[Bilimsel Haber] CFP: Life in Motion; Shifting Spaces, Transcending Times, Crossing Borders - 8thPostgraduate Conference, Brno, 28-30th June 2007

[Sule Tarakcioglu]

From: tomasekm at fss.muni.cz [mailto:tomasekm at fss.muni.cz]


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?

Held by School of Social Studies, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech
Republic, 28th - 30th June 2007 and organized in cooperation with the
School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London,
the conference presents a major opportunity for postgraduate
students and young academics to discuss the events in Central and
Eastern Europe also including but not limited to Russia, Eurasia, the
Balkans, and the Baltic States. We invite submissions and participants
from a wide range of disciplinary perspectives. Proposals should be
sent, as email attachments, to: tomasekm at fss.muni.cz at the latest
January 31, 2007.

further details and particular themes:
http://www.h-net.msu.edu/announce/show.cgi?ID=152432

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: tomasekm at fss.muni.cz