DOCSLIB.ORG

BUDET Report Final

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
BUDET Report Final BUDET – Research Report Research was carried out by: Jugend- & Kulturprojekt e.V. – Dresden, Germany Youthnet Hellas – Athens, Greece Közgazdasági Politechnikum Alternatív Gimnázium – Budapest, Hungary A.D.E.L. - Association for Development, Education and Labour – Stropkóv, Slovakia Fundacja "Instytut Badan i Innowacji w Edukacji" – Czestochowa, Poland Authors: Ráchel Surányi, PhD candidate (Sociology) Ilona Nagy, MA (History) October 2017 1 Introduction About the project After the transition of the Southern European countries in the 1970s and of the Central European countries at the end of 1980s from authoritarian regimes to democratic systems and the enlargement of the European Union, threatening phenomena have appeared on stage: instead of further consolidation of democracy, illiberal, populist and extreme political tendencies have gained ground. Citizens seem to have forgotten about the morals of the past totalitarian regimes and are indifferent towards political and civil society activities. The project examines civic participation and democratic ownership in 5 European countries: Germany (GDR), Greece, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia in the last decade of totalitarian regimes, concentrating on specific fields in each country and making video interviews with senior activists that have been involved in: 1. fight for free speech, samizdat in Hungary, 2. Solidarity Trade Union in Poland, 3. democratic movements helped by the Catholic and Lutheran Churches - in Slovakia and Germany (GDR), 4. strikes and mass demonstrations at universities - in Greece. A national and transnational civil dialogue is to be fostered about the fight for freedom and democracy under totalitarian regimes in the past and about the threats to democratic achievements, civil rights, counterbalances in the present. Our project concentrates on the movements of the ‘80s in the Central-Eastern European countries, while in Greece on the protests at the beginning of the ‘70s. In the frame of the project over 250 respondents filled in an online questionnaire dealing with questions, such as transition to democracy, life during socialism (in case of Greece: the military junta) and after the fall of the regime. This report will summarize the answers first in the whole sample and then additional dimensions will be shown which were not asked in all countries. The sample Prior to analysing the results, a short overview of the respondents’ socio-demographic background is presented. The sampling was done by the organizations involved in each country with snowball method 1, hence the final result is not representative by any means to the given societies. Furthermore, there were 50 respondents from Poland, Greece and Germany, while in Hungary there were 56 and in Slovakia 57. 1 It is a sampling method where existing study subjects recruit future subjects from among their acquaintances. 2 Regarding their gender distribution and the age they were in at the time of the transition, the countries differ from each other. While in Slovakia and Hungary more females filled in the questionnaire, in Poland, Greece and Germany the males were in majority. The most frequent age groups across the sample are 19-24, 25-34 and 35-49, while the youngest and eldest groups are in minority. Respondents who were between 19 and 24 at the time of the transition are the most frequent in Hungary among both genders, in the other four countries it differs by gender. Figure 1. Distribution of respondents by country, age at the time of transition and gender, N=260 2 100% 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 2 2 4 90% 6 4 2 4 1 8 5 80% 4 7 70% 6 10 8 10 2 12 4 60% 8 9 50% 5 3 40% 6 9 14 10 11 11 30% 5 13 20% 8 4 5 10% 7 4 5 6 5 5 2 0% 1 1 Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male SK PL GR DE HU 15-18 19-24 25-34 35-49 50+ Concerning their highest education, in the Slovak, Polish and German samples the most frequent categories are secondary school and MA respectively (with differences in ratio), while in Hungary most respondents hold an MA and then comes secondary school degree. Greece represents the lowest educational profile in this research. Their present profession ranges from heavy physical work to highly skilled workers. In order to understand the Greek country-specific questions and answers, here is a short introduction to its historical background: 2 Number of respondents for the given question. In many cases it is less than the total (263) due to the missing answers. 3 Figure 2: Distribution by highest education and country, N=261 100% 2 1 2 0 2 90% 5 14 80% 17 7 18 70% 4 34 60% 0 8 50% 21 40% 28 30% 37 18 20% 16 15 10% 6 4 0% 0 2 0 SK PL GR DE HU primary school secondary school BA MA PhD And the last characteristic taken into account is the type of settlement they live in now which can be an indicator of one’s socio-economic status: it is usually higher in bigger settlements. By far, most of the respondents live in big cities. The next biggest category is regional centre and then with villages and the capital following closely. However, the respondents were asked about their residence differently in each country and it does not show their type of settlement in the period surveyed so there might have been changes in it since then, e.g. lots of people moved from the capital to small towns and villages. Figure 3: Respondents’ type of settlement, N=253 Capital Regional centre City Village To conclude, the whole sample is rather heterogeneous along these characteristics. (Furthermore, we will see more differences in the country by country analysis section.) 4 Overall results The questionnaire is divided into three main blocks. The first deals with everyday life in the 80’s; the second focuses on the resistance movements of the 80’s and the third asks about the democratic transition and its evaluation. As the questionnaires differ in some cases by country (adjusting some questions to the context), in the next section only those answers will be presented which appeared in at least 4 countries. 1st block: Everyday life in the 80’s (Eastern Europe) / in 1967-74 (Greece) The first section is about the general atmosphere of the given context: how the respondents lived their lives, what the strictest limitations were. The three main issues touched upon were trust, travelling and household products. In order to understand the level of totalitarianism, these fields of life show well how freely one could live. Trust relates to the question of freedom in general. A/ TRUST Figures 4 and 5 illustrate very well the big gap between trusting the authorities and one’s surrounding. While the big majority of the whole sample (except the Germans who did not have this question) trusted their surroundings completely or to a large extent, half of the sample did not trust the authorities at all or only a little bit. This implies that one had to be careful who they shared information with and how they behaved in public. In socialist countries, the system was based on the communist party-state’s total control of everything — economic, social, religious, cultural, and above all political — and refused to allow any alternative view to its own. Society’s opposition required enormous effort and courage so it was represented by a small number of individuals who were willing to take the risk of prison or physical harm in support of basic human rights. Although in the given period the authoritarian "state-socialist" system became less rigid than it used to be in the 1950s, there was a huge network of informers maintained in these countries. Secret services operated by the authoritarian regimes had a long tradition in the Central and Eastern European region, but after 1945 the new state security services were based on the Soviet model and they exceeded their predecessors both in brutality and extensiveness. They were the following: Stasi (Ministerium für Staatssicherheit) in the GDR, Służba Bezpieczeństwa in Poland, ŠtB (Štátna Bezpečnosť) in Czecho-Slovakia and ÁVH (Államvédelmi Hatóság) in Hungary, which changed for III/III Bureau. Often by blackmailing or forcing them, everyday people acted as paid or voluntary secret agents, at their workplaces, public events or when meeting their friends: they had to write reports about comments and opinions against the regime. This network of espionage was the largest in the GDR where one had to be careful of what they say not just in public areas but at home as well. There were Stasi agents among neighbours, friends, even relatives. Stasi, as the most professional secret service in socialist countries, had about 91 thousand paid ‘full time’ employees among the 16 million inhabitants of the GDR and hundreds of thousands of spies reporting about their fellows. It even had almost 200 thousand agents in the Federal Republic. 5 Criticising the regime could have and often had serious consequences: official warnings at workplaces, loss of their jobs, unemployment due to occupational bans, restrictions on free movement, police interrogation, law suit or even imprisonment. Although these consequences had to be borne by a relatively small number of people, the public were aware of the dangers of any opposition. So people learnt to mind their own business and not politics. Figure 4: To what extent did you trust your Figure 5: To what extent did you trust close surroundings (family members, friends, authorities? N=213 etc.)? N=213 4% 6% 7% 26% 36% 20% 21% 23% 24% 33% Completely To a large extent Completely To a large extent To some extent A little bit To some extent A little bit Not at all Not at all Breaking down the answers by nationality, Figure 6 shows that Greeks had the lowest level of trust in both cases and Slovaks the highest.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Cultural and Scientific Collaboration Between Czechoslovakia and Cuba in the 1960S, 70S and 80Se Words and Silences, Vol 6, No 2 December 2012 Pp
    Hana Bortlova “It Was a Call from the Revolution” – Cultural and Scientific Collaboration between Czechoslovakia and Cuba in the 1960s, 70s and 80se Words and Silences, Vol 6, No 2 December 2012 Pp. 12-17 cc International Oral History Association Words and Silences is the official on-line journal of the International Oral History Association. It is an internationally peer reviewed, high quality forum for oral historians from a wide range of disciplines and a means for the professional community to share projects and current trends of oral history from around the world. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. wordsandsilences.org ISSN 1405-6410 Online ISSN 2222-4181 “IT WAS A CALL FROM THE REVOLUTION” – CULTURAL AND SCIENTIFIC COLLABORATION BETWEEN CZECHOSLOVAKIA AND CUBA IN THE 1960S, 70S AND 80S Hana Bortlova Oral History Center Institute for Contemporary History Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic [email protected] Although traditional relationships between Cuba Culture was established in Prague. In the scientific field, the Czechoslovak Academy of and Czechoslovakia, economic above all, go back Sciences contributed significantly to the creation further than the second half of the twentieth of the Academy of Sciences of Cuba; starting in century, the political and social changes in Cuba at 1963 there was an agreement to directly the end of the fifties and the beginning of the collaborate between the two organizations. The sixties and the rise of Fidel Castro to power and his institutes intensely collaborated above all on inclination to Marxism-Leninism were what biological science, but there was also important marked the start of the close contact between the collaboration in the fields of geography, geology, two countries that would last three decades.
    [Show full text]
  • Die Welt Der Slaven
    D I E W E L T D E R S L AV E N S A M M E L B Ä N D E · С Б О Р Н И К И Herausgegeben von Peter Rehder (München) und Igor Smirnov (Konstanz) Band 54 2014 Verlag Otto Sagner München – Berlin – Washington/D.C. Sammelband_Slawistik.indd 2 07.11.14 13:29 Fashion, Consumption and Everyday Culture in the Soviet Union between 1945 and 1985 Edited by Eva Hausbacher Elena Huber Julia Hargaßner 2014 Verlag Otto Sagner München – Berlin – Washington/D.C. Sammelband_Slawistik.indd 3 07.11.14 13:29 INHALTSVERZEICHNIS Vorwort ............................................................................................................................... 7 Sozialistische Mode Djurdja Bartlett ................................................................................................................ 9 Myth and Reality: Five-Year Plans and Socialist Fashion Ulrike Goldschweer ......................................................................................................... 31 Consumption / Culture / Communism: The Significance of Terminology or Some Realities and Myths of Socialist Consumption Катарина Клингсайс .................................................................................................... 49 Этот многоликий мир моды. Образец позднесоветского дискурса моды Mode und Gesellschaft Анна Иванова ................................................................................................................. 73 «Самопал по фирму»: Подпольное производство одежды в СССР в 1960–1980-е годы Irina Mukhina ................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Povl Tiedemann's Meritter Og Historik
    Povl Tiedemann’s meritter og historik 1 Til Anne fra Far På opfordring af Mor 2 Dahls Foto, Holstebro, 1955 3 Indholdsoversigt Side 1948 – 1955 Stenhøj 6 1955 – 1962 Grundskole 7 1962 – 1965 Realskole 9 1965 – 1968 Shippingelev 11 1968 – 1968 Shipping Volontør 16 1968 – 1970 Handelsgymnasium 21 1970 – 1975 Handelshøjskole 25 1976 – 1976 Erhv. Eksportfremme Sekr. 33 1976 – 1977 MÆRSK 34 1977 – 1981 Handelskammeret 40 1981 – 1987 LEGO 53 -Power-Play i Østeuropa -Statshandel -Modkøb og valutaforhold -Modkøbsvarer og distribution -Interessante eksempler -Østeuropæiske kontakter -Anvendelse af LEGO vareprøver -Rejse- og repræsentationsforhold -Leipzig Messen – business basis -Poznan Messen 1981 – optakt til slutspil -Nye muligheder i USSR -USSR stop og genstart i Moskva -Åbning til Kina -Diverse omkring Kina -Modkøb intensiveres og problematiseres -Finale LEGO -Et par centrale navne -Hændelser og iagttagelser under vejs 106 -Nationale forskelligheder -Kontakt / forhandling / samarbejde -Overvågning -Produktudvikling / innovation / kreativitet -Overordnede betragtninger -Efterskrift - ”Fugl Føniks” 134 1987 – 1991 Handelskammeret 136 4 -Sidste tur gennem ingenmandsland 1992 – 1996 Div. + underv. + censorakt. 143 1996 – 2009 Civiløkonomerne 147 -Hændelser under vejs 2009 – 2013 Censorsekretariaterne / censorerne.dk 170 -Diverse ”Red Tape” -Hændelser under vejs 2013 – 2018 Censor IT / 178 Censorformandskaberne -Sporskifte til formandskaberne 2014 – XXXX Ældrerådet i Vejle Kommune 182 Lidt om min Eva 183 SummaSummarum – Eftertænksomheder 185 Lidt fra ”tidsmaskinen” 191 Personal Card – CV i TACIS opstilling 195 Hovedaktiviteter for Civiløkonomerne 205 Billeder og -forklaringer 209 Kalligrafi og protokol 241 ”Kineserier” fra LEGO-personalebladet Klodshans 245 Bibliografi 256 Links 259 5 1948 – 1955: Stenhøj Opvokset som den yngste – årgang 1948 – blandt 3 søskende, på en landejendom på ”Stenhøj”, Foldingbrovej 15, Rødekro, 13 km.
    [Show full text]
  • Economic Planning and the Collapse of East Germany Jonathan R. Zatlin
    Making and Unmaking Money: Economic Planning and the Collapse of East Germany Jonathan R. Zatlin Boston University During the 1970s, a joke circulated in the German Democratic Republic, or GDR, that deftly paraphrases the peculiar problem of money in Soviet-style regimes. Two men, eager to enrich themselves by producing counterfeit bank notes, mistakenly print 70-mark bills. To improve their chances of unloading the fake notes without getting caught, they decide to travel to the provinces. Sure enough, they find a sleepy state-run retail outlet in a remote East German village. The first forger turns to his colleague and says, “Maybe you should try to buy a pack of cigarettes with the 70-mark bill first.” The second counterfeiter agrees, and disappears into the store. When he returns a few minutes later, the first man asks him how it went. “Great,” says the second man, “they didn’t notice anything at all. Here are the cigarettes, and here’s our change: two 30-mark bills and two 4-mark bills.”1 Like much of the black humor inspired by authoritarian rule, the joke makes use of irony to render unlike things commensurate. This particular joke acquires a subversive edge from its equation of communism with forgery. The two men successfully dupe the state-run store into accepting their phony bills, but the socialist state replies in kind by passing on equally fake money. The joke does not exhaust itself, however, in an attack on the moral integrity of communism, which responds to one crime with another, or even with the powerful suggestion that any regime that counterfeits its own currency must be a sham.
    [Show full text]
  • Comrade Copywriter
    Comrade Copywriter A documentary swipe file* of Eastern Europe Socialist advertising. Directed by Valentin Valchev. *A swipe file is a collection of tested and proven ads. Keeping a swipe file is a common practice used by ad- vertising copywriters and creative directors as a ready reference of ideas for projects. Swipe files are a great jumping-off point for anybody who needs to come up with lots of ideas. 1 Synopsis “What is the difference between Capitalism and Socialism? Capitalism is the exploitation of humans by humans. Socialism is the opposite.” an East German joke from the times of the DDR For more than half a century a vast part of the world inhabited by millions of people lived isolated behind an ideological wall, forcedly kept within the Utopia of a social experiment. The ‘brave new world’ of state controlled bureaucratic planned economy was based on state property instead of private and restric- tions instead of initiative. Advertising, as well as Competition and Consumerism, were all derogatory words stigmatizing the world outside the Wall – the world of Capitalism, Imperialism and Coca Cola. On the borderline where the two antagonistic worlds met, a weird phenomenon occurred – the Com Ads. This was comrade copywriter’s attempt to peep from behind the wall and present the socialist utopia as a normal part of the world. Welcome to comrade copywriter’s brave new world! Marketing - in a strictly controlled and anti-market oriented society. Branding - of deficient or even non-existant products, in the situation of stagna- tion and crisis; you could watch a Trabi TV ad every day and still wait for 15 years to bye one.
    [Show full text]
  • Securitas Im Perii
    Ulrich Ferdinand Kinsky: A Nobleman, Aviator, Racing Driver and Sportsman in the 20th Century Michal Plavec Ulrich Ferdinand Kinsky (15 August 1893 – 19 December 1938) came from a noble Czech family but, unlike many of his relatives, sided with the Nazis and played a key role during Lord Runciman’s mission to Czechoslovakia in 1938. He embraced the Munich Agreement and was happy to see his farm near Česká Kamenice becoming part of Nazi Germany. He died in Vienna before World War II started. It is a lesser known fact that he served in the Austro‑Hungarian Air Force during the Great War, first as an observer and later as a pilot. Flying was his great passion; he owned three airplanes and often flew them all over Europe between the two wars. He had private airports built near the manors on his property – in Klešice near Heřmanův Městec and in Dolní Kamenice near Česká Kamenice. He also served as the President of Aus‑ tria Aero Club. He was even a successful race car driver in the 1920s and remained a passionate polo player until death. Although he was the progeny of the youngest son of the 7th Prince Kinsky, he became the 10th Prince Kinsky after the death of his two uncles and father. In addition to a palace in Vienna and the two aforementioned farming estates, he also owned large farms in Choceň, Rosice and Zlonice. Kinsky divorced his first wife Katalina née Szechényi likely because he believed she was guilty of the premature death of their son Ulrich at age eleven.
    [Show full text]
  • Arab Students Inside the Soviet Bloc : a Case Study on Czechoslovakia During the 1950S and 60S
    European Scientific Journal June 2014 /SPECIAL/ edition vol.2 ISSN: 1857 – 7881 (Print) e - ISSN 1857- 7431 ARAB STUDENTS INSIDE THE SOVIET BLOC : A CASE STUDY ON CZECHOSLOVAKIA DURING THE 1950S AND 60S Daniela Hannova, MA Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Arts, Department of World History Abstract The paper focuses on the phenomenon of students from the so-called less developed countries in communist Czechoslovakia, specifically Arab students in the 50s and 60s of the twentieth century. The first part of the paper focuses on a broader political and social context. Because it was the first wave of Arab scholarship holders supported by the Czechoslovak government to arrive at the end of the 50s, it is crucial to describe the shape of negotiations between the Czechoslovak and Arab sides. The second part of the paper emphasizes cultural agreements and types of studying in Czechoslovakia. Arriving abroad, preparatory language courses, everyday life of Arab students in Czechoslovakia and the conflicts they had faced are analyzed in the following subchapters. The problem of Arab student adaptation to the new environment and troubles caused by cultural differences are illuminated in the framework of these thematic sections. The final part of the paper outlines the Arab absolvents’ fates and their contacts with Czechoslovakia after ending their university studies and returning to their homeland. Keywords: Students, universities, Czechoslovakia after 1948, Communism, everyday life, cultural history Introduction The phenomenon of students from the so-called less developed countries in the Soviet Bloc is a part of history, where a lot of topics and possible methodological approaches meet.
    [Show full text]
  • 44H5r8sz.Pdf
    UC Berkeley Other Recent Work Title Making and Unmaking Money: Economic Planning and the Collapse of East Germany Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/44h5r8sz Author Zatlin, Jonathan R Publication Date 2007-04-28 eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Making and Unmaking Money: Economic Planning and the Collapse of East Germany Jonathan R. Zatlin Boston University During the 1970s, a joke circulated in the German Democratic Republic, or GDR, that deftly paraphrases the peculiar problem of money in Soviet-style regimes. Two men, eager to enrich themselves by producing counterfeit bank notes, mistakenly print 70-mark bills. To improve their chances of unloading the fake notes without getting caught, they decide to travel to the provinces. Sure enough, they find a sleepy state-run retail outlet in a remote East German village. The first forger turns to his colleague and says, “Maybe you should try to buy a pack of cigarettes with the 70-mark bill first.” The second counterfeiter agrees, and disappears into the store. When he returns a few minutes later, the first man asks him how it went. “Great,” says the second man, “they didn’t notice anything at all. Here are the cigarettes, and here’s our change: two 30-mark bills and two 4-mark bills.”1 Like much of the black humor inspired by authoritarian rule, the joke makes use of irony to render unlike things commensurate. This particular joke acquires a subversive edge from its equation of communism with forgery. The two men successfully dupe the state-run store into accepting their phony bills, but the socialist state replies in kind by passing on equally fake money.
    [Show full text]
  • Puolalaisten Näkemys Kuluttajuudesta Neuvostoliitossa
    Puolalaisten näkemys kuluttajuudesta Neuvostoliitossa M i l a O i v a kuinka nouseva kulutuskulttuuri muovasi kaupan toimintatapoja. Tarkastelemalla Neuvostoliiton kuluttajia juuri puolalaisten ulkomaankaupan toimijoiden kautta on mahdollista kartoittaa kuinka toisen sosialistisen valtion myyjät, jotka eivät olleet vastuussa ideologisten tavoitteiden saavuttamisesta vaan ennen kaikkea myynnistä, näkivät kulutuskulttuuriin kehittymisen Neuvos- toliiton markkinoilla. Tutkin tässä artikkelissa kuluttajien paino- arvon kasvua Neuvostoliitossa puolalaisten Toisin kuin kotimaassa, jossa on myyjän mark- valmisvaateviejien käsitysten kautta 1960-luvun kinat, ulkomaankaupassa joudumme tekemisiin alusta 1970-luvun alkuun. Puolan valtiollista tyypillisten ostajan markkinoiden kanssa. On vaateteollisuutta koordinoineen Vaateteolli- äärimmäisen tärkeää että kiinnitämme huomiota suusyhtymän1 ja ulkomaankauppaministeriön vientituotteiden laatuun pysyäksemme mukana alaisuudessa toimineiden ulkomaankauppa- kilpailussa. yhtiöiden2 sisäinen kirjeenvaihto ja raportit (Lainaus Puolan ulkomaankauppaministeriön kuvasivat neuvostoliittolaisten tukkuostajien ja tavaravaihto-osaston Puolan ja Neuvostoliiton kuluttajien makutottumuksia ja niiden muutok- välistä kauppaa käsitelleestä raportista 1968, osa sia. Näitä alkuperäislähteitä käyttäen selvitän, II, 2.) millaisina puolalaiset valmisvaateviejät näkivät neuvostomarkkinat: kenen mielipide – tukkuos- Puolalaiset valmisvaateviejät markkinoivat ener- tajien, vaateammattilaisten vai kuluttajien – oli gisesti tuotteitaan
    [Show full text]
  • The Borders of Friendship: Transnational Travel and Tourism in the East Bloc, 1972-1989
    The Borders of Friendship: Transnational Travel and Tourism in the East Bloc, 1972-1989 by Mark Aaron Keck-Szajbel A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor John Connelly, Chair Professor David Frick Professor Yuri Slezkine Professor Jason Wittenberg Fall 2013 The Borders of Friendship: Transnational Travel and Tourism in the East Bloc, 1972-1989 Copyright © 2013 by Mark Aaron Keck-Szajbel Abstract The Borders of Friendship: Transnational Travel and Tourism in the East Bloc, 1972-1989 by Mark Aaron Keck-Szajbel Doctor of Philosophy in History University of California, Berkeley Professor John Connelly, Chair The “borders of friendship” was an open border travel project between Czechoslovakia, East Germany, and Poland starting in 1972. The project allowed ordinary citizens to cross borders with a police-issued personal identification card, and citizens of member countries were initially allowed to exchange unlimited amounts of foreign currency. In this episode of liberalized travel – still largely unknown in the West – the number of border-crossings between member states grew from the tens of thousands to the tens of millions within a very brief period. This dissertation analyses the political, economic, social and cultural effects of this open border policy. It first clarifies what motivated authorities in Poland, East Germany, and Czechoslovakia to promote unorganized foreign tourism in the 1970s and 1980s. Then, it explores how authorities encouraged citizens to become tourists. Governments wanted the “borders of friendship” to be successful, but they were unsure how to define success.
    [Show full text]
  • Power, Ideology and Children: Socialist Childhoods in Czechoslovakia
    ISSN: 2325-3290 (online) Power, ideology and children: Socialist childhoods in Czechoslovakia Marek Tesar The University of Auckland, New Zealand Abstract There was not one, singular childhood in socialist Czechoslovakia, but many and diverse, plural, childhoods. Spanning over 40 years (1948–1989), the Czechoslovak communist governance produced diverse conceptualisations of childhoods that remain often invisible, unexplored, and the current analyses are at best sketchy and refer mostly to pedagogical nuances of strong ideological pedagogical struggles. One way to explore such an abundance of historical data in a short journal article is to utilise a somewhat personal narrative of a child. This dialogic approach allows the strong presence of the voice of a child, re-told from an adult’s perspective, and it methodologically justifies an approach to thinking and theorising of socialist childhoods through Vaclav Havel’s (1985; 1989; 1990) theoretical thinking that has been utilised in philosophy of education previously (see Tesar, 2015e). There are also other examples of complex and thorough analyses of socialist childhoods in other countries (see for example Aydarova et al, 2016), and theoretical thinking about the socialist child as a foreigner to its own land, can be done through Kristeva’s lens (Arndt, 2015). Marek Tesar is a senior lecturer in childhood studies and early childhood education at the University of Auckland. He is Editor-in-Chief of Policy Futures in Education published by SAGE, and is engaged in different editorial capacities with a number of other journals and book series. His focus is on childhood, philosophy of education, policy and methodology. Introduction There was not one, singular childhood in socialist Czechoslovakia, but many and diverse, plural, childhoods.
    [Show full text]
  • Institutional Framework Around Successful Art Forms in Communist Czechoslovakia
    INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK AROUND SUCCESSFUL ART FORMS IN COMMUNIST CZECHOSLOVAKIA Jan Michl Jan Michl Published in March 1999 by: OPEN SOCIETY INSTITUTE Open Society Institute CENTER FOR PUBLISHING Center for Publishing Development DEVELOPMENT Electronic Publishing Program ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING Október 6. u. 12 PROGRAM H-1051 Budapest Hungary www.osi.hu/ep This work was prepared under financial support from the Research Support Scheme of the Open Society Support Foundation. Research Support Scheme Bartolomějská 11 110 00 Praha 1 Czech Republic www.rss.cz The digitization of this report was supported by the Electronic Publishing Development Program and the Higher Education Support Program of the Open Society Institute Budapest. Digitization & conversion to PDF by: Virtus Libínská 1 150 00 Praha 5 Czech Republic www.virtus.cz The information published in this work is the sole responsibility of the author and should not be construed as representing the views of the Open Society Institute. The Open Society Institute takes no responsibility for the accuracy and correctness of the content of this work. Any comments related to the contents of this work should be directed to the author. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced, in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the author. Contents Introduction: summary of the research work ..........................................................................................................2 1. Failure of industrial design, success of pre-industrial arts..................................................................................4 2. The true strength of the Socialist system: redistributive power ........................................................................13 3. Contemporary lack of research interest in art institutions of the former Communist regime ...........................15 4. The Socialist idea of art ....................................................................................................................................21 5.
    [Show full text]