FIRST CIRCULAR & CALL FOR PAPERS
The Institute of Special Pedagogy, at Lower Silesia University, Wrocław, Poland
is happy to announce that
International Interdisciplinary Conference
will be held on 5th-7th July 2010 in Wrocław
The topic of the conference is
„Lack of self-dependence—old and new areas.
Challenges to education, rehabilitation and inclusion”
Lack of self-dependence is usually associated with early childhood, infirm old age,
sickness and (motor, sensory, and intellectual) disability. These areas of research, diagnosis
and rehabilitation (therapeutic assessments) are well-known to special pedagogues.
Nevertheless, social changes currently in progress produce new challenges, which necessitate
crossing the boundaries of particular disciplines and reflecting on areas of lack of selfdependence different from the those mentioned above (and bound up with, for example,
unemployment, homelessness, and poverty).
Paradoxically enough, individualized society, described by Zygmunt Bauman, and the
culture of individualism, depicted by Małgorzata Jacyno, do not favor development of human
self-dependence; on the contrary, they produce conditions in which seeking help is necessary.
In such society, many people are not able to cope with everyday life without support.
Different governmental and social agencies—including research institution—devote attention
to such people. Involved in actions launched for the benefit of such people, we invite you to
take part in our conference.
The purpose of the conference is arriving at the widest possible, interdisciplinary view
on the dependent person. We want to pay attention to elements which underlie lack of selfdependence, to its context and to its consequences both for the family of the dependent person
as well as for the whole society. We wish to consider important questions pertaining to
everyday life of families with a dependent/disabled child, adult and/or elderly person. We
plan to investigate the emotional attitude of family and society towards dependent people and
about difficulties they face. As we find early intervention highly meaningful, we want to
discuss this issue together with strategies of developing and applying appropriate forms of
help, rehabilitation and/or therapy.
The aim of the conference is finding the widest possible spectrum of analysis of lack of
self-dependence in individualized society—both from the individual and social points of
view. We propose to focus on the following issues:
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identification of areas of lack of self-dependence;
communication with dependent people;
social attitudes towards dependent people;
quality of life of dependent people;
forms of support, rehabilitation and help for dependent people;
training methods and their application in work with dependent people;
educational and occupational situation of dependent people (re-qualifying and
occupational activation);
specific functioning of the family with a dependent person;
teachers, special pedagogues, therapists, advisers, social custodians and social
workers: their problems at work with dependent people;
integration and inclusion of dependent people.
The list above is by no means a complete and closed entity. On the contrary, we hope it
will inspire you to propose other issues which should be analyzed. We are interested in
various, even divergent, scholarly attitudes to and perspectives on lack of self-dependence in
the contemporary world. We hope that the issues discussed will prove interesting for
pedagogues, psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, philosophers, economists,
gerontologists, physician, therapists, advisers and other specialists working with dependent
people.
Organizational arrangements
 Active participation in the conference may have different forms, including
lecture/paper presentation, research report, workshop, poster;
 Reviewed conference proceedings will be published in the book form in English and
in the electronic form in Polish (if polish version will be available);
 Conference fee is 250 Euro ;
 Deadline for submitting applications —30th April 2010. Please, send the attached
application questionnaire (it can be also downloaded from the conference website
http://specialeducation.dsw.edu.pl) to the address: specialeducation2010@gmail.com
 Cconference venue: Lower Silesia University, Faculty of Education, 55 Strzegomska
Street, Wrocław, Poland.
Chairman of Scientific and Organizing Committee
Prof. dr hab. Małgorzata Sekułowicz