The Theme
Control, in its most general definition, refers to a set of mechanisms used to influence, direct, or restrict people, organisms, processes, systems, motions, and behaviors. It can also refer to tools employed to regulate, monitor, or command — from institutional policies and surveillance technologies to social norms and biological interventions.
The conference theme addressed the political dimension of control: the ways power operates through and upon bodies, populations, and environments. Situated within the broader emergence of biopolitics, the theme invited participants to examine how contemporary modes of control blur distinctions between coercion and care, freedom and regulation, human agency and systemic constraint.
Control was explored not as a single concept but as a field of intersecting forces — spanning literature, science, and the arts — that shape life at every scale, from the molecular to the geopolitical.
The conference theme of Control invites critical reflection on how mechanisms of regulation and influence shape human experience across multiple dimensions. From institutional policies and surveillance technologies to social norms and biological interventions, control operates through systems that both constrain and enable. The European Society for Literature, Science and the Arts provides a unique interdisciplinary platform for examining these dynamics, bringing together scholars and practitioners who explore how narratives of control emerge in scientific discourse, artistic expression, and literary imagination. This gathering in Stockholm offers participants the opportunity to consider how power circulates through bodies, populations, and environments, and to question the boundaries between necessary governance and oppressive restriction.
Literature, science, and the arts each offer distinct lenses for understanding the politics of control. Scientific advancements continually reshape what is considered controllable, from genetic editing to digital surveillance, while literary and artistic works interrogate the human consequences of such developments. The European Society for Literature, Science and the Arts fosters dialogue across these fields, recognizing that control is never purely technical or purely cultural but always entangled with ethical questions about autonomy, resistance, and freedom. By examining how control functions through narrative, technology, and aesthetic form, conference participants can develop more nuanced perspectives on the forces that shape contemporary life and the creative possibilities for challenging them.