On June 6, 2022, an academic workshop on New Thoughts and Approaches in Philosophy and Social Sciences organized by Fudan Institute for Advanced Study in Social Sciences (Fudan IAS) and Contemporary China Research Center at Fudan University, was held via Tencent Conference Platform. This workshop was also part of the 2022 Fudan Anniversary Presentation Activities.

Prof. Sujian Guo, Dean and Distinguished Professor of Fudan IAS, chaired the workshop. He first pointed out that annual thesis is the main form of academic activities organized by institutes for advanced study in social sciences around the world, which focuses on major fundamental theoretical issues, cutting-edge topics, major theoretical and practical issues in human society. By organizing scholars to carry out interdisciplinary research, annual thesis project aims to promote, lead and shape the communication and development of major academic topics in social sciences.

The topic of this workshop is 2022 annual thesis of Fudan IAS New Thoughts and Approaches in Philosophy and Social Sciences. This topic has a significant impact on the academic development of many disciplines e. g. political science, sociology, psychology, anthropology, economics and management. It has raised many compelling new academic theoretical issues, opened up new fields of academic research, and reflected new advances in modern philosophy and social sciences.

Prof. Guo concluded that while we critically and reflectively explore new thoughts and approaches in philosophy and social sciences, but many of them may not be “new”. They have been studied for many years at home and abroad, and a large body of literature has been accumulated. However, they have had a sustained impact on philosophical and social sciences up to now, such as neoliberalism, Western Marxism, postmodernism, scientism, ecology, globalism, racism, populism, nationalism, New Left, etc. The study of this thesis belongs to the basic theoretical study of philosophy and social sciences, which should systematically sort out, integrate, critically reflect on and explore these currents of the thoughts and their impacts. On the other hand, it is important to explore the revolutionary changes, advances and innovations in new scientific and technological research approaches, incl. big data science, system science, information science, computational experiments, cybernetics, game theory, etc. Our newly introduced young generation of social science research fellows have also made useful explorations in these fields, proposed new academic topics, and made very valuable contributions to our annual thesis project.

After Prof. Guo’s opening speech, research fellows and postdoctoral researchers at Fudan IAS made their own presentations. Prof. Qingping Liu spoke on Paradoxical Analysis of Scientism. Prof. Su Gu made a speech on New Exploration of Neoliberalism. Prof. Guodong Sun, talked on Hermeneutic Political Science and Situationist Political Analysis: A Critical Review. Prof. Donghang He, gave a speech entitled Characteristics and Challenges of Internet Populism in the “Post-Truth” Era. Prof. Xi Lin, spoke on Political Phenomenological Analysis of Right-Wing Populism. Dr. Weizhan Meng talked on Challenges of Pluralism and Non-Western Theories to Mainstream International Relations Theory.

In the afternoon session, Assoc. Prof. Zhongyuan Wang spoke on Algorithmic Technology and Governmental Applications: The Problem of Political Representation of Algocracy. Assoc. Prof. Yanfeng Gu, made a speech on Causal Inference Strategies and Their Applications in Political Science Research. Dr. Li Liu, talked on Artificial Intelligence and Technological Ethical Thinking: Reflection and Reinvention. Dr. Hui Fa, spoke on The Application and Reflection of Natural Experiment Approach in the Field of Political Science. Assoc. Prof. Chunman Zhang from School of Marxism at Fudan University made a speech entitled Party Centrism in China and Abroad: The Great Divergence in the 21st Century?. Dr. Tiantian Zhang spoke on Research Review and Contemporary Values of Ecologism. Dr. Siyu Luo talked on New Trends in Criminology: Criminalization of Immigration and Border Criminology.  

After each presentation, the conference set up a Q&A and discussion session respectively, in which the participating scholars had an in-depth discussion regarding the topics. In the end, Prof. Sujian Guo thanked the participating scholars for their enthusiastic participation and declared the conference closed.