Newsletter - Social Science in Eastern Europe 2001- 3
Conferences
Announcement
Development of the Regions in Integrating Europe
Date: 26. - 27.09.2001
Conference site: Karvina, Czech Republic
Organiser: School of Business Administration of the Silesian
University
Topics:
* Solving the problems of the development of the regions in the conditions of
their gradual integration into the European structures
* Creating conditions for the development of the regions with an emphasis on
the small and medium enterprise, infrastructure and development of human
resources
* Transforming the public administration in the conditions of developing
market economies
* Developing the conditions for the informatisation of communication among
particular levels of the regional programming
Conference languages: Czech, Slovak, Polish, English
More detailed information can be obtained directly from the organiser
Silesian University in Opava
School of Business Administration in Karvina Department of Science, Research
and Development
Univerzitni nam. 76
73340 Karvina
Tel.: +42069 6398222
Fax: +420696312069
E-mail: vvr@opf.slu.cz
Announcement
8. Demographic Conference
Date: 10. - 12.9.2001
Conference site: Rajecke Teplice, Slovak Republic
Organiser: Slovak Association of Statistics and Demography
Topics: Current Population Development in the SR within European
Context
More detailed information can be obtained directly from the organiser
Slovak Association of Statistics and Demography
Miletièova 3,
82467 Bratislava
Fax: +421 7 6436 8426
E-mail: Jan.Luha@statistics.sk
Announcement
Gender Equality: Experiences of Russia and Scandinavia
Date: 12. -16.09.2001
Conference site: Arkhangelsk, Russia
Organiser: The Center of Women's Studies and Gender Research of the
Pomor State University
More detailed information can be obtained directly from the organiser
Center of Women's Studies and Gender Research
Pomor State University
Uritskogo 56
163060 Arkhangelsk
Tel.: +7 8182 236295
Fax: +7 8182 441750
E-mail: Nataku@pomorsu.ru
Announcement
Role of Women in the Development of Higher Education in the 21st Century
Date: 28. -29. September 2001
Conference site: St. Petersburg, Russia
Organiser: St. Petersburg State University for Economics and Finance
Topics:
[Ydieresis] Actual problems of women at universities and approaches to their
solution;
[Ydieresis] Role of women in social and economic processes of a society;
[Ydieresis] Social and economic status of the women in Russian society;
[Ydieresis] Policy of gender equality and ways of its realization:
international and Russian experiences;
[Ydieresis] Gender examination of the reform of higher education;
* Gender approach and gender researches at universities;
* Problems of moral, social etc. education and a role of women at
universities in their realization;
* New ways and opportunities of the development of female public
organizations, activation of political women's movement.
More detailed information can be obtained directly from the organiser
Olga Demidova
Tel.: +7812 310-03-62
E-mail: olga@mail.axon.ru
Announcement
Southeastern Europe and the EU Enlargement
Date: 16. -18.09.2001
Conference site: Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Organiser: Babes-Bolyai University, Queen's University Belfast, School
of Slavonic and East European Studies, London
Topics: This conference seeks to bring together academics and
government officials from Central and Southeastern Europe and beyond to analyse
and provide critical evaluation of current developments in the EU's enlargement
process and policy with regard to the region. The conference will also provide
opportunities for participants to discuss possible collaborative research
projects.
More detailed information can be obtained directly from the organiser
Prof. Nicolae Paun
Faculty of European Studies
Babes-Bolyai University
Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Tel.: + 40 (0) 64 190 251
Fax: + 40 (0) 64 190 251
E-mail: npaun@euro.ubbcluj.ro
Announcement
Gender Projects and Ideas Conference and Trade Fair
Date: 11. - 13. October 2001
Conference site: Kiev, Ukraine
Organiser: UNDP GID together with SIDA experts (Sweden) and the State
Committee of Ukraine on Regulatory Policy and Entrepreneurship
Topics: UNDP Gender in Development Programme (Ukraine) has conducted a
number of successful gender projects, covering a variety of societal sectors.
The focus of these programs is equality of women and men in all spheres of life,
with a particular emphasis on political decision-making and economic
empowerment. The upcoming Arch Trade Fair and Conference will serve to further
fuel public awareness of gender equality issues by providing a platform for
women and men of Ukraine and other countries to exchange ideas and opinions.
Discussion topics will focus on ways of promoting women into decision-making
positions in society and into roles of equal participation in economic
development as successful leaders of small, medium and large business
enterprises.
More detailed information can be obtained directly from the organiser
Oksana Kuts
Promoting Gender Equality Project coordinator
UNDP Gender Focal Point
Tel.: +38 (044) 259 96 61 or 250 96 74
E-mail: Oksana@gid.kiev.ua
Announcement
Science for Peace and Development
Regional Scientific Co-operation of Successor States of the Socialist Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia in the Context of European Integration
Date: 04. - 06.10.2001
Conference site: Maribor, Slovenia
Organiser: Austrian Institute of East and Southeast European Studies,
Vienna - Ljubljana; Co-organizer: International League of Humanists (ILH),
Sarajevo, Slovene Science Foundation, Ljubljana
Topics: The main goal of the conference is to contribute to the better
understanding of the role of regional scientific co-operation in Southeastern
Europe (SEE) in creating the conditions for socio-economic and political
stability in this sub region and in Europe as a whole.
Conference language: English
More detailed information can be obtained directly from the organiser
Dr. Miroslav Polzer (Initiator and Co-coordinator of the conference),
Director of the Ljubljana Branch Office of the Austrian Institute of East and
Southeast European Studies, Zavetiyka 5 1000 Ljubljana
Tel.: +386-1-241 1578
Fax: +386-1-4234 485
E-mail: miro.polzer@uni-lj.si
Internet: http://www.ff.uni-lj.si/asrlo/
Announcement
The Intriguing Future
Date: 18.-20. 10.2001
Conference site: Lodz, Poland
Organiser: Institute of Sociology of the University of Lodz
Topics: 1.The course of the Polish socio-economic transformation and
its mental pictures; 2.National and mass cultures - some aspects of
globalizations; 3.The ethical consequences of recent genetic discoveries from
sociological perspectives.
More detailed information can be obtained directly from the organiser
Prof. W. Warzywoda-Kruszynska
Institute of Sociology
ul. Rewolucji 1905r. 41/43
Lodz
Tel.: +4842 6355252
Fax: +4842 6355309
E-mail: inssoc@krysia.uni.lodz.pl
Announcement
Nations and Stereotypes
Date: 9. -11.10.2001
Conference site: Biale Blota - Suszek (Pomerania region), Poland
Organiser: Faculty of International Studies and Politology of the
University of Lodz
Topics: The target of the conference is analysis of results of
activities of the scientific group "Intercultural contacts of Europe and
Asia" connected with problems of understanding of national stereotypes and
their influences on international relations.
More detailed information can be obtained directly from the organiser
Jerzy Kmieciñski
Faculty of International Studies and Politology University of Lodz
ul. Jaracza 34,
90262 [sterling]od[Ydieresis]
Tel.: +48-42 633 19 78
E-mail: natkar@krysia.uni.lodz.pl
Announcement
Religion and Patterns of Social Transformation
(The Churches and Religion in Central and Eastern Europe after the fall of
Communism. International Conference VI)
Date: 13 - 16. 12. 2001
Conference site: Zagreb, Croatia
Organiser: Institute for Social Research, Zagreb Department of
Sociology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Zagreb; and International Study
of Religion in Central and Eastern Europe Association
Topics:
* religion, modernisation and postmodernisation
* religion, democracy and civil society
* religion in the context of existing and emerging value orientations
* religion and social groups
* religious diversity and pluralism
Conference language: English
More detailed information can be obtained directly from the organiser
Institute for Social Research
Amruseva 8/III
10000 Zagreb
Tel.: +3851 4922926
Fax: +3851 4922925
E-mail: dinka@idi.hr
Announcement
Transforming Higher Education and Civil Society
Twelfth Annual Conference of the Alliance of Universities for Democracy
Date: 4.-7. November 2001
Conference site: Belgrade, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Organiser: Alliance of Universities for Democracy (AUDEM) is a
consortium of American and Central and East European universities united for the
common purpose of supporting institutions of higher learning in Central and
Eastern Europe (CEE) in their transition from suppression in centrally-planned
economies to their democratic roles in market-driven economies.
Topics:
* The Challenge of Inter-Ethnic and National Relations
* Higher Education and Opening Society
* Higher Education and Civil Society
* Humanistic Education: Education and Citizenship
* Global Migration of Students and Faculty: The Problem of Brain Drain
* The New Technologies and Higher Education
The Role of Professional and Educational Associations
* The University and the Community
* Balkan Dilemmas and Crises
* The European Union, Central, Eastern and South Eastern Europe - and the
Newly Independent States
* Thinking About Democracy: What Have We Learned Since 1989?
* Higher Education in Post-Communist Society and the World Higher Education
System
* Theoretical and Practical Issues: New Approaches to Reforming Higher
Education
More detailed information can be obtained directly from the organiser
AUDEM
American University in Bulgaria
2700 Blagoevgrad
Bulgaria
E-mail: lazarina@aubg.bg
Announcement
Social and Economic Development of the Region: Potential, Problems and
Perspectives
Date: 1.-3. November 2001
Conference site: Pavlodar, Kazakhstan
Organiser: Pavlodar University
Topics: The goal of the conference is discussion of questions
connected to creation and development of conditions of economic growth of
region: by development of science and engineering, legal base, business,
establishment of frame macro conditions in the region, formation of regional
state policy.
More detailed information can be obtained directly from the organiser
Prof. Sholpan Gaisina
Vice-rector on International Affairs,
Dean of Business and Management Department
Pavlodar University
ul. M. Gorkogo 102/4
637003 Pavlodar
Republic of Kazakhstan
E-mail: bim-pau@nursat.kz
Announcement
Conference of Labor History and Anthropology
Date: 1.-3-02.2002
Conference site: Budapest, Hungary
Organiser: University of Miskolc, Faculty of Cultural Anthropology,
ELTE Budapest
Topics: The conference will concentrate on the theme of labor history;
anthropology and the role of new perspectives and methods to explore ways to
integrate labor history with other historical and sociological perspectives.
More detailed information can be obtained directly from the organiser
Toth Eszter Viador St. 7. II. 32.
1036 Budapest
Tel.: + 361 3681416
E-mail: tezs75@h and horvathsanyi@h
Report
International Conference
"A data Odyssey - Collaborative working in the Social Science
Cyberspace"
The International Association for Social Science Information Services and
Technology (IASSIST) held its 27th annual conference with the International
Federation of Data Organizations (IFDO) from May 14 - 19, 2001. The conference
was convened in Amsterdam and hosted by the NIWI (Nederlands Instituut voor
Wetenschappelijke Informatiediensten - Netherlands Institute for Scientific
Information Services) and the Scientific Statistical Agency. The conference
title " A data Odyssey - Collaborative working in the Social Science
Cyberspace" made reference to a mythical story of a journey rich in
challenge, danger and reward. Unlike those in the epic Odyssey, the social
science data specialists cannot call on the help of gods, they have to solve the
problems themselves. IASSIST is the professional body that exists to foster
co-operation among 'data workers' in their quest for data, connecting those who
seek data with those who produce data through sharing between data archives and
data libraries. During the last quarter of the 20th Century, IASSIST has held
its annual international conference in Europe about every four years. IASSIST
did so again, this year in Amsterdam in collaboration with IFDO. About 200 data
and archive specialists from the USA, Canada, Eastern and Western Europe as well
as from Africa and Asia attended the conference. The conference was structured
in three different domains of potential sharing of information, experience and
expertise: First were organizational matters, like acquisition policy, access to
data, and setting up new national or topical archives. Second was meta data:
standards, tools, and new developments. And third was content: various (new)
data types like qualitative, aggregate data, multi-media or geo-data, or
combining data from registries. The pre-conference workshops which are a
tradition at IASSIST/IFDO conferences, introduced the participants to the a new
standard for meta data documentation - the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI).
The most often discussed issue at the conference centered also on the DDI and
special attention has been devoted to the applications of the DDI and to the
experiences in the data archives. IASSIST conferences also bring together
colleagues from new data archives around the world. In Amsterdam a special
session for these new archives was organized for the first time. The main focus
of the session was on Data Archives in Eastern Europe but also representatives
of new archives from Japan, Finland, Ireland and Greece joined the meeting. The
session chaired by Paul de Guchteneire UNESCO/MOST (Management of Social
Transformations Program), Paris and Brigitte Hausstein GESIS (German
Social Science Infrastructure Services) Branch Office Berlin/Central Archive
Cologne comprised two case studies from Slovenia and South Africa and a Forum of
representatives of data archives from Hungary, Estonia, Latvia, Czech Republic,
Slovakia, Slovenia, Russia and Romania. Janez Stebe & Irena Vipavc (Social
Science Data Archive at the Faculty of Social Sciences University of Ljubliana -
ADP) discussed how the new archives could take advantage of experiences of the
already existing data archives in the world and Heston Phillips &
Patience Tshose spoke about how the data service was managed and organized
in the South African Data Archive (SADA) which has been existing since 1994. The
Forum discussion introduced to a variety of topics in the design and
implementation of new data archives in Eastern Europe. The Forum member reported
about their experiences in, results and the difficulties of creating a data
infrastructure in their countries. In short reports they gave an overview of the
current situation. Jindrich Krejci (head of the Sociological Data Archive
in Prague, Czech Republic) mentioned that the Czech archive had been established
in 1998 within the framework of the project "Social Trends" funded by
the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic. Now it is part of the Institute of
Sociology of the Academy of Sciences and since 2001 a member of CESSDA. Ildiko
Nagy (Data Archive Department of TARKI, Budapest) introduced the Hungarian
Social Research Informatics Center, the first data archive in Eastern Europe. Ludmila
Khakhulina (deputy director of the research center VCIOM, Moscow) and Larisa
Kosova (head of the information department of the VCIOM) presented their
project "Creating a public data archive in Russia". Nina Rostegaeva
(head of the Data Bank of Sociological Studies - DB) reviewed the historical
background of the data archive at the Institute of Sociology of the Russian
Academy of Sciences in Moscow that had been founded in 1986. The DB contains a
complete collection of data on the major research projects conducted by leading
Soviet sociologist but also data sets from the period of "Perestroika"
as well as from the years since 1990. Andu Rämmer introduced the Estonian
Social Science Data Archive in Tartu (ESSDA). The Archive was set up in 1994 and
became a member of CESSDA (Council of European Social Science Data Archives) in
1997. At the moment it is struggling very hard to keep alive because of the lack
of permanent funding. Ausma Tabuna (head of the Latvian Social Science
Data Archive, Riga) described the same situation in Latvia. The idea of
establishing a data archive in Slovakia and Romania is relatively new, therefore
Katarina Strapcova, (Institute of Sociology of the Academy of Sciences,
Bratislava, Slovakia) and Adrian Dusa (Institute for Quality of Life
Research, Bucharest) presented their first views on this issue and informed
about their plans for the future. Ekkehard Mochmann (IFDO President, ZA
Cologne) opened the discussion by noting that obviously all data archives - old
and new ones - are facing the same problems. They have to cope with financial
restrictions, insufficient technical equipment as well as with the lack of
well-trained archive specialists. He emphasized that beside financial support
these new archives needed also special training in data processing and
documentation techniques. In this respect it would be necessary to provide a
platform for new archives in Eastern Europe to exchange experiences in producing
and storing metadata. He offered to set up a discussion group on New Data
Archives on the IFDO homepage. Paul de Guchteneire appreciated the
support for new archives in Eastern Europe provided by GESIS/Central Archive
Cologne, the Finish and Swedish Data Archive. He expressed his hope that this
kind of support (he called it "Twinning") would be growing and he
pointed out that the UNESCO/MOST would also promote both the establishment of
further data archives in those countries where such facilities are weak and the
establishment of a network of data archives from Eastern and Western Europe. In
her closing speech Brigitte Hausstein underlined: "The Forum
has been the first opportunity in the last years for data archive specialists
from Eastern Europe to meet and share experiences. On the one hand the Forum
provided a comprehensive view of the progress achieved in the field of
establishing data archives in Eastern Europe. On the other hand there is a
common understanding of the fact that the new archives still need support
provided by the international data and network organizations and experienced
data archives. The GESIS Branch Office will continue to foster the cooperation
between data archives from Eastern and Western Europe by offering workshops and
training facilities".
Brigitte Hausstein
GESIS Berlin/ZA Cologne
Report
Voice or Exit: Comparative Perspectives on Ethnic Minorities in 20th
Century Europe
The conference "Voice or Exit: Comparative Perspectives on Ethnic
Minorities in 20th Century Europe" took place at the Humboldt University,
Berlin (Social Science Department, Population Studies) on June 14-16th, 2001.
The event was made possible through a generous support from the German Marshall
Fund, Office Berlin. The conference brought together scholars from Europe, East
and West, and the USA, often at a different stage of their academic career. The
presentations and discussions reflected a variety of research subjects and
methodological considerations, originating from the distinct concerns of
history, linguistics, sociology, anthropology, social psychology, political
science, and human rights law. The keynote lecture of Andreas Wimmer initiated
the debate around the "tyranny of the national." Wimmer criticized the
"methodological nationalism" of many disciplines, pointed out the
interconnectedness between nationalism and modernization, and analyzed the
emergence of the nation along the lines of legal definition, social security,
military considerations, political representation, and identity. He examined
nationalism as a compromise between the population and its elites in which the
weakness or strength of the state determines the manifestation of nationalism as
either ethnic chauvinism or xenophobia/racism.
The conference proceeded in addressing nationalism and ethnicity in a
comprehensive yet context-specific way. The two initial panels centered on
historical aspects of minority-majority relations and the complexity of
inter-ethnic relations in interwar Europe. Daniel Miller shed light on the
Czechoslovak colonization policies in the Hungarian and German border areas
where Czechs and Slovaks, not Germans, Jews, or Hungarians, were encouraged to
create farming enterprises after World War One. The land reform served economic
and social considerations but constituted mainly a weapon against the
unfavorable ethnic composition in the border areas. Chad Bryant described ethnic
"amphibians," or people who switch between identities, among the
Germans and Czechs in Bohemia and Moravia under Nazi occupation. The policy to
grant German citizenship to Slavs was super ceded by a concern about the
"quality of the race" and inability to set strict criteria for
German-ness. Yet the 1945 Potsdam !Agreement reversed the fate of the amphibians
and many recent Germans were expelled from the Czech Republic as traitors. The
existence of ethnic unity was also far from evident among the various German
political organizations in the three German-populated areas of Poland, as Winson
Churchill demonstrated. The German governments also maintained the rift between
Prussian and non-Prussian Germans. Demographic trends, the Polish and German
states, and National Socialist ideology all influenced the expression of
Germanness in Poland. Predictably, similar ambiguities of national identity were
present in the history of South-Eastern Europe. Onur Yildirim explored the
historiographical traditions concerning the Turk-Greek Population exchange of
1923, emblematic for the experience of forced migration. He criticized the
cost-and-benefit historical analyses, approved of scholarship highlighting the
incomplete refugees' incorporation, and demonstrated that the exchange was an
important not only for Greek but also for Turkish history. How the present
modifies the past was revealed by Theodora Dragostinova in an examination of the
1906 migration of Greeks from Bulgaria, distinguished by fluidity of national
identity, that has been traditionally interpreted as an expression of historical
hatreds between Greeks and Bulgarians. An "erasure" of history started
in the interwar period as a result of property compensation negotiations, in
which powerful elites "forgot" and "silenced" examples of
tolerant minority-majority interaction. Mila Mancheva discussed Kemalism in the
context of the Turkish minority's place in Bulgarian society. She made clear how
the minority pursued distinct ethnic politics but not political secession from
Bulgaria. Though most Turkish leaders identified Kemalism as a movement for
secularization and modernization, Bulgarian officials often depicted it as a
manifestation of Turkish nationalism, a strategy that allowed their intervention
in the cultural matters of the minority.
These "perspectives from the past" provided a nice continuity of
problematic and methodology from the interwar period to the Post-communist
present, discussed in the next two panels dedicated to ethnic politics
"under transition." Carina Korostelina focused on the multiple
identities in Ukraine and specifically Crimea, and examined Soviet, national,
ethnic, and regional identities in a comparison between Russians and Crimean
Tatars. Apparently, ethnic identity emerges as the most important for the
Crimean Tatars while regional and Soviet identity connected with ethnicity for
the Russians. Analyzing Ukraine as a "nationalizing state," Mykola
Riabchuk accentuated the existence of a "swing group" of Russophones
and Ukrainophones with no clear identity in contrast to the committed
Ukrainophones and Russians. Even Ukrainian rulers who define national
independence as their main objective often judge "cultural ambiguity"
as more welcome in the process of de-Sovietization. The dilemmas of national
minorities in Poland after the 1989 were reviewed in Slawomir Lodzinski's
presentation. He highlighted the intercon-nectedness between Polish national
identity and the presence of minorities in Poland and concluded that the
attitudes of ethnic minorities have altered due to legal changes and policies
oriented towards them. The attitudes of the Poles towards minorities have become
more open as well, despite the existence of less favored minority groups, such
as the Roma and Ukrainians. Conversely, the process of democratization caused
deterioration in the relations of the Roma population with the majority in the
Czech Republic, as examined by Jana Barthel. Social isolation is evident in
education, housing, labor, and the limited political representation. The author
considered policy-making to be the key to understanding the marginalization of
the community, and argued that only integration in national politics could
improve their social status. Irina Molodikova analysed the reasons for the
immigration of ethnic Russians in Latvia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan to the Russian
Federation after 1989. Even though in surveys the wish to join the motherland
comes first, she claimed that not ethnic tensions and discrimination, but the
economic factor, was the major reason for the outflow. An analysis of the
relationship between decentralization and ethno-territorial autonomy in Romania
was presented in Narcisa Grigorescu's paper. She explained the tension within
policies involving citizens in decision-making yet also reflecting ethnic
minority demands for rights. Grigorescu emphasized the challenge in balancing
the interests of the "core nation" and ethnic minorities, and stated
that Romania's failed transition from a centralized state aggravated the feeling
of disenfranchisement of the Hungarian minority.
The "responses to ethnopolitical challenges" of the European Union
as well as the diverse institutional arrangements in individual nation-states
constituted the topic of the following two panels. The European Union's
encouragement for institutional representation of minorities and monitoring of
their rights vis-a-vis the majority was judged as crucial. Melanie Ram addressed
the EU influence on minority rights in candidate states, taking as the example
the Citizenship Law in the Czech Republic and the Hungarian Language Law in
Romania. Focusing on legal amendments and governmental structures for minority
issues, she critically examined the timing of the reforms, the character of the
domestic debate, and the limits to EU influence. Antoine Roger undertook another
comparative study of EU influences, analyzing Bulgaria, Romania, and Latvia.
Noticing that minority parties in each country adopt a different political
stance, he suggested that the economic situation of the ,motherland' and its
closeness to EU membership influence the policies of ethnic minority parties in
the host country. Christophe Scheidhauer illuminated the limited enforcement
mechanisms of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. As the
main reason for its weakness, apart from political factors, was considered the
divergence about the nature of the regional or minority languages. The author
drew attention to the vague nature of many terms employed in the Charter,
including "traditional", "group", "area", and
"language." A new term was coined by Zoltan Kantor who, starting from
Brubaker, proposed the notion "nationalizing minority" to describe the
process through which the minority develops as a nation and attempts to
transform politically the state. The author focused on the variety of competing
minority projects in the Hungarian communities in Romania that eventually result
in the nationalizing minority's politics. The role of the Hungarian Ombudsman in
regulating racial discrimination was explored by Andrea Krizsan who made clear
the different levels of anti-discrimination politics: racial meanings, racially
significant practices, and racially tainted distribution. She pointed out that a
specialized body couldn't per se solve discrimination problems because of the
absence of a workable definition of more complex forms of racial discrimination,
such as "indirect discrimination." The concept of "ethnic
unmixing" was scrutinized in Tobias Vogel's analysis of territorial
partitioning and population transfers as methods of ethnic conflict resolution.
Studying the events in the Balkans, he emphasized that "ethnic
unmixing" ignores the fact that, besides "ethnic groups," people
are persons with individual preferences and inalienable rights. Such political
decisions constitute practical instruments of diplomacy and blatantly contradict
the concept of humanitarianism.
The last two sessions provided examples for the institutionalization and
representation of inter-ethnic interaction from various "illustrative case
studies." Ayse Betul Celik depicted Kurdish ethnic life in Istanbul in the
1990s through a study of "hometown associations" facilitating
migration as well as more politically minded institutions and private companies.
She revealed the transformation of traditional, territorial identities into
modern, political institutions, demanding cultural rights for their members.
Robert Greenberg examined the contest over linguistic idiom among the three
Slavic-speaking communities, Slavic Muslim, Serbian, and Croatian, in Bosnia.
After the Bosnian War, an attempt at the codification of new languages magnified
linguistic differences, previously treated as regional variations in the
Serbo-Croatian language. Analyzing Bosnian Serb identity, Greenberg argued that
the evidence for a separate ethnic identity based on language was exaggerated.
Sebastian Schroeder reminded how the Poles in Lithuania are torn between several
national (Polish, Russian, and Lithuanian) and international (Soviet, European)
identities. During the Soviet era, the Poles showed patterns of assimilation to
the Russian way of life. After Lithuanian independence in 1991, the Polish
minority did not evolve into irredentism, largely for lack of support from
Russia or Poland, and developed into an ethnic party. The symbolic competition
between Hungarian and Romanian inhabitants in the Transylvanian city of Cluj was
the focus of Margit Feischmidt's anthropological study. She explained how the
state, the economy, and ethnic institutions, especially education, define ethnic
categories and relations. The key question posed was the social organization of
ethnic differences, and, in particular, the relationship between social class
and ethnicity. Anahit Minasyan compared the experiences after World War II of
Armenians and Jews in France who emigrated to Soviet Armenia or Israel
respectively. The members of both groups were dedicated to their new
nation-states, and managed to increase their international recognition and
legitimacy. They faced harsh living conditions and discrimination after
resettlement yet while the Armenians grew discontent with Soviet society the
Jews were largely satisfied. A lesson for an ethnic conflict resolution was
proposed in Jens Woelk's work that took as an example the autonomy of South
Tyrol. Emphasizing the impact of the international sphere on ethnic conflict,
his presentation traced the complex negotiation process between the different
political actors that resulted in a workable legal arrangement for South Tyrol.
A key feature of that process, according to Woelk, was its essentially
non-political character.
The variety of theoretical approaches and the abundance of examples were the
main strengths of the conference. A focus on Eastern Europe apparently reins in
the field yet the discussions made clear that the "under transition"
status of these countries is not an indicator of their historical peculiarity or
theoretical distinctiveness. In this respect, the critical examination of
Western European politics and influences was extremely illuminating. The
participants agreed that a focus on ethnic and cultural exceptionalism couldn't
explain the manifestation and institutionalization of inter-ethnic relations
without the examination of the economic, social, and political fields. The
interconnectedness between identity and social relations, the complementarity of
individual consciousness and the social aggregate, and the relationship between
the cultural or discursive performance and its socio-political roots were the
unifying themes in the discussions. Judging from the interests of the
participants in the conference, much of the new research in the field will
gravitate around these ideas.
Theodora Dragostinova
(University of Florida)
Conference website: http://www.demographie.de/minorities
All papers are available online (password protected).
Authors emails and thus permit to download the papers can be obtained at:
Rainer Ohliger
HU Berlin
Bevoelkerungswissenschaft
Unter den Linden 6
D-10099 Berlin
Tel.: 0049/(0)30/2093-1937
Fax: 0049/(0)30/2093-1432
Email: rohliger@sowi.hu-berlin.de
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