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- Convenor:
-
Jurij Fikfak
(ZRC SAZU)
- Chair:
-
Thomas Wolfe
(University of Minnesota)
- Discussant:
-
Thomas Wolfe
(University of Minnesota)
- Location:
- A116
Short Abstract:
This panel will explore what is perhaps the constitutive paradox at the heart of contemporary Europe: the utopian nature of what was an explicit reaction against the utopian projects of the first half of the 20th century.
Long Abstract:
This panel will explore what is perhaps the constitutive paradox at the heart of contemporary Europe: the utopian nature of what was an explicit reaction against the utopian projects of the first half of the 20th century. We will examine the degree to which policies and projects that were understood at the time to be "pragmatic" and "realistic" were in fact the product of values extracted from what we will call the utopian imaginary. The panel will also investigate the different ways that European national cultures are dealing with the utopian aspects of their collective governance. To what degree is it implicit in the phrase "European construction" that what is being constructed is informed by the utopian imagination? Our goal is in a sense to rehabilitate the realm of "the utopian" and refocus it as a vital conceptual category of analysis.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Thomas Wolfe (University of Minnesota)
Paper short abstract:
My paper's big theme is the reconstruction of European societies after World War II. I argue that everyday life is not something that simply started automatically after a disruption like wartime, but was something that took shape in interaction with many strands of the imaginary, including the utopian.
Paper long abstract:
This essay asserts the relevance of utopian texts to the social imaginary of postwar European societies. It operates in a scholarly register that might best be described as historical phenomenology or philosophical anthropology, specifically the style of discourse present in the sweeping works of Charles Taylor, whose books "Sources of the Self" and "A Secular Age" provide the setting for my discussion below. The most direct influences of Taylor can be found in my argument that the utopian imagination was a crucial part of the cultural background for the emergence of European institutions in the 1950s and 60s, and that one of the most important developments in the long stretch of European modernity was the appearance of "ordinary life" as a cultural model in the 16th and 17th centuries. This brief essay is part of a larger project, which is to suggest a way to think of the place of postwar Europe within the evolving problematic of ordinary life.
Ullrich Kockel (University of the Highlands and Islands)
Paper short abstract:
This paper presents a metaphorical journey to some iconic locations where countercultural visions of Europe have been expressed. It will draw on on-going research looking at the relationship of parts of the German Youth Movement with the European East during the past 60 years.
Paper long abstract:
This paper presents a metaphorical journey to some iconic locations. It begins at a point near where the Iron Curtain used to run right through the heart of Germany and Europe. The Hohe Meißner, an elevation northeast of Kassel, was the location where the Free German Youth gathered famously in 1913, an event commemorated in 1963 and 1988, each time expressing utopian visions of Europe. At the first meeting, their vision was condensed into a succinct utopian formula, which has been adapted at each of the two subsequent gatherings, most comprehensively in 1988. We will proceed from the Meißner to visit some other locations where countercultural visions of Europe have been expressed. Each location will be associated with a particular, ethnologically informed meditation on the meaning and sense of place as we encounter a thinker associated with that place. Returning to our place of departure, we will discuss whether a formula can be derived from these meditations that may express a vision for Europe in 2015. The contribution will draw on on-going research looking at the relationship of parts of the German Youth Movement with the European East during the past 60 years.
Tatiana Bajuk Sencar (ZRC SAZU)
Paper short abstract:
This contribution will assess the role and evolution of a post-national utopian vision of Europe as a discourse of identity and practice among the first generation of Slovene Eurocrats within an evolving European Union.
Paper long abstract:
This contribution will assess the role of a post-national utopian vision of Europe as a discourse of identity and practice within the EU institutions. The project of "building Europe" through integration has for decades provided EU officials or Eurocrats with a frame for day to day activity as well as the foundations for an official identity. Existing anthropological research has critically engaged this utopian concept, emphasizing its ambiguous, open-ended nature, identifying the moral historiography and categorizations of identity upon which it is based, and shedding light on the particular cultural and historical circumstances of its construction. The analysis to be presented will focus instead on the evolution of this utopian concept and its range of operation in the context of an expanded and evolving European Union. It is based on field research conducted among the first generation of Slovene Eurocrats in Brussels. The author will examine the ways that this utopian concept is experienced at the ground level by this particular group of newcomers who, in fashioning a space for themselves within a new institutional framework, negotiate the ambiguities and limits of "Europe" as an institutional project on a daily basis.
Jurij Fikfak (ZRC SAZU)
Paper short abstract:
The paper is focused on small NGOs that are creating a different understanding of the common, problematic past. These NGOs are building bridges between cultures and can greatly contribute to a understanding of Europe and European identity, based on cultural diversity and general humanist ethics.
Paper long abstract:
Among the most significant positive features of Europe today are its numerous and diverse cultures, as well as the impulse to integrate all of Europe, including its former communist East, into a large single economic market with established democratic rules and respect for human rights. On the other hand, extremely violent armed conflicts and genocides have taken place in Europe, especially during the WWI and WWII. However, in many places the memories of the past are still too vivid. An unprocessed past can be the subject of subcultural, public, and even official discourse and debate, while internalizations of various memories can bring mutual understanding in Europe into question. The intention of this paper is not to investigate these negative discourses, but to focus on numerous small NGOs that are creating a different understanding of the common past and a different acceptance and understanding of migrants. These groups and agencies are building bridges between cultures, and also make up essential resources that can greatly contribute to a different understanding of Europe and European identity, they contribute we can say even to a European utopia, based on cultural diversity and general humanist ethics.
Reinhard Johler (University Tuebingen)
Paper short abstract:
The concept of European Ethnology as a field of research was, from the beginning, linked with utopian ideas about Europe.
Paper long abstract:
The concept of European Ethnology as a field of research was, from the beginning, linked with utopian ideas about Europe. This talk will present and discuss this connection in terms of a chronology which is central for the field as well as the continent (1930s, 50s, 70s, and 90s), and then explore the question of what utopias European Ethnology still has in the present day.
Jessica Symons (Visioning Lab)
Paper short abstract:
This paper explores how utopian aspirations in governance policy encourage intermediaries to continuously re-present their activities in new forms. Fieldwork in Northern England shows how an artist used utopian expectations to mobilise funding. 'Mini-me' utopias are a welcome alternative.
Paper long abstract:
The Lads Club in Northern England was established by two brothers in 1900s. They were brewery owners who wanted somewhere for the workers and their children to socialise. The Club became the centre of the community providing social support, work references and sporting opportunities for generations. After a period of decline, the club was revived by an artist inspired by its rich heritage and comprehensive archive.
This paper contemplates how an art practitioner accessed different 'pots of funding' by connecting the club's activities to the utopian aspirations of influential cultural intermediaries. In particular it considers how the British funding regime shapes how people engage with their cultural heritage. It argues that utopian aspirations to empower local people, to celebrate cultural activities, to control how people do culture are distorting people's self-expressive forms.
The paper also suggests that the inspiration motivating anti-austerity narratives comes from grand utopian visions turned inward. People are developing ideals of self and seeking out communities of interest in solidarity to take action on issues that concern or threaten their identities. These alternative 'mini-me' utopias result in similar ambiguities to the overarching utopian notion of what it is to be 'European'. However, they also provide a way out of top down, command and control governance structures.