Almost 30 renowned philosophers, urbanists, architects, sociologists, physicists, geographers, anthropologists and mathematicians from Europe, North and South America as well as China and India gathered at Lake Tegernsee for a meeting in connection with the "BMW Foundation Initiative on Changing Behavior and Belief." The conference was chaired by Richard Sennett, Academic Governor of the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Main topics of the seminar were the changes in values, behavior and belief all over the world, the mechanisms and drivers of value change, and its reciprocal effects. To illustrate these changes, the global phenomenon of urbanization served as a case study through which the group was able to analyze developments and changes.

As the subject of value change is a very broad one, the conference focused on three key issues of changing behavior and belief that are likely to become very important in the near future:

Scale, Diversity and Cohesion
How does the size and complexity of groups affect their cohesion and strength? This is also a problem faced by every urban migrant and urban dweller when negotiating the scale from local to urban to national to global.

Public Space: Its Social Form and Technologies
Changes in the public realm, and how these changes might be informed by new technologies of building, transport, and communication - as well as re-thinking some of the values of "technology" itself. The discussion also addressed the changing experiences of individuals and social groups in the public realm.

Good Governance
Participants asked structural questions about "good governance," which are made concrete by current changes in cities. What concepts of territory make sense in terms of government and the governed? What is the relationship between structures of power and sovereignty on the one hand and participation and citizenship on the other hand?

Prior to the conference, renowned scholars like Ash Amin of Durham University, Craig Calhoun of the Social Science Research Council in New York, Gerald Frug of Harvard University, Bruno Latour of Science Po in Paris, Saskia Sassen of Columbia University and Richard Sennett, had circulated written statements on the above-mentioned topics.

The conference followed a working-group format. The papers were not read aloud. Instead, at each session, two participants were asked to start the discussion by offering short, five-minute comments. One of the commentators was from the writer's own field of interest, the other from a different discipline. After the plenary discussion, the exchange continued in small interdisciplinary discussion groups. At the end of the conference, the participants had drafted numerous project ideas for the further development of the Initiative, including themes which are seen to be most relevant in the future.

This conference on changing behaviour and belief was above all characterized by its interdisciplinary approach, including scholars from a wide variety of fields
The BMW Foundation Initiative on Changing Behavior and Belief aims to create a long-term intellectual project, which is to promote interdisciplinary thinking - especially in the field of global value change - and to support highly talented young academics who are willing to look beyond their own disciplines.

As a result of the intellectual exchange and the numerous project ideas generated during the conference, the BMW Foundation as well as Professor Richard Sennett and Professor Craig Calhoun are currently working on concepts for creating a long-term catalyst project, which might create new paradigms in science.

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