TORONTO, May 1, 2002 -- York University is presenting an international conference, The Regional Divide: Promises and Realities of the New Economy in a Transatlantic Perspective, on Friday, May 3 and Saturday, May 4.
The conference is part of the research project, "What's Left From the New Economy", conducted by the New Economy Research Group at York's Canadian Centre for German and European Studies (CCGES), directed by Kurt Hübner. The conference will serve as a platform to discuss the global as well as the regional dimensions of the knowledge / new economy and will focus on developments in North America and Europe.
A roundtable discussion featuring Alan Webber, co-founder of Fast Company, one of America's leading business magazines, will be among the highlights of the conference. The roundtable, which will be held Friday, from 4 to 6 p.m., will examine the future of information and communication technology sectors in light of their continuing downward trend.
Webber co-founded Fast Company in 1993 after spending six years as the managing editor/editorial director of the Harvard Business Review (HBR). Fast Company quickly garnered a reputation as Wall Street's answer to Rolling Stone magazine for its unconventional take on the business world. Webber attended Harvard Business School in 1981 and served as a senior research assistant and project coordinator examining the U.S. auto industry. The project culminated in a book called Changing Alliances. His articles and columns appear regularly in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal and USA Today.
Hübner, a visiting political science professor at CCGES and the conference organizer, says that the drop in share prices and major restructuring at companies such as Ericsson, Nortel and Lucent Technologies is indicative of how the new economy has often been more about hype than substance. He adds that the unfettered growth experienced by high-tech industries during the 1990s could not be sustained indefinitely.
"In the last 20 years we have experienced a dramatic change in the fabric of capitalist economies," said Hübner, who specializes in international political economy. "The economy during the 1990s was largely driven by investments in information and communication technologies. That came to a sudden end in 2000. Since then, the world economy has experienced enormous restructuring with significant social costs."
The conference will bring together leading economists from across North America and Europe to examine the economic and social outcomes of the current restructuring process. The conference itinerary, including a list of presenters and their topics can be found at: www.yorku.ca/ccges/neweconomy/conference.html.
The conference will be held in the Senior Common Room of York's Glendon College, located at 2275 Bayview Ave.
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For further information, please contact:
| Prof. Kurt Hübner | Ken Turriff |
| Visiting Professor, CCGES | Media Relations |
| York University | York University |
| 416-736-2100 x 40090 / 416-736-5695 | 416-736-2100, ext. 22086 |
| khuebner@yorku.ca | kturriff@yorku.ca |
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