CRISES AND DEVELOPMENT
1. Crises and Politics
Neja Blaj Hribar (historian) and Aljoša Vuksanović (student of History and Comparative Literature) This workshop aims to establish what kind of relationship does the politics have towards various crises – the economic, the cultural and the crisis of values. To what extent is the politics (co)responsible for the crises, is it able to save them or does it only participate in the role of the savior? How do the politicians act in the time of crisis, what is their response? How does this influence the way people see politics, and do they turn against the political option? Does the crisis necessarily lead to political crisis and does it elicit political change? What is the role of radical political movements? By answering these and similar questions in connection with examples from the history, we wish to define the role of politics and how it changes according to the political systems and ideologies. For comparison with the present, the most obvious crises are connected with modern history, but they are certainly not the only ones; the crises before the introduction of parliamentarism influenced the politics as well. Our workshop aims to find parallels and/or differences and changes through time. |
2. Crisis and Material Determinism
Dragan Nikčević (student of History and Sociology of Culture) This workshop aims to reopen the question of material determinism: to what extent are the crises a direct result of material preconditions, or to what extent is the development a direct result of the ability to overcome the aforementioned preconditions. The use of conceptual frameworks is especially important in dealing with such questions because they analyze social phenomena using the “better/worse” dichotomy. The examples come from the field of historiography and closely connected works of the second generation of Annales School, the world-system analysis in sociology, and the study of underdevelopment in economy. All such studies contain core/center/developed, whose economic or any other dominance is a direct result of exploitation of its counterpart periphery/satellite/underdeveloped. These studies also include intermediate cases (semi-periphery) as well as examples of transition from one position to another. We will tackle such examples when discussing the question of how deterministic the material prerequisites were through history. |
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3. Crisis and the Pre-Modern Era
Izidor Janžekovič (historian and archeologist) and Mitja Rous (student of History) Samuel Johnson’s seminal work A Dictionary of the English Language from 1755 defines crisis as “the decisive moment when sentence is passed” and “the point of time at which any affair comes to the height”. Crises have, therefore, always been decisive moments in history when actions became more intense, so special attention was always given to critical periods. It will be interesting to explore whether there were any periods that were not considered critical by the contemporary reports. We will take a look at how the contemporaries searched for the causes of the crises and their solutions and how are these “analyses” viewed today. Throughout the three parts of this workshop in three parts, we will cover the crises in the pre-modern societies and how they responded to them. We will scrutinize the crises until the end of the 18th century in line with the periodization of Jacques Le Goff, a recently deceased giant of world history, who professed for so called Extended Middle Ages. Each part of the workshop will be dedicated to one period, namely the Antiquity, the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Era, the exploration of which will not be limited geographically. However, we will not limit ourselves geographically. In the study of Antiquity, we will be interested in military, political (e.g. at the change of power), economic crises and crises affecting all spheres of life (e.g. the Third Century Roman Empire). Humanists marked the Middle Ages as a transitional period or period of crisis – we will take a contrastive view of the crises in the Middle Ages in comparison with the other periods. The Early Modern Era is understood with constant crises – paleoenvironmentalists refer to this period as the Little Ice Age, there were numerous religious and civil wars, the General Crisis of the 17th century, a contentious term introduced by Eric Hobsbawm, etc. Our analysis will take into account various aspects (economic, environmental, ideological, cultural, etc.) of these phenomena. At the same time, we will try to delve “deep” into the issue of crises by exploring primary sources or their (English) translations. |
4. Culture in Crisis
Irina Lešnik (student of History, Slovene Language and Drama and Performing Arts) and Jernej Kotar (historian) History of art and culture is full of ups and downs, just like economic and political history. The question is – are all these crises somehow connected? Does the economic crisis necessarily lead to a cultural crisis? In recent history, we find examples of “dictators” who have established a thriving economic situation, even at the expense of intervening into cultural freedom. On the other hand, times of economic prosperity assume greater resources to support art and culture. The connection between the culture and the economy is more complex than it seems. The questions we will answer in this workshop are: 1. Must every culture end in a crisis in order to successfully develop further? 2. How is the cultural crisis connected with the political and the economic crisis? 3. We are in the middle of an economic crisis – can the culture offer us a solution? |
5. Women and Crisis
Martin Nedoh and Saša Zvonar (students of History and Comparative Literature) The situation of women in the times of crisis was always experiencing changes. The changes were positive as well as negative, so we do not have only one trend. This workshop will focus on these moments of transition that represent overlooked or missed opportunities in emancipation of the other sex. Every moment of transition in the times of crisis represented a certain change in the status of women, which was not always negative. The World Was I had an important influence on women emancipation, because they took over a large part of social roles when the men were on the front. This accelerated the recognition of the women’s rights during and after the war – primarily political, but at the same time, it helped with their recognition in public life, because despite the normalization of the situation, they could no longer be forced into their previous roles. The situation of women experiences different changes in the times of economic crisis, such as the current one. On one hand, they are still socially vulnerable, but on the other, they are more involved in decision-making bodies because the crisis is seen as a product of “man’s world”. Our workshop aims to analyze individual landmark historical situations according to their specific historical moment and tries to fathom the development of changes in women’s issues, as well as compare these historical findings with the current crisis. |
6. Development and Crisis Between Modernity and History
Miha Šoba (student of History and Philosophy) and Boris Cesar (student of Slovene Language and Literature) In this workshop, we will focus on the comparison of contemporary and historical crisis, analyze concrete historical situations, and try to answer certain questions. Are crises of the previous periods similar to contemporary crises or are there substantial differences? Are the big economic crises from the beginning of the 20th century and today’s crises basically the same? Which elements allow us to compare crises? Can they in our case be the unemployment rate, the global market situation, and political conflicts? What methods do we use for comparison? What is more relevant: first-hand testimonies of those who experienced the crisis or bare numbers and other factual data? Can we apply solutions of previous crises to the current situation? Can knowledge of the New Deal help us with dealing with the current crisis? Is the role of historians to explore the past in order to help with solving the current problems? Are historians in this case only reporters from a “historically remote location” or do they have to interfere with today’s decision making? We will also focus on the relationship between crisis and development in historic situations. Is crisis indispensable for development? Would we have the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 without the horrors of the Second World War? Can someone’s crisis be someone else’s progress? Was deterioration of pre-Columbian cultures in America necessary for the progress of the Western civilization? Each participant will choose two historical situations (one contemporary and one from another historical period) and try to answer as many questions as possible. Finally, we will put together a whole picture of the relationships between modernity and history, crisis and development, and the role of historians . |
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Translation to English: Nina Stankovič, STIKS