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- Convenors:
-
Jurij Fikfak
(ZRC SAZU)
Maria Vivod (UMR 7367 Strasbourg France)
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- Format:
- Workshops
- Location:
- R1
- Sessions:
- Wednesday 27 August, -, -
Time zone: Europe/Ljubljana
Short Abstract:
How to imagine, write, and practice Europe and its continually changing borders? What the label 'West' and 'East' mean in European contemporary societies? What is 'West' seen from the 'East' and vice versa? Which are the elements-differences and commonalities between cultural practices and images, of the 'West' and the 'East'?
Long Abstract:
The EU constitutional crisis shows how "Europe" is far from being a homogeneous entity. It is a playground of large and small, old and new countries, which perceive and present themselves in different ways, and use different culturally constructed strategies and tactics in relation to imagined 'Europeanness'.
The panelists will consider some key themes, such as understanding of the self and of the other regarding the writing the memories, imaginaries of Europe and its continually changing borders. Attention will be paid to the relationships between groups and individuals who are seeking to maintain a cultural link in the recreation of their memories and identities in a Europe seemingly captive of its own myths. The diversity of the new forms of identification through migration is a subject to be explored. We propose three topics to be developed:
What the label 'West' and 'East' mean in European contemporary societies? What is 'West' seen from the 'East' and vice versa, and how these positional categories are defined and become 'real' for the social actors? How is the issue of power (economical, cultural, s.f.) and negotiation important in the discourse between 'West' and 'East'.
Which are the elements-differences and commonalities between cultural practices and images, of the 'West' and the 'East'?
The description of the European anthropologist's experience in writing these topics. The papers presented during the workshop will explore issues relating to the construction of what we might call 'integrative ethnography'.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Wednesday 27 August, 2008, -Karen Denni (University of Strasbourg)
Paper short abstract:
A partir des concepts – lancés par des dissidents de l’Europe de l’Est dans les années 1980 – cette proposition s’interroge sur l’idée de l’Europe central comme lieu de transition et de médiation de culture qui pourrait servir de pont dans une Europe en quête de ses fondements culturels.
Paper long abstract:
Durant des années 1980 des dissidents des pays de l'Europe de l'Est (Kundera, Konrad, Havel) ont lancé les concepts ambitieux d'une Europe centrale.
Tous ces concepts stimulaient le rêve des deux côtés du « rideau de fer » au travers de l'idée du centre représentant un lieu de transition et de médiation des cultures. L'Europe centrale semblait remplir la fonction de passerelle entre les deux parties occidentale et orientale, mettant en avant sa grande histoire culturelle.
Depuis - au lieu d'assurer un transfert réciproque d'idées entre l'Est et l'Ouest - l'Europe de l'Est a repris le modèle capitaliste occidental et a vu cohabiter réussites économiques et fractures sociales, sentiments d'admiration et d'aversion pour le modèle occidental.
Les nouveaux membres de l'Union Européenne pourraient-ils enfin rêver d'un nouveau paradigme où la culture trouvera sa place ? La création d'une identité européenne qui transcendera les connotations de 'West' et 'Est' sera t-elle possible? Nous défendons la thèse que l'Europe centrale vivant d'un syncrétisme et d'un créolisme de plusieurs pays - dont les frontières géopolitiques et culturelles sont très difficiles a définir - peut proposer un modèle culturel très prometteur dans une Europe en quête de ses fondements culturels.
Donatella Cozzi (University Ca' Foscari)
Paper short abstract:
On December the 21st 2007 one of the most grievous borders of Europe, the one between Slovenia and north-eastern Italy, has definitively fallen down. Here we are presenting three generations’s narratives in Topolo/Topolove village, living with the border in different ways. Some people elaborated strategies to bypass it; some others have built up a contrasting ethnicity, and a “structural nostalgia” and eventually part of the population in the process of dissolving this cultural essence.
Paper long abstract:
On December the 21st 2007 one of the most grievous and torn borders of Europe, the one between Slovenia and north-eastern Italy, has definitively fallen down, absorbing the Republic of Slovenia into the Schengen area. What was once seen as a border between two irreducible worlds - the border between East and West - since the eighties is considered as one of the most osmotic boundary between the two Europes.
The iconicity of this boundary (Michael Herzfeld 1997) presents two sides, apparently opposite one another, contrasting close vs open, but functional both to the construction of the respective national identities as well as to the dynamics between national state and minorities. It is not a case that the Slovenian people settled along the border between the region Friuli Venezia Giulia and Slovenia are defined as "ethnic minority". This term is dense and full of contrasts when close to the border, becoming meaningless when looking at it from Rome or Naples. The Topolo'/Topolove village has been separated from the Isonzo Valley - its natural agricultural and exchange outlet - by the border set in 1947.
Here I'am presenting three generations's narratives, that have lived with the border in different ways. Some people elaborated strategies to bypass it; some others have built up a contrasting ethnicity, intentional isolation and a "structural nostalgia" (Michael Herzfeld 1997); and eventually part of the population in the process of dissolving this cultural essence. Similarities and differences become differently articulated symbols of the past and of the future.
Nicoletta Diasio (Université de Strasbourg)
Paper short abstract:
Questioning the ways to tell and to make family resemblances within a small number of families in Warsaw, I will point out the role of women in transmitting a changing ideal of “polishness”, and the embodiement of memories, family narratives and positional identities.
Paper long abstract:
The question of a central Europe which would be situated between "East and West" often dominated the debate on the status and the identity of a country as Poland (Bondyra-Lisiecki, Konwicki, Kostrzewa, Krall, Maslowski, Milosz, Tomaszewski). This "quartering" was sometimes considered as controversial and more popular in the West than in the same country, sometimes as the heart of the Polish myth and of the spiritual and physical geography of the borders. The ambiguity and the polysemous character of these notions correspond to a deeper problem which demands a further reflection. An ongoing research on family narratives on memory and transmission in Warsaw, allows an analysis of these positional identities as they are made in social bodily practices. Questioning the ways to tell and to make the family resemblances within a small number of Polish families, I will point out the idea of "Polishness" at the time this country joined to European Union, the role of women in transmitting this ideal, the embodiement of memories and belongings in everyday life, and, by the way, the refusal of my interlocutors to be entrapped in a system of binding and univocal identifications.
Tatiana Bajuk Sencar (ZRC SAZU)
Paper short abstract:
The proposed paper will explore how an anthropological study of the integration experiences Slovene "Eurocrats" can allow for an ethnographic discussion of the significance that the categories of "East" and "West" can have in contemporary Europe in light of the European Union's institutional integration of the European continent.
Paper long abstract:
The proposed paper will explore how an anthropological study of the first generation of Slovene civil servants of the European Union, or "Eurocrats", can shed light on the way that the European Union's expansion affects notions of "Europeanness." It is interesting to note that virtually no anthropological attention has been paid to the ways that both old and new generations of Eurocrats have negotiated European Union's significant expansion to the "East" and how this expansion has affected established systems cultural categories. This paper will explore shifts in the understanding and dimensions of "Europeanness" through an ethnographic investigation of the integration experiences of a relatively new group of (Slovene) Eurocrats who have recently migrated to Brussels and who have assumed a new professional identity at Europe's "center." How has the new position of Slovene Eurocrats (presumed shift from "East" to "West") informed their notions of their own identity? What sort of markers become significant for them and what is their provenance? What sort of meaning do they accord to the categories of "East" and "West" from their position within the EU institutions? In what terms do they articulate their identity in relation to their professional colleagues? Exploring these questions will allow for a grounded discussion on the way that a particular cultural group is negotiating the integration of Europe on multiple levels and on possible significance of the categories of "East and "West" in contemporary Europe.
Mladena Prelic (Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts)
Paper short abstract:
In most of East European countries consensus on EU integration was relatively easily made. Serbia, hovewer, makes an exception - there is still ongoing unresolved public debate on the matter. In this paper I will try to elaborate what the concepts of "Europe" mean in public discourses of contemporary Serbia, as well as what makes this case different from the others in its surroundings.
Paper long abstract:
In most of East European countries consensus on EU integration was relatively easily made. Serbia, hovewer, makes an exception. Political and intelectual elites are still reluctant to make definite decisions in this matter. In this paper I will try to elaborate what are the meanings of "Europe" in public discourses of contemporary Serbia, as well as what concepts are counterpositioned to it, and what eventual alternatives to EU integrations of Serbia are. I will focus on the point of view of contemporary Serbian intelectuals, in contemporary political context, as well as in relation to the results of the public opinion on the same issue.
The quest for a new identity of Serbia actually began during 80's. It was the period of Serbia experiencing the most severe crisis in its recent history. The only unequivocal period of pro-European orientation lasted only slightly over two years and ended tragically with the political assassination of its pro-European Prime Minister. A period of partial restoration of a non-democratic regime followed. Political divisions are becoming more and more vivid in the society, with the deepest shism between those oriented towards Europe and those against the Union, which can be interpreted as pro and con a modern, democratic, civil society. My goal in this paper is to analyze the public discourses on this important issue and their possible contextualised meanings in order to determine why did Serbia chose to take such a different path from its neighbors who have decided to become part of Europe.
Nebi Bardhoshi (Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Art Studies, Tirane)
Paper short abstract:
The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the way how the image of being European/Western is playing a crucial role in legitimising the discourse for the legalisation of informal areas in Albania.
Paper long abstract:
Albanian society, considered as the most ´isolated´ place in Europe during the period of communism, has opened to doors to the process of European Integration. During the communism period Western Europe was a foe, and symbolized, together with U.S.A, the cradle of capitalism The perception, now as changed, and Western Europe, especially, European Union, is seen as the ideal community. The imagination the former-enemy is, ideologically, transformed into the ideal type and a 'natural' place where Albania ought be. In this paper we will try to argue how political elites make use of European-base legislation laws to legitimised their decision, and undertaking reform, as right and just, in the name of integration/modernisation, and as the sole way to 'Go West' and EU. Under focus will be the legislative system on land property that is transplanted into Albania, and how the westernisation motif is used to legitimise it. The ethnographic data are taken from the informal area suburbia of Tirana.