In 2019 the International Institute for Ethics and Contemporary Issues and the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Ukrainian Catholic University inaugurated an annual international conference series within the framework of a broad theme entitled Integral Human Development in the Digital Age.
The underlying aim of the series is to bring diverse fields of study into a fruitful multidisciplinary dialogue on matters of public relevance with special reference to "integral human development" or human ecology. No one discipline or specialized domain of knowledge, however, can deal with such an extensive set of fundamental concerns. Consequently, such a topic requires a multidisciplinary approach. The specific context of such an approach here is Catholic social teaching where the general notion of integral human development is brought into a sharper focus and employed as a key concept for facing the complex challenges and opportunities involved in dignified human development and social progress today and tomorrow. This concept offers a deeply important and rich perspective on the unity of human life and experiences, the significance of authentically human relationships, and the meanings of responsibility in the shifting contexts of a rapidly emerging digital world.
In continuity with the themes of the first two conferences, and as part of the ongoing critical reflection on the extraordinarily suggestive papal encyclical Laudato Si, the 2021 conference theme is "Integral Human Development in the Digital Age: Poverties, Migrations, Pandemics, and the Idea of a New Social Ethics." The conference will take place online and in Lviv at the Ukrainian Catholic University from 24-26 February 2021.
Clemens Sedmak, professor of social ethics in the Keough School of Global Affairs and interim director of the Nanovic Institute for European Studies, will moderate the panel discussion entitled, "Integral Human Development, the Pandemic and the Need for a New Social Ethics" on Thursday, February 25, 2021, at 10:00 a.m. EST.
Originally published at nanovic.nd.edu.