- Solidarity stands for our commitment to the great challenges of society and our concern for respectful treatment of our fellow man and of the world.
These values are a constant element in the POINcaré think tank's initiatives. We always ask ourselves what impact expected developments will have on our values and how we can best safeguard these values.
Some results
That think tank POINcaré has not been idle in recent years is made clear by this list of publications that have emerged thanks to the mutual cooperation of academics from different backgrounds:
Migration, Equality & Racism. 44 Opinions.
The book consists of 44 stimulating and informed opinion pieces that question fixed assumptions about migration, equality, and racism and propose potentially disruptive solutions. Migration, Equality, and Racism is the work of VUB think tank POINcaré and was written under the direction of Ilke Adam, Tundé Adefioye, Serena D'Agostino, Florian Trauner, and Nick Schuermans. Over 80 academic staff members and co-authors contributed to the publication.
Download the free digital version of the book
Post viral to a new normal
The COVID19 crisis has had an overwhelming impact on our society. But to what extent will COVID19 change our society forever? What are the short and long-term effects on a socio-economic and political level, in terms of public health, poverty, education, digitalisation, mobility, sport? What opportunities does this crisis bring?
VUB think tank POINcaré brought together more than 60 professors and researchers who, each from their own discipline, sought answers to these questions. The result is this e-book, edited by Prof. Malaika Brengman. The e-book contains 35 articles and discusses a wide range of topics: from asylum policy, digitalisation, HR and tourism to economics, robotics and privacy.
Homo Roboticus
Technology has the unique power to enhance economic growth and transform societies. This will be the case more than ever with the emergence of robotics. Man and robot will have to live together. The applications are ubiquitous: from robots in factories, to converting people into cyborgs, to self-driving vehicles, to killerbots.
The Brubotics research group of VUB started this initiative. From their research vision and interest, more than 30 VUB professors and researchers study the multidisciplinary facets of these developments. The Dutch-language book answers 30 stimulating questions for a broad audience.
The Humane City
What is a humane future for our cities? What does the future of urban society look like? What should our policymakers focus on? What can citizens, civil society, and economic players achieve? What scientific insights can advance the social and political debate?
This book is the work of 20 academics from VUB and a VUB fellow. The geographers, architects, lawyers, economists, physicists, historians, philosophers, moralists and communication scientists within this project looked at urbanity from all possible disciplines and have only one thing in common: the ambition to contribute to 'humanistic research'. In the book, they present an 'election programme' for the humane city. No party politics, but 30 ambitious and concrete proposals, based on scientific research, that can make our cities more humane again.
