Celebrating The Open Society

Inszenierte Geschichte | Staging History

Anniversaries and days of commemoration are omnipresent.B yn ow,h ardlya year goes by in which there is no major event to be commemoratedb yasignificant anniversary promptingl argera nd smaller retrospectives. Fore xample, in the last severaly ears, we have seen "major" anniversaries on the calendar to commemorate 75,8 0, or 100 years passings ince the beginning or end of the world wars, and 500 years since the publication of Luther'st heses. And this "merry-go-round of anniversaries" is not lettingu p.¹ As we write these lines, Switzerland is celebrating 50 years of women'ss uffrageo nt he federal level (1971), remembering how laborious this goal was to achieve,a nd 150 years have passed since the Lesser GermanE mpire was founded in 1871;m eanwhile, the 60 th anniversary of the erection of the Berlin Wall is quickly approaching, and in May2 021, the first acts begin in preparation for the 70 th anniversary of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, the head of state in the United Kingdom and 15 other countries.² In the higher education landscape, too, there is one anniversary after another: In 2021,the universities in Bremen, Kassel and Mainz are celebrating roundnumbered anniversaries of their founding,w hereasA achenc elebrated one in 2020,a nd Rostock and Hamburgh ad theirs in 2019.T hese commemorations have generated celebrations, worship services, performances,e xhibitions, special commemorative postal stamps, catalogues of professors,a nd, last but not least,t housands of printed pages of historical materials.T he celebrations for "150 Years of RWTH Aachen" largely took place online duet ot he Corona pandemic.³ Yetdigital media had alreadybegun to playarole in historicalcommemorative culturei nt he early2000s, as examples from long-lost websites (or websites mothballed on old data-storaged rives) show.⁴ The regret about canceled  All quotes fromG erman literaturea re free translations,c f. the German version of this introduction for the original wording (all notesare consistent); Sabrow,Martin:

On the occasion of 100 years since the Bolshevik revolution, attention is unavoidably on the demise of its product, the USSR. There are many explanations why it collapsed after nearly 70 years but it is rarely contrasted with dialectical materialist framework for social change as Marx presented it. Similar mistakes, ignoring and trying to bypass necessary historic stages, have to be avoided. World communist movements recognize the need for democracy, and that democratic transition to socialism is its essential guarantor.

Inszenierte Geschichte | Staging History, 2021

In 2017,threeuniversities in Belgium that had been established in 1817 by King William Iofthe United Kingdom of the Netherlands (in Ghent,Liègeand Leuven), commemoratedt heir bicentennial. Thes till existing Ghent University and University of Lièged id so in ag randiose way. In Leuven, however,t he celebration was limited to am odest workshop and its accompanying publication. By analysing the festivities at Ghent University in 2017 in adetailed waythis contribution showsh ow the traditionale lements of au niversity jubilee celebration graduallyr eceivedadifferent interpretation. This introductory cases tudy illustratest he aim of this contribution as aw hole, namely to examine and discuss how the stagingofu niversity jubilees has changed under the pressureo fs ocial changes, how this was reflected in the use of 'celebratory mediality',a nd how these different acts of performing the jubilee interacted with aprocess of self-legitimation. By reviewing the diverse output realised as part of these different celebrations (in Ghent, Liègeand to alesser extent Leuven), the chapter proves how these anniversaries have been usedasanopportunitytorespond to current challenges thatthe university is facing as an institution. The two central messages of both celebratinguniversities-Ghent and Liège-are reflected in most,ifnot all, of the initiativesthat were unfolded on the occasion of the festivities: defending and protecting the universityb ye mphasising its possibles ocial relevance, and creatingalarger(university) community by investing into the natural partnership between city and university.

The Journal of the Civil War Era, 2011

Studia Historiae Scientiarum , 2017

The aim of the paper is to show the interplay between the power and the science in the context of cultural memory. The focus is on the Cyrillo-Methodian anniversaries in Bulgaria in the communist period, and the object of the analysis is the anniversary of 1969. The context relates to the process of development of new historiography and the functionalization of the nation-centric narrative. The main issue discussed is how the Communist Party, as a political institution, and the Bulgarian Academy of Science, as an academic institution, cooperated to establish a new vision of society. The discussion offers an interpretation in the light of the Orthodox concept of the symphony of power perceived as a metaphor of the relation between the secular and the spiritual power.

Zeszyty Naukowe Uniwersytetu Szczecińskiego. Acta Politica, 2020

Historical remembrance days and related celebrations are part of a culture of remembrance and are characterized by processes such as the typical use of language in speeches or songs (Huszár, Prikler, forthcoming), and possibly the inclusion of tools reflecting the historical age or nature of remembrance, such as wreaths, flags, etc. Participation in such events is also a form of socialization, especially when it takes place at school and is planned, organized, and conducted by teachers together with the children. In socialist Hungary, by all means school celebrations had to symbolize the unity of the Hungarian people under the leadership of the Hungarian Socialist Party. This purpose was achieved with the use of individual symbols, such as perhaps the most prominent red tie of the schoolchildren pioneers and the blue tie of the so-called "little drummers". The celebrations followed a unified scenario, leaving little room for creativity in both the organization and the program. After the change of regime, public holidays celebrated in school also changed. Hereunder, the authors put forward a hypothesis that, following new research findings in pedagogy and child psychology, as well as the changes in subject didactics, a new process has been launched, intended to make school festivities national memorial days. Answers to the research questions concerning how exactly this celebration takes place, how children feel about the program, how educators convey the meaning of the historical event to the children, are the empirical matter of this paper. In the following, first an introduction of the historical memorial days as part of political culture will be presented, based on an empirical survey that is not representative but, according to the authors, attempts to demonstrate the change celebrations of national days underwent during the past decades. The research was conducted in the primary school age Acta Politica Polonica Ágnes Klein, Éva Szederkényi group, and the students' knowledge and awareness of the historical background of a given celebration were scrutinized. Finally, the authors propose to initiate more experiential learning opportunities related to school memorial days. Obchody szkolnych dni pamięci narodowej na nowo S łowa kluc zowe: kultura polityczna, szkolne dni pamięci, upamiętnianie, tło historyczne, pedagogika empiryczna Abstrak t Dni pamięci narodowej i związane z nimi uroczystości są częścią kultury pamięci i charakteryzują się takimi procesami, jak typowe użycie języka w przemówieniach lub pieśniach (Huszár, Prikler, w druku), a także ewentualnie włączenie narzędzi odzwierciedlających okres historyczny lub charakter pamięci, takich jak wieńce, flagi itp. Uczestnictwo w nich jest również formą socjalizacji, zwłaszcza gdy odbywa się w szkole i jest planowane, organizowane i prowadzone przez nauczycieli wspólnie z dziećmi. W socjalistycznych Węgrzech uroczystości szkolne musiały symbolizować jedność narodu węgierskiego pod przewodnictwem Węgierskiej Partii Socjalistycznej. Temu celowi służyły indywidualne symbole, takie jak czerwony krawat dla pionierów szkolnych i niebieski dla tak zwanych "małych doboszy". Uroczystości odbywały się według jednolitego scenariusza, pozostawiając niewiele miejsca na kreatywność zarówno w organizacji, jak i w programie. Po zmianie reżimu zmieniły się również święta szkolne. Poniżej autorki stawiają hipotezę, że w związku z nowymi wynikami badań z zakresu pedagogiki i psychologii dziecięcej oraz zmianami w dydaktyce przedmiotów, rozpoczął się nowy proces wprowadzania świąt szkolnych jako dni pamięci narodowej. Postawienie pytań badawczych, jak dokładnie wygląda to święto, jak dzieci czują się z tym programem, jak pedagodzy przekazują dzieciom znaczenie tego historycznego wydarzenia, jest empirycznym przypadkiem tego artykułu. W dalszej części artykułu najpierw zostanie przedstawione wprowadzenie na temat dni pamięci narodowej jako części kultury politycznej, za pomocą badania empirycznego, które nie jest reprezentatywne, ale autorki starają się pokazać zmiany, jakie w obchodach dni narodowych dokonały się w ostatnich dziesięcioleciach. Badania przeprowadzono w szkole podstawowej, a także sprawdzono wiedzę i świadomość uczniów na temat historycznego podłoża danego święta. Autorzy proponują zainicjowanie bardziej empirycznych sposobów uczenia się związanych ze szkolnymi dniami pamięci. Celebrations of national remembrance as part of political culture People try to process and understand in their own way the events that affected them, their families, their parents, their grandparents, and that were engraved in their memory. Different memories can be associated with the same event, whether they be linked to an individual, or related to families, locals, etc. The question arises what memories do we want to preserve and pass on to the next generation? Luciana Benincasa writes that remembering cannot be conceived apart from forgetting since the individual level of life involves "selective forgetting" (Benincasa, 2006, p. 16). Although memories exist in human mind, it is up to each social formation to decide which nr 2/2020 (50) Celebrating school remembrance days "rebooted"

Journal of Bodies, Sexualities, and Masculinities, 2021

Nota bene: This introduction was written near the end of 2020, a year that saw the world struggle with COVID-19. These issues make up the primary body of the below text. Yet, as we moved into the new year, perhaps thankful that 2020 had come to a close, on 6 January, and before the introduction was sent to publication, the US Capitol building in Washington, DC, was laid siege by far right extremists, White supremacists, and supporters seeking to stop the confirmation of the election of Joseph Biden. I [Frank] am reminded of a similar note I wrote in an article for the Sexual Violence Research Initiative’s “16 Days of Activism” series in early December: “We write this post amidst political protests that have shaken Kyrgyzstan, with the recent election results being annulled. We send our thoughts for those working to ensure a fair, democratic, and transparent government; and hope for a speedy resolution to these issues” (Kim and Karioris 2020). In a similar sense, with the events stil...

DEADLINES By 30th September 2017, each author must submit a draft of an article in English, using the attached submission form. This form must be sent to the email address: [email protected]. By 30th November 2017, each author will be notified the outcome concerning the preliminary assessment and whether the submitted articles have been accepted or rejected. The subsequent deadline for submitting the final papers, written in English according to the editorial standards of the journal and not longer than 7,000 words (including footnotes, references, tables and captions), is scheduled for 30th September 2018. Both the drafts and the final articles will be subjected to anonymous peer review, according to the journal’s standards; the Editor will appoint a specific peer-review committee consisting of nationally and internationally renowned scholars with proven expertise in the various thematic areas of this call for papers. By 30th November 2018, the editors of the issue will notify the authors of any amendments to be made to their contributions, which must be returned by 31st January 2019.

The 200th birthday of Karl Marx falls into a dramatic political situation: Since the end of the Second World War, the spiral of violence has reached a climax worldwide and also in Europe and threatens to increase even further. In Europe, wars have once again become reality. The ecological kipping points (limits for the carrying capacity of natural systems) have in part already been exceeded and a global ecological collapse – in the sense of irreversible damage to the entire terrestrial biosphere and its effects on human living conditions – is becoming more and more probable. With expanded and expanding social contrasts, the dangers of a new global financial crisis or a "new wave" of the financial crisis that has persisted since 2008 are growing. The left is in a situation of a consolidated political defensive, which has continued to intensify since 2008, despite occasional successes. On the other hand, the number of people and social groups who are convinced that despite the "collapse of state socialism" (or the failure of previous socialist attempts) "capitalism" or bourgeois societies with their destructive capitalist mode of production cannot and must not be the last word in history has grown, especially in Europe and even worldwide, since 2008. Similarly, references to Marx are becoming more and more frequent inpublic debates, even if his work is not progressively reflected upon or even taken up and continued. The left should therefore make use of the anniversary of "their" Karl Marx (hereafter: Marx200) as an opportunity to critically appropriate his legacy (for the first time or once again), to update it for today and to make it relevant in practice. In the following some considerations in this sense are submitted: