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Master Class 2013

In the first Master Class of the Thematic DAAD-Network the participants discussed concepts and experiences of, and within, regional and urban spaces. Keynote speakers gave an insight into recent research trends in the field.

 

Master Class "Regionalism, urbanity, and modernity in multi-ethnic and multi-cultural Eastern Europe in the 20th century", 26. – 27. November 2013

 

When Eastern Europe entered the era of „high modernity“, it was politically still organized within imperial frameworks and in multicultural and -lingual contexts. Consequently, sub-imperial, i.e. regional, and urban entities often were being regarded as an antagonist category with respect to the Empire. Moreover, concepts of regional and urban identity were influenced by the nationalist movements, while concepts of regional and urban identity were of central importance to projects of imperial reform. The interwar period centralized „nationalizing“ states. The re-organization of borderlines after 1918, and post WWII socialist régimes put a virtual end to constructs, concepts, and territorial entities that were based upon the region. Many regional entities which were of great importance to cultural identities even ceased to exist in the consequence of the World Wars (e.g. Galicia or Eastern Prussia). Thus, regionalisms in multi-ethnic Eastern European contexts are important political, social and cultural movements influencing modern(izing) societies. While the last decades, we could observe a re-emergence of regionalist movements, concepts, and reform ideas. Moreover, during the last three decades, we can speak of a renaissance of interest in historical regions.


In the paradigm of 20th century modernization, the process of urbanization is regarded as a central premise for the emergence, viability, and regeneration of modern societies, too. In the 20th century, we observe the emergence of new city types (like the Socialist City) and forms in the wake of system change and/or industrial diversification and specialization. Before and after 1945, we observe official attempts to integrate urban cultural plurality and to shape urban settings according to hegemonic patterns and values. Under socialist rule, such attempts include the creation of entirely new settings and state control over representations of urbanity. However, the latter proved to be only partly successful, as we can observe in the everyday and sub-cultural experience of socialist cities.

 

Programme

 

Introduction & Input 1 Peter Haslinger (Marburg / Gießen), Regionalism – Concepts of Space and Region

Panel 1
Chair: Peter Haslinger (Marburg / Gießen) / Jan Surman (Vienna)
Lyubomir Pozharliev (Gießen), Auto-Transport Infrastructure and its Role for Social Cohesion and Personal Emancipation in Socialist Bulgaria and Yugoslavia
Maryia Nekrashevich (Minsk), Gomel region and the Chernobyl disaster
Artem Krestianinov (Kazan'), The strategies of unification and integration – Authorities and baptized non-Russian populations in Volga region in the late imperial Russia
Carl Bjork (Glasgow), Continued resistance – Russian rhetoric and the myth of Chechen normalization

Keynote Lecture & Herder-Kolloquium
Chair: Jan Surman (Vienna) / Comment: Peter Haslinger (Marburg / Gießen)

Alexander Maxwell (Wellington, NZ), Linguistic Nationalism and the Politics of 'Dialects' – The Case of Slovakia

Evening Lecture
Chair: Stefan Rohdewald (Gießen)

Robert D. Greenberg (Auckland, NZ), Accommodation or Assimilation – Language, Religion and Nation-Building in the Balkans

Input 2

Heidi Hein-Kircher (Marburg), Recent trends in Urban History Studies in Eastern Europe

Panel 2
Chair: Heidi Hein-Kircher (Marburg) / Jan Surman (Vienna)
Daniela Zupan (Stuttgart), Constructing a New Urban Image Top-Down? A Case Study of Perm’
Johannes Florian Kontny (Vienna), Unfinished transformation? The integration of Eupen and Znojmo/Znaim into the new state during the interwar period
Ekatarina Mikhaylova (Kazan'), Originality of the Kazan' cultural space
Elizaveta Navoschik (Minsk), Internal and external justifications of the Baltic Sea Region and the place of Belarus in this framework
Claudia Gabriela Spiridon (Cluj-Napoca), The development of the German regional literature in Romania in the 1970s and 1980s
Panel 3
Chair: Heidi Hein-Kircher (Marburg) / Jan Surman (Vienna)
Theresa Adamski (Vienna), Modern Towns for Modern People – Space and identity in the company towns of the Baťa concern in the 1930s
Chantelle Barrager (Glasgow), Social housing in Glasgow. Scotland from the rent strikes to the poll tax
Guntis Vāveris (Riga), Activities of Temperance societies in Governorate of Livland (1889-1914)
Anton Burmistrov (Kazan'), Soviet Cinema in the 1920s and 1930s as an instrument of creating a cultural and political integrated space in a multinational region – the Republic of Tatarstan
Ihar Aŭlasenka (Minsk), East Polesian peasants and the collectivization (according to the "Polesian Chronicle" of Ivan Melezh)

Guest lecture

Rudolf Poledna (Cluj-Napoca), Urbanization in modern Romania. Evolution or revolution?

Final Discussion

 

 

Please read the Conference Proceedings for more information: Regionalism, urbanity, and modernity in multi-ethnic and multi-cultural Eastern Europe in the 20th century. 26.11.2013-27.11.2013, Gießen, in: H-Soz-u-Kult, 10.03.2014, <http://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/tagungsberichte/id=5262>.