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Call for Papers

Cultural Transformations and Civil Society: Reflecting on a Decade of Change
May 13-16, 1999, Jagellonian University, Krakow, Poland

Organized by Civic Education Project Poland, Central European University Warsaw, and Jagellonian University (PENDING FUNDING)

However the decade of 1989-1999 in Central and Eastern Europe will be remembered, it was undoubtedly an era of cultural movement. Monuments were destroyed and built. Identities were reasserted and redefined. New entertainment was produced and consumed. What was largely a political change has begun to reach its tentacles into every corner of cultural life--from aesthetics to everyday habits. Understanding these changes in culture is critical to understanding where societies are heading in general.

This conference will contextualize the democratization of theformer Eastern Bloc as it impacts on cultures. The conference hopes to encourage cross-national exchanges on the emerging cultural issues in the region by sharing the most recent "thick descriptions" of societies that the journalistic and statistical accounts cannot fully communicate.

Participants: We invite Sociologists of Culture, as well as relevant scholars in other disciplines, such as interdisciplinary cultural studies. Faculty and students are welcome to attend and present their work. We will select 50 panel presentations from Central and Eastern European scholars,and 6 from scholars who originate from outside of the region. Additional attendees are welcome.

Conference Format: will consist of a series of panel presentations and special events. We will give priority to recent empirical research, which has not yet been published; we will consider theoretical pieces as well. We will aim to have a balanced number of representatives from the countries in the region. In order to ensure a lively conference, we encourage a variety of presentation types, including the use of visual media. The conference will be held in English.

Panels: Panel discussions will be organized around themes to encourage diverse arenas of research within each panel, rather than exclusive discipline-specific sessions. We encourage analyses, for example, of news media, museums, popular music, and new religious movements to presentduring any session. Themes include:

--Tradition Revived and Contested: How are cultural traditions presented in social movements, institutions, the arts, and popular culture? For example: gender relations, inter-ethnic relations, national identities, old and new religions, landscape memorials

--Inventions and Innovations: What is being created in public cultures and aesthetics? How are institutions supporting innovations and responding? For example: new theater, newspapers and magazines, monumentation, architecture

--New Publics: Who are today's audiences and movement participants? For example: youth subcultures and countercultures; working, middle, and upper classes?

--Power and Powers: How are the various power relationships in societies impacting cultural change? For example: governmental policies and state actions; social movements contesting power imbalances

--Pluralism in Progress: What are the results of open contacts between cultures and groups? For example: Interpretations of open hostilities; access to previously unavailable art objects and music; mass mediated culture and consumer product advertisements

--Boundaries and Borders: What are the implications of changing borders, and how are they followed or transgressed? For example: avant garde works, regional and national boundaries, distinctions between cultural spheres, landscape changes

"Culture" will be defined broadly. Presentations may address, among others, symbolic representations, ideas, practices, and beliefs. We hope to include as many subfields as possible: symbolic analysis, law, gender studies, popular culture, aesthetics, collective memory, organizational culture, social movements, counterculture, race and ethnicity, anthropology, architecture, and mass media.

Costs: We are pursuing funding to cover all travel and participation costs of the 50 panel participants from Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Republics. The funding decisions are still pending, however. If you are from the region, please indicate on your submission whether you will be able to contribute to any part of your participation costs, and the approximate amount. If you originate from outside the region, or would like to attend without presenting your work, we must ask that you find alternative sources to finance your travel and accommodations. There is no registration fee. We anticipate that funding will be forthcoming; in the event that the conference must be canceled, we will inform you promptly.

Submissions: Please submit a two-page proposal, indicating which of the themes above most suit your presentation. Please submit either by e-mail or post by February 22 to:

Eugenia Sojka
University of Silesia
Institute of British and American Culture and Literature
Zytniia 10
41 205 Sosnowiec
Poland
e-mail: sojka@pro.onet.pl

You will be informed of your selection by March 13. The final paper will be due at the conference.

Any additional questions may be directed to:

Quelle = Email <H-Soz-u-Kult>

From: Mills Kelly <tkelly@TTACS.TTU.EDU>
Subject: CFP: Cultural Transformations and Civil Society
Date: 10.2.1999

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