Under the patronage of the dean of FHS UK in Prague, CZ doc. PhDr. Ladislav Benyovszký,
Csc., we would like to invite you to our conference Balkan Express, which will take a
place at the Faculty of Humanities in Prague, September, 24-25, 2014.
The aim of the conference is to open up a space for discussions concerning both the presence
and the past of the Balkans as of distinctive cultural region. The metaphor of the Balkan Express
train does not only refer to this particular region but it should also evoke the interconnectedness
of places within the region, as well as to emphasise the linkages with other parts of Europe and
possibly even other world’s areas.
Yet, this delimitation hardly exhausts the possible chain of imagination that the Balkan Express
metaphor associates. Illusion of the speed of change brought by the globalised world leads on an
everyday level to the feeling of a loss of authenticity that is based on collective sharing of
culture. It seems that the contemporary world does not strive for continual construction of
cultural experiences and identities stemming out of various experiences. On contrary, man in
postmodern situation somewhat volatiles and longs for exhilaration – events that for a moment
demarcate one’s borders and offer type of individual authenticity. This is one of the reason why
we perceive post-modern mankind as globalised – increasingly one becomes man of
improvisation, one, who perpetually and flexibly absorbs different impulses about which he had
no idea yesterday and that he now anticipates so they are no longer the matter of surprise.
Social sciences map, describe and interpret processes of establishing and/or negotiating of
social reality from various perspectives. One of them, despite the trend to focus on discontinuity,
seeks to understand the “disappearing” or on the other hand “reappearing” social roots, or more
precisely cultural and social bases. Researchers don’t cease to asks questions to what extent is
the global world global, how the transformative social reality is determined by the geographical
borders or on contrary how the continuity of geographical space gets constructed by
accentuating and making visible particular historical moments or cultural elements.
Balkan Express conference aims to support such research focus and facilitate a space where
these and similar topics can be opened for discussion. We suggest that nothing in the globalised
world stays only inside as the meaning of inside is inevitably constituted by the outside world.
At the Balkan Express conference we are interested in dealing with wide spectre of
questions concerning the role of the Balkans in relation to the globalised world, namely,
when it comes to issues of: 1) constructed memory, 2) negotiation of collective identities,
and 3) glocality (thus, linking of global and local cultural influences that shape the local
cultures). We hope that such a broad topic will help us to delimitate specifics of the
Balkans and clarify till what extent is globality determined by geographical space – in a
place that can be imagined by some as a part of Europe, by others as near East, a distinct
multicultural and multi-ethnical space, a contact zone with/of souther Slavs, a region of
war, a vacation retreat, source of inspiration, the place where one has put down roots,
once upon a time etc.
Event start | 24 October 2014 |
Event end | 25 October 2014 |
Subtitle | Southeast Europe in an interdisciplinary perspective |
Type of event | Conference |
Organiser | PhDr. Mirjam Moravcová, DrSc.; PhDr. Dana Bittnerová, Csc.; Bc. Ivana Skenderija; Mgr. Markéta Slavková |
Organiser's contact email | konference.balkan@gmail.com |
Event website | http://www.rakijatour.cz/balkan-express/ |
Programme | www.facebook.com/KonferenceBalkan |
Venue | University Area Jinonice (U Kříže 8, Prague 5) |
Target group | Academic community and public |
Disabled access | yes |
Charles University
Faculty of Humanities
Pátkova 2137/5
182 00 Praha 8 - Libeň
Czech Republic