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BALKAN EXPRESS Southeast Europe in an interdisciplinary perspective

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
Last change: May 19, 2004 16:46 
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Charles University

Faculty of Humanities

Pátkova 2137/5

182 00 Praha 8 - Libeň

Czech Republic


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