Liberal Democracy, Authoritarian Pasts and the Legacy of 1989. Comparative workshop to recent history of political and social thought in East Central Europe

Liberal Democracy, Authoritarian Pasts and the Legacy of 1989. Comparative workshop to recent history of political and social thought in East Central Europe

Veranstalter
Institute of Contemporary History, Prague
Veranstaltungsort
Ort
Prague
Land
Czech Republic
Vom - Bis
20.05.2011 - 22.05.2011
Deadline
10.01.2011
Website
Von
Michal Kopecek

Two decades after the fall of state socialist regimes in East Central Europe most of the important features of the so-called transition period seem to be accomplished. Furthermore, it seems that the very concept of ‘transition’ has lost its explanatory force, both as an analytical tool and as a political term structuring the public discourse and the temporal self-perception of political actors. What was once called the ‘transition period’ thus requires a thorough historicization.

In recent years, we have witnessed the questioning of not only the ‘transition paradigm’ as a viable analytical concept in the academic sphere, but also several transformations in the political structures that dominated the first decades after the regime changes: the rise of populist and radical political movements in the political sphere challenging the fundamental ‘liberal consensus’ of the 1990s and the early 2000s; the re-negotiation of post-war peace settlements in the Balkans; the rise of new political themes; and last but not least, the emergence of a new generation into the public sphere which lacks direct experience with communist rule. Despite different temporalities in the individual countries and sub-regions, all these features seem to delineate the post-communist period in the history of East Central Europe as a specific historical era.

Adopting the perspective of intellectual history, the Prague workshop aims to contribute to a more complex reflection of the post-socialist ‘transition period’ in East Central Europe and its historicization. History of political and social thought, especially with regard to the post-89/91 period, has so far been a neglected discipline whose subject is diffused into several expert fields including political sociology, philosophy, political theory, political science, and historiography. Moreover, its subject has been treated mostly pragmatically, thus lacking the necessary distance of a historically informed approach. Therefore, the main aim of the workshop is to gather those working in and on the broadly defined region of East Central and South East Europe to create a network of scholars engaged in the research of recent intellectual history in one way or another. An additional intended result of the workshop is a first collective volume of the contemporary history of political and social thought of East Central Europe based on the presented papers and discussions.

To encourage a comparative as well as interdisciplinary perspective, the panels and debates shall not be organized according to national or geographic logic. Instead, a combination of two main axes forming the analytical focus of the individual papers should help to facilitate the common discussion. They are the following:

a) The development of political and ideological traditions with emphasis on their longer-term (pre-)history and the impact of path-breaking ‘great texts’ or specific debates in the evolution of the political traditions after 1989/91.
b) The major public political debates and controversies shaping the character of the political discourses and delimitating the borders of specific political languages.

The organizers, therefore, encourage the future participants to suggest a paper for one of the following possible panel sections. Topics going beyond the suggested scheme, nevertheless, shall also be considered.

The development of major political traditions:
- Reconstitution of liberalism in the post-socialist era
- Varieties and metamorphoses of conservatism
- In search of the Left
- Populism and democracy in East Central Europe
- Alternative politics and challengers of the ‘liberal consensus’

Major debates and controversies
- Key political debates/concepts of the ‘transition period’ (civil society, antipolitics, nation and nationalism, gender as political category, church and politics, Europeanization vs. national interest etc.)
- ‘Democratic transition’ paradigm and its challengers (critique of neo-liberal economic transition, transition politics vs. historical parties, etc.)
- Politics of memory and political divisions (post-opposition political spectrum, lustrations, de-communization policies, ‘wars over history’ and legalization of the past, etc.)
- ‘We and Europe’ (‘Comeback to Europe’ discourse and its implications, EU- and NATO integration and its critiques, the de-politization and ‘democratic deficit’ of integration process, etc.)

The abstract of the suggested presentation along with a short CV should be sent to Michal Kopecek (Institute of Contemporary History, Prague), kopecek@usd.cas.cz, and Luka Lisjak Gabrijelcic (CEU, Budapest), lisjak-gabrijelcic_luka@ceu-budapest.edu, not later than January 10, 2011

Please, indicate your potential need of travel allowance as only limited amount of travel subsidies could be provided.

The workshop working language is English. In order to facilitate the discussion the participants will be asked to send the paper in advance.

The workshop is organized by the Institute of Contemporary History in Prague and supported by the Heinrich Böll Stiftung. Simultaneously it is part of broader comparative regional research project ‘Negotiating Modernity. History of Modern Political Thought in East Central Europe’ organized by CAS, Sofia and CEU, Budapest and funded by the European Research Council. For details see http://negotiating.cas.bg/

Programm

Kontakt


Redaktion
Veröffentlicht am
Beiträger
Klassifikation
Epoche(n)
Weitere Informationen
Land Veranstaltung
Sprach(en) der Veranstaltung
Englisch
Sprache der Ankündigung