Conversations in Salamanca: Pascal Bruckner

PHILOSOPHY AND LONGEVITY

One of the key questions to be addressed in the design and planning of our society is that derived from the growing extension of life expectancy and, therefore, of its two immediate areas of connection: ageing and longevity.

The temporal extension of our lives is undoubtedly one of the greatest achievements of our times. It is a transforming phenomenon of planetary dimensions, which places us before the need, and the happy opportunity, to generate new answers to each and every one of the new questions we will have to face. Because there is no area of our individual and social life that is not subject to the new and hopeful circumstance: from health to employment; from the environment to finance; from culture and education to the environment; from the public and institutional to the private sphere.

It is the people who work in these fields and seek positive responses for the benefit of society as a whole who are the protagonists of "Conversations in Salamanca". Women and men whose dedication and perseverance are worthy of the greatest recognition and whose personal and professional careers should serve as encouragement, guidance and leadership in the transcendental task that awaits us all.

One such person is Pascal Bruckner. Essayist and novelist, for 50 years, yes 50 years, 50 years of enlightening us, 50 years of free and joyful thinking to join us now, under Plato's sun.

Charles Pépin at the beginning of a conversation with Bruckner stated: "I would like to tell you the story of maturity or rather, the story of a man. A man who grew old but did not take it badly. As he felt his strength weakening, he became more open to the strength of the world. It is curious, moreover, he had not paid too much attention before, to this strength of the world, he lacked the time to marvel at the beauty of the world, he had too much to do with his own strength, his individual goals, his projects, his successes ... It had so much to conquer, so much to possess, that it lacked leisure to contemplate".

To really love life, can we really manage, when we have loved the dawn, to adore the twilight?

It is to answer this question that we at CENIE are pleased to welcome Pascal Bruckner to Conversations in Salamanca and to accompany us on the path of seeking answers to a beautiful question: what does it mean to age well?

By way of introduction, while agreeing to be with us in Salamanca, he pointed out the following:

"Since the end of the Second World War, the human species, at least in developed countries, has gained twenty to thirty years of additional life expectancy. In 17th century France, men and women died on average at the age of 25 and the cemetery was in the centre of every village. This meant that death was at the centre of life, that it was just a simple interval between two nothingnesses. 

What a contrast to our time! 

This revolution in longevity raises a number of problems: we need to reorganise the world of work and postpone the retirement date for those who do not have arduous jobs. We must also rethink the scale of the ages of life and consider that after 50 we are not entering the twilight of existence but the Indian summer of life. We are entitled to a second or third chance and for many, men or women, a new love life. 

Traditionally, old age was seen as the period of appeasement, of wisdom made of benevolence and resignation. We can no longer accept this vision of a gentle slope where the weakening of the body and the decline of ambitions converge. And if the disease continues to strike, it is the mentalities that must be changed. 

What we have to think about now, and while the elderly will be in the majority in the middle of the 21st century, is a dynamic old age that remains open to knowledge, to desire, to travel and renounces nothing but renunciation.”

^{Foto: © JF PAGA}

Pascal Bruckner

Writer and Philosopher. Born in Paris on 15/12/1948.

• Master's degree in philosophy at Paris I Sorbonne, 1971, under the direction of Vladimir Jankelevitch, on "The Myth of Decadence in National Socialist Ideology".
• Doctorate in Paris VII, 1975, under the direction of Roland Barthes, with the thesis "The writing of utopia in Charles Fourier".
• Author of 28 books, both fiction and non-fiction, published in more than thirty countries.
• In 2010, the South Central Review, a publication of the prestigious American John Hopkins University, devoted a special monographic issue to his work..

Academic background:

• Professor at L'Institut d'Etudes politiques de Paris (Sciences Po rue Saint Guillaume) from 1990 to 2008.
• Visiting professor at San Diego State University (1986-1987).
• Visiting professor at New York University (1987-1995).
• Visiting Professor at Texas A & M, Bryan College Station (2008,2010).
• Lecturer at prestigious institutions in France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Holland, England, Italy, Spain, Norway, Denmark, Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Romania, Latvia, India, Russia, Brazil, Thailand, Venezuela, Argentina, Belgium, Greece, Senegal, Sudan, Morocco, Canada and the United States.

Film and theatre collaborations:

• Adaptation of his play Lunes de fiel, made into a film by Roman Polanski in 1992.
• Numerous adaptations for theatrical performances in France (Theatre du Lucernaire, Festival d'Avignon), Croatia and Romania.

Journalistic collaborations:

• He has published numerous articles in Le Monde, Le Nouvel Observateur, Le Point and City magazine in New York..

Concepción Galdón

Director and Academic Lead of Social Innovation at IE 

Academic background:

• Complutense University of Madrid
• PhD in International Economics, July 2016, Extraordinary Doctoral Award
• Thesis: The role of new technologies in social entrepreneurship. Quantitative empirical analysis of the case of the European Union (2000-2015).
• Harvard University, Harvard Kennedy School (Cambridge, USA)
• Master in Public Administration / International Development 2009 
• Autonomous University of Madrid. Degree in Economics

Professional Career:

• June 2017 - Present IE UNIVERISTY (Madrid, Spain). Director and Academic Lead of Social Innovation at IE.
• Sept 2012 - May 2017 Director of Area 31 (under the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation) and Co-lead of the Social Innovation Cluster at IE.
• Jan 2010- Present Lecturer in Entrepreneurship and Innovation. 
• Jan. 2010-June 2012 Deputy Director of the IE Center for Diversity in Global Management.
• Sept. 2009 - Present Co-Founder and CEO of PUENTES GLOBAL.

Publications:

• Galdón, C. (2014). Emprendimiento social, una visión general. 
• En A. N. Rodríguez, María Jesús; Fernández, Zulima; Revilla, Antonio (Ed.), Manual de creación de empresas. De la oportunidad a la puesta en marcha (pp. 649-667). Madrid: Civitas, Thomson Reuters.
• Gabaldón, P., De Anca, C., & Galdón, C. (2015). Medidas de éxito de las madres autónomas en España. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, 21, 128-145.

Other Activities:

• Member of the Board of Directors of Harvard Kennedy School Spain Alumni Network 
• Member of the Venture Board of Ashoka Spain 
• International lecturer and TEDx speaker
• Volunteer - Prevención de riesgo social entre jóvenes (2000, Madrid) and Proyecto Educativo (2001, La Paz, Bolivia).

Sergio Martín Herrera

Journalist

Academic background:

• Graduate in Audiovisual Communication from the University of Salamanca.

Professional career:

• He currently works at Zoom Net, a technology and digital culture programme on TVE.
• He spent the first part of his professional career at RNE where, until he joined TVE, he directed the weekly programme "ConSentidos" and was deputy director of the daily programme "Esto me suena".
• From 2016 to 2018, director and presenter of TVE's "Los Desayunos". He was deputy director of TVE news, director of Canal 24 horas, director of the news website www.rtve.es and director of the social media team of TVE news. He has also been director and presenter of the daily political news programme "La noche en 24 horas".
• Throughout his professional career he has received numerous awards: two Antenas de Oro, Larra Award from the Press Association of Madrid, Bravo Communication Award, CONECTIC Award, PR Noticias Award, Wolters Kluwer Award...
• He is a member of the Board of Directors of Alumni University of Salamanca, teaches in the "Master of radio" of RNE (Complutense University of Madrid) and in various training programmes in IRTVE. 

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