- Giuseppe Maiello, Ph. D. (University of Pardubice, Czech Republic):
Contemporary funeral rites in the Czech lands
If it is true that the majority of Czech funerals end with the cremation of the body (a process originally refused by the Catholic Church), it is also true that the funeral ceremony in the Czech lands at the present day fully accomplishes the principle of severity provided by Bible.
Today most of Czech funeral ceremonies consist mainly in listening to pieces of music recommended by the management of crematories. Even during the execution of rock or pop music the principle of severity is not violated. The reason of this approach of the Czechs is not supposed to be reached in the communist pedagogy, but in the deep diffusion of biblical models in all sections of the population, even in the so called “the most atheistic country in the world”.
The study of the contemporary funeral rites in Czech lands shows us that a less controlled (and probably more natural) expression of mourning seems to be almost extinct in the culture of the Czech majority. It seems that the tradition European ways of celebrating death of a relative ended at the end of the nineteenth century and was replaced by a “modern” and severe one.
- Lucian Vesalon (Universitatea Vest, Timisoara, RO):
Modernization discourse and the re-construction of the East/West dichotomy in the post-socialist period
This presentation uses discourse analysis to understand the re-articulation and the consequent reinforcement of the East/West dichotomy in Europe in the post-socialist period. First, I will analyse the discursive mechanisms involved in defining social and political change in Eastern Europe in evolutionary terms, as ‚modernization’. I will then focus on the political implications of an evolutionary perspective for the practices of transition in Eastern Europe.
- Liviu Andreescu (Liga Pro Europa, Tg, Mures):
Turning Our Backs on Europe: Evolution, Religious Education, and other Worries
Religious education has been a contested issue in Romania ever since its introduction in the early 1990s. Yet after a brief but intense public discussion occasioned by its formal introduction in 1995, the debate died out. The discussions resurfaced only about a decade later, when the first independent studies of religious education were published. The paper looks at the major concerns generated by the teaching of religion in Romanian public schools, including the recent struggles over the display of religious iconography and the teaching of evolution.
- Andor Mészáros (PPTE Central European Institute):
On the national identity of Czech people living in Pest during the period of dualism
- Levente Salat (Department of Political Science, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj):
The concept of ‘political community’ in culturally divided societies
According to a deeply rooted tradition in the history of political thought, the good political community is homogeneous from ethnic, linguistic and cultural point of view. The paper will explore on what grounds and at what costs can culturally divided societies be considered genuine political communities, based on normative considerations on the one hand, and with the help of a case study on the Hungarian minority in Romania, on the other.
- Alpár Losoncz (Department of Philosophy, University of Szeged, University of Újvidék):
The adventures of the multiculturality in ex-Yugoslavia
In certain sense multiculturalism has a long tradition in Serbia and Yugoslavia . Yugoslavia was one among a few states with federal structure with a considerable degree of decentralisation but always within the Communist ideological frames, i.e. the multiculturality was carried out in compliance with the standards of the Party-power preservation. The classical principles of a federation, like subsidiarity or the power control, had to be rewritten according to the altered imperatives of political action since the word ‘control’ could not be used and had to be reworded into ‘the territorial distribution of power’. The broad political context demonstrated the paradoxical meanings of nationalism: official ideological rhetoric strongly excluded nationalism from the public sphere, but made it stronger underground. Does this tradition determine Serbia today?
- Iván Balogh (Department of Sociology, University of Szeged):
Anti-semitism contra anti-fascism
Antisemitism may strengthen if the „silent majority” remains indifferent towards the antisemites rather than either advocating or marginalising them. In this special (current Hungarian case), tolerance to both attitudes may change to resistance against these so-called „two extremes” and consequently may become a core of a new political identity programme.
- Attila Demeter (Department of Philosophy, Bábes-Bolyai University, Cluj):
The European Organizations and the Minority Issue
The presentation aims to analyze the issue of national minorities in the light of the documents elaborated by the European organizations during the last decade of the 20th century. Having decided, after the collapse of the communist regimes, that the treatment of minorities was a matter of legitimate international concern, European organizations then confronted the question of what, if anything, they could do to help improve state-minority relations in post-communist countries. As Will Kymlicka points out, they have largely proceeded along three tracks: publicizing best practices; formulating minimum standards; and case-specific interventions. We try to demonstrate that the first two of these three strategies have felt to give results and the success of the third demonstrates, in turn, the weakness of the principle-based European minority protection policy.
- Zoltán Kántor (Institute of Foreign Affairs, Budapest):
Defining the nation: a political or a scientific question?
The ‘nation’ is one of the most frequently used concepts in social sciences. It is striking the theoretical negligent employment of this term. In my presentation I will try to demonstrate that the term ‘nation’ hinders much more social analysis, as it helps. The adjectives – political, ethnic, cultural, civic, eastern, western, etc. – does not clarify anything, even more they mislead theoretical thinking and empirical analysis.
In my presentation I will argue that even the most sophisticated definition of the nation (if possible), the most perfect typology does not help us in understanding the ongoing social processes (globalization, EU enlargement, etc.). The main reason is that the nation is a static term, imagined as something really existing.
- Attila Pató (Social Theory Collection, University of Szeged):
Rehabilitating Nationalism? Arguments pro and contra
The short presentation is just a very brief reflection on a situation, which we may acutally ascribe to a certain lack of proper language: namely, a language fit for questions and answers to real problems. How to explain the strange situation: apparently it seems difficult to find the place of „nation” following the political turmoil we experienced in 1989 in Central-Europe. Surely, if at all, the answer must be highly complex – here we shall refer to the question only, also to some specific phenomena in this sense. First of all, we have to conceive the very difficult inter-relation of different ideologies.
- Daniela Kalkandjieva (Center for Interreligious Dialog, Sofia University):
Eurointegration and Interreligious Dialogue in Bulgaria
The paper analyzes the impact of Eurointegration on interreligious dialog in Bulgaria. Both processes are new for a post-communist society like Bulgarian. After the years of atheism, it has been seriously challenged by the resurgence of religion in its various forms, traditional and new. The lack of culture to communicate with “the other” in the sphere of religion brought about tensions and even conflicts. There are, however, factors that assist their overcoming and solving. According to the author, Bulgaria’s EU membership creates conditions for interreligious dialog in the country and promotes the peaceful coexistence of its citizens without regard of there religious background. The author also pays attention to some problems that seems to be neglected such as the asymmetry in the structure of different religious organizations, the problematic attitude of some religious leaders to human rights and secular values, etc.
- Liana Konstantinova Galabova (Center for Interreligious Dialog, Sofia University):
Religious Education and European Identity in Orthodox Countries
The aim of this paper is to examine the relation of religious education to building of European identity in Orthodox countries. Traditional religious education in Post-Communist Orthodox countries often seems to be part of the resistance of some religious circles to shaping of common European religious culture. In those countries, where church regained social authority besides its separation from the state, there were subsidies for new kind of more democratic organisation of multi-confessional religious education. In those countries, where Orthodox Church is still recovering from the past, religious education is less popular and less institutionalized. The confessional religious education in Orthodox countries which did not experience Communism was also questioned in regard of human rights. Confessional religious education in one faith is generally not well situated between different basic human rights and freedoms as those of consciousness, religion, education, etc. Moreover the recent common identity supposes that people from various denominations share values and worldviews in a dialogue and cooperation. Some religious people still suppose that religious education is in favour of their stereotypical view on religions necessary to nationalist propaganda in the past. And that is the improper part of contemporary nationalism, because the interests of all nations nowadays converge towards common civic identity in the frame of European Union. The role of religions in building such a European identity is opposite to the resistance of cultural unity between European counterparts.