From: Oleksandr Svyetlov [log in to unmask]
Call for Plotki Journal June 2007 Online Issue on
Transit/ion!
(accounting for the past, analysing the present, envisaging the future)
Invitation for contributions
The call is open to all original theoretical, empirical, textual, visual,
photographic, academic, journalistic and artistic contributions from social
disciplines such as transitology, political science, sociology,
international relations, history, art, journalism and other which address
the issues described below. Encouraged are of course themes referring to
CSEE and fSU region with comparative and analytical-descriptive approaches
dealing with both state and process of Transit/ion.
Clarification of concepts:
Transition movement, passage, or change from one position, state, stage,
subject, concept, etc., to another. Although in present context it applies
specifically to the post-Soviet (or what is called in the West
post-Communist) transformation on societal, political, institutional, etc.
levels (democratization, liberalisation, pri(h)vatisation, etc) in
Central/South/Eastern Europe (CSEE,) and the rest of former Soviet Union
(fSU).
Transit the act or fact of passing across or through; passage from one
place to another, conveyance or transportation from one place to another, as
of persons or goods, also, a transition or change. Transit is a more general
term applying also to physical movement, such as migration.
Transitology an academic discipline studing the process of change from one
political regime to another, mainly from authoritarian to democratic in the
context of CSEE and fSU.
In short, Transit/ion is political, social, economic, moral, (in)visible,
(im)material change of shape or form, movement in space or time, which also
includes temporal and special antagonism, contradiction, comparison and
interplay of (f)actors.
Keywords:
Empire nation state / Totalitarianism democracy / Planned economy free
market / The shifting role of state: changing and creating of institutions /
Shift of political preferences and opinions of the electorate and elite /
Elections policies
EU as a change-promoting agent / Which way and to what extent do East and
West change? / Where is Europe going / Flow(s) of goods, people(s), ideas
within Europe and Eurasia
Order anarchy: the nature of stability / Progress regress / Limits and
pace of change / State and process: means and ends
Wealth poverty / Prosperity decay / Elite the rest / Mobility within
social strata: attainability of classical capitalism dreams
Local global glocal / Religion atheism / Immateriality materiality
/ Old new / Life death / Process of acquiring or losing experience or
pertinence
Preliminary deadline is 27 April 2007. Please send your contributions of
max. 2.500 words in English for reviewing to: Oleksandr Svyetlov
[log in to unmask] PLOTKI WEBSITE: www.plotki.net
ABOUT US
PLOTKI is a project from around the bloc. PLOTKI spreads rumours. PLOTKI
investigates our cultural sphere. And PLOTKI brings together writers,
photographers and graphic artists from Central, Eastern and South Eastern
Europe.
PLOTKI was founded in 2000 by a group of students from Berlin, Warszawa and
Praha. In the meantime PLOTKISTY from all over Central, Eastern and South
Eastern Europe have joined us. Our goal is to increase and intensify the
contact between former East and West, between neighboring countries and
people.
[plotki magazine]
PLOTKI started out as a printed magazine about culture and society in
Central and Eastern Europe. We approach this broad field by giving each
issue a thematic focus such as "playgrounds" or "failed projects" -
perspectives on reality.
The variety of issues corresponds with the wide range of text styles. In
PLOTKI you can find interviews, journalistic reporting or essays, personal
impressions and literary texts as well as crossovers of texts and images,
like photo-essays and comics.
[plotki platform]
PLOTKI enlargement - next to our printed magazine we are by now a unique
platform for various projects connected to Central, Eastern and
South-Eastern Europe such as the monthly online magazine "Updated Rumours"
or the exhibition "click-a-cliquι" in Berlin in Ocotber 2005.
PLOTKI is a non-commercial project that relies on the financial support of
public institutions. Originally it was part of the project tutorial program
of the Free University Berlin, which was much to our regret cancelled in
2002.
[plotki network]
PLOTKI is organized across borders - PLOTKISTY can be found in Germany,
Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, Hungary, Croatia, Ukraine, Belarus,
Albania, Bulgaria and Slovakia. Although Berlin has been the headquarters
since the founding of PLOTKI, the project remains international in
communication and organisation. Our seminars and network meetings held in a
different place in Central Eastern Europe every year are the backbone of
PLOTKI.
[plotki geography]
So far our seminars took place in Berlin, Warszawa, Brno, Szymbark, Praha,
Budapest, Ceska Skalice, Romania (Transylvania) and Ukraine (Carpathians).
These meetings are meant to unite the contributors of the PLOTKI universe.
We strongly invite anyone who would like to contribute to PLOTKI, no matter
what country east of Rosenheim you come from. Please contact us, if you
would like to come and join us - we don't have private jet planes yet, but
we do have funding.
There is a whole bloc of possibilities!
For more information write to: [log in to unmask]
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