The Expo Script: The Political Economy of Nation State Management
September 3, September 5, September 6, and September 8
Venues:
University of Osaka, 4-3-53 Nakanoshima, Kita-ku, Osaka 530-0005
World Expo site, Yumeshima Island, Konohanaku, Osaka
About:
As the World Expo in Japan under the motto “Designing Future Societies for Our Lives,” unfolds between April and October 2025, this workshop close to and on site, addresses the historical and political viability of world exhibitions as a reflection or even alternative to trans- and international relations. The planned panel seeks to accomplish two things: First, it seeks to compare the image management of liberal and other states in- and outside of) world expos, past and present. It asks how individual participants at Expos self-present(ed), seek and sought to garner attention, and why some are successful while others are not. Second, it brings together topics and scholars from different world regions.
In particular, the panelists will ask: To what extent is there an “expo script”? Is there a specifically liberal, ideological, or other strategy of image management at world expos? To what extent, did and do regimes borrow from each other strategies? To what extent is there a specifically “liberal” or other aesthetics in regime and country representations? How do we assess the success of the same? Does the function of expos change, over time?
The organizers believe that when an expo is happening, when pavilions are opening their doors to millions of visitors from around the world, we are looking at both national, sub- and supranational scripts – as well as visions of an idealized world of global interaction. While different states may have different scripts at different times, they often do generate long-term meaning across individual shows: E.g. Spain, at the expo in Paris, in 1937, gave the world Picasso’s Guernica; while this did not save the republic, it did produce one of the most important, symbolic, image of the century. In that spirit, the panel seeks to bring Asian scholars in touch with European and Middle Eastern scholars, as notably in the western hemisphere, attention to non-Western scholarship on self-representation has been minor.
To this end, the workshop proceeds in three steps: First, select participants will individually visit, examine, study and conduct interviews at individual pavillons at the impending Expo 2025, in Osaka between September 1st and September 15th. Second, all participants will convene for a workshop at the University of Osaka/the Expo site, from the morning of September 5 til lunch on September 6, 2025 for a total of four workshops to discuss image and exposition strategies on the part of states as diverse as China, Japan, Iran, and Turkey. Third, select participants will visit individual country pavilions upon invitation, at the World Expo 2025 to discuss the results of their research and discussions at the workshop, and provide an introspection for a more general audience, on stage. Collectively, they will visit and interact with organizers, staff, and the audiences at the Japanese, the German, and the Canadian pavilion. Most importantly, they will appear during the program „Magazin“ on the cultural stage of the German pavilion that features various format including a talk show during which guests give presentations, interviews, discussions, TED-Talks etc. The planned goal of the workshop is a publication in the form of a book or a special issue.
The venue and the workshop will be organized by the University of Osaka (UO) and take place, on the downtown UO campus (conference room, audiovisual projector etc.), as well as at the Expo site on Yumeshima Island in Konohanaku, Osaka. UO’s International Center will fund one dinner, and one lunch. Guest housing for visitors can be provided downtown and/or at the Toyonaka campus, about an hour from the conferences site.
Cooperation partners include:
1. Veronica Corallo, Chief, Protocol, Deutscher Pavillon Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan, KoelnMesse;
2. Markus Illing, Projektmanagement Expo Osaka, VOSS+FISCHER gmbh, Hamburg/Frankfurt am Main
3. Global History Division, Institute for Open and Transdisciplinary Research Initiatives (OTRI), University of Osaka
4. Melanie Saxinger, Consul General, German Consulate General Osaka-Kobe