Pluralism and networking: Experiences in (post-)imperial and socialist Southeast Europe East-West dialogue: University dialogue with the countries of the Western Balkans 2020
The project continues the successful multi-year cooperation with partner institutions from Belgrade, Sarajevo, Skopje, Pula, Koper and Zagreb and this year is dedicated to the topics of ‘pluralism’ and ‘networking’ in Southeast Europe from a historiographical perspective. Within the cluster ‘Pluralism as a social reality and challenge of political change’, the aim is to take a closer look across historical caesuras at how pluralism has been negotiated, shaped or systematically combated in the political systems in the South-East European region under consideration in and since the late imperial period. Pluralism must be understood in many different ways. This involves changing attitudes towards multiconfessionalism and multilingualism, ideas of pluralism in the national(istic) as well as socialist expansion of the state, and, in particular, the confrontation with everyday ‘coping’ and shaping of pluralism in the (also local) exercise of political power. In terms of time, a special focus will be placed on the late and immediate post-Ottoman period. On the other hand, it will examine more closely how pluralism was ideologically understood and ‘managed’ in the everyday life of the one-party system as a reaction to the traumatic experiences of the Second World War in the socialist decades (the focus is on Yugoslavian self-governing socialism). One of the research objectives is to work within the network on how pluralism can/should be negotiated as a social category (including in teaching) in the historical sciences.
Complementary to this, a historiographical dialogue on the topic of ‘networking’ as a historical perspective will be initiated in the cluster ‘Networking as an offer of integration and form of cross-border crisis management’. The aim is to set a counterpoint to the awareness that there is also a very strong trend within the historiographies of the Western Balkan states towards a narrow ‘national-historical’ perspective. Based on various detailed questions, the focus will be on a very diverse application of entangled history. The aim is to discuss in the network how approaches to ‘networking’ can be implemented as a starting point for historical work in various historical fields (intellectual history, the history of socialism, the history of the Cold War, environmental history or the history of disease and medicine).
With this in mind, the network is planning to organise and participate in the following initiatives in 2020:
- Book presentation and panel discussion at the Kliofest in Zagreb, 12-15 May 2020
- Doctoral summer school ‘Cooperation, exchange and solidarity in Europe 1945-1990’, Pula, 26-29 August 2020
- History Fest ‘The Challenges of Pluralism: Politics, Society and Cultural Interactions in Southeast Europe during the 1980s’ in Sarajevo, 02-06 September 2020
- Panel discussion in the series ‘Conversations about Yugoslavia’ in the redesigned Museum of Yugoslavia in Belgrade, autumn/winter 2020
- Lecture and discussion ‘Pluralism as a challenge of political upheaval in the late Ottoman period’ in Skopje, autumn/winter 2020
- Current research topic: ‘HIV as a social challenge: (inter-) national networks of support’
