BERGEN: Manuel Castells was awarded Holberg Prize 2012.

Manuel Castells, Winner of the Ludvig Holberg Memorial Prize 2012.

– If our current leaders give priority to the defense of their obsolete political system tailored for their own interests, we will descend in a maelstrom of social disintegration
. Instead, if they accept the challenge and decide to learn new politics by joining, in good faith, the effort of finding alternative economic policies and ways of participatory democracy, then we may be at the threshold of a true humanistic revolution, supported by our extraordinary technological capacity, that we have not truly tapped into until now because of our lack of audacity in reinventing society.

Manuel Castells focused on power, communication, network and the financial crises in his speech of thanks in Håkonshallen in Norway Wednesday 6
. June 2012.

Castells is University Professor and Wallis Annenberg Chair in Communication Technology and Society at the University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles. He is Professor of Communication at the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism. He is, as well, Research Professor at the Open University of Catalonia in Barcelona, and Professor Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley.

H.R.H. crownprincess Mette-Marit handed out Holbergprize 2012 to Manuel Castells
. Foto: Marit Hommedal

This year is the 9th time that the Holberg Memorial Prize is awarded for outstanding scholarly work in the arts and humanities, social science, law and theology. The value of the prize is 800.000 Dollars (NOK 4.5 million/570.000 Euro). H. K. H. Crown Princess Mette-Marit presented the Holberg International Memorial Prize 2012.

Excerpts from the citation of the Holberg Prize Academic Committee:
“Manuel Castells is the leading sociologist of the city and new information and media technologies. His ideas and writings have shaped our understanding of the political dynamics of urban and global economies in the network society.”

The Holberg Prize, which was established by the Norwegian Parliament in 2003, is awarded annually by the Board of the Ludvig Holberg Memorial Fund. Holberg Prize Laureates: Manuel Castells (2012), Jürgen Kocka (2011), Natalie Zemon Davis (2010), Ian Hacking (2009), Fredric R
. Jameson (2008), Ronald Dworkin (2007), Shmuel N. Eisenstadt (2006), Jürgen Habermas (2005), Julia Kristeva (2004). 

Nils Klim-prizewinner Sara Hobolt and minister of education Kristin Halvorsen during the handing out ceremony of the Nils Klim-prize 2012. Foto Marit Hommedal, Holbergprisen

Sara Hobolt was awarded Nils Klim Prize 2012

Sara Hobolt, holding the Sutherland Chair in European Institutions at the London School of Economics and Political Science but also an Honorary Professorship at the University of Southern Denmark, has been awarded the Nils Klim Prize for Nordic researchers below 35 years old in the fields of social sciences, humanities, law and theology. His research interests are criminal law and legal theory. The prize is worth 35.000 Euro/NOK 250,000
. Minister of Research and Education presented the Nils Klim Prize 2012.

For more information and to download speeches and photos: www.holbergprisen.no

Professor Jan Fridthjof Bernt, Chair of Board of the Ludvig Holberg Memorial Fun.

Minister of education Kristin Halvorsen, winner ofHolbergprize in the school 2012 Malene Bue, Vennesla skole. Holbergprizewinner 2012 Manuel Castells. Foto Marit Hommedal, from left to right.

The Holberg International Memorial Prize is named after Ludvig Holberg, who was born in Bergen in 1684 and held the Chairs of Metaphysics and Logic, Latin Rhetoric and History at the University of Copenhagen. Holberg played an important part in bringing the Enlightenment to the Nordic countries.

The Board of the Ludvig Holberg Memorial Fund makes the award on the basis of the recommendation from the Holberg Prize Academic Committee, which consists of outstanding scholars in the academic fields covered by the prize. The prize is worth 4.5 million NOK (approximately EUR 575,000 / USD 770,000 as of November 2011).