8th Postgraduate Conference: Life in Motion; Shifting Spaces,
Transcending Times, Crossing Borders
School of Social Studies, Masaryk University, Brno, 28th – 30th June 2007
Seventeen years after the onset of revolutionary changes in 1989,
Central and Eastern European societies are still confronted with their
histories. Memories and recollections of the past are contested and
the past is painstakingly constituted through the interplay of
collective construction, political bargains, reversals, rationalizing
of refusals to come to terms with it as well as attempts to recognize
the past and cope with it. Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) have
witnessed unprecedented spatial and population shifts and splits which
marked the 20th century globally. Many minorities which were often
local majorities or equal in number were left in the aftermath of wars
as mere memories that quickly faded due to the rapid intrusion of
communism. The process of building societies which are not just
ethno-culturally heterogeneous but also open to all diverse groups has
been contingent on coming to terms with the past. This process became
the arena for opening ways to facing current challenges such as
migration, borders dissolution and violation of local social and
economic balances.
Since 1989 CEE societies have undergone unparalleled social change,
however, the expected reforms in the spheres of law, public policy,
culture, media, economy and social policies have been substantially
delayed and compromised. The simultaneous emergence of free-market
economies and pluralist politics led to situations in which the state
quickly withdrew or collapsed, and distinctions between state,
collective, and private domains became unclear. It has been in the
interest of those actors that emerged in this initial phase of change
to prolong a specifically post-socialist culture between socialism and
the free market. This may have decisively contributed to the
Eurosceptic backlash in the ranks of particular mainstream political
forces and in specific cultural segments and sections of societies in
some CEE countries. What is in this light the meaning of "the big
European switch" of 2004 and its upcoming enlargement follow-up? How
'Central and Eastern European' have the CEE countries stayed and
Western Europe become? What are the reconstituted boundaries?
Proposals should be sent, as email attachments, to:
[log in to unmask] at the latest January 31, 2007
further details:
http://www.h-net.msu.edu/announce/show.cgi?ID=152432
One of the possible subjects of conference submissions is:
"Sustaining and Crossing Social boundaries"
- negotiating and symbolizing ethnic identities; European and
sub-European identities; multiple identities; spaces and narratives of
identity (contestation of space, creation of temporal boundaries)
- exclusion/inclusion of "minorities"; new social and cultural
divisions; social exclusion and selective memory; social reproduction,
cohesion, identity of the marginalized
- displaced persons, refugees and human rights; reconciliation with
traumatic pasts; violence and memory; struggle for recognition
- consuming actors, between desires and disciplines; media culture:
from investigative journalism to tabloids
with kind regards,
Marcel Tomasek
School of Social Studies,Sociology Dep.,
Joštova 10,
602 00 Brno, Czech Republic
phone: 00420 549497611
fax: 00420 549 491 920
Email: [log in to unmask]
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