World Council of Churches' Consultation on Christian Religious Education in Central and Eastern Europe Today and Tomorrow

1993 ◽  
Vol 82 (325) ◽  
pp. 99-103
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Religious Education ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
World Council ◽  
Europe Today

Populist Nationalism and the Challenges of Divided Nationhood: The Politics of Migration, Mobility, and Demography in Post-2010 Hungary

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 962-983
Author(s):  
Myra A. Waterbury
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Population Decline ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
Minority Communities ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Europe Today

This article uses the case of post-2010 Hungary to investigate the ways in which the concomitant trends of mobility, migration, and demographic decline may intersect to both challenge and bolster the discourses and policies of nationalist, populist governments in Central and Eastern Europe today. Using an expanded conception of “divided nationhood,” it explores the tensions and continuities in the Hungarian government’s populist discourse of protecting the nation as it is projected onto different national populations: Hungarians within Hungary, Hungarian emigrants, and Hungarian minorities in neighboring countries. While fears of migration and population decline provide useful fuel for the particular brand of populist nationalism we see in places like Hungary, the ability of leaders to offer a coherent and effective narrative of protection for the nation becomes significantly more complex when there are multiple internal and external populations to protect. The article highlights the strategies that the FIDESZ government has employed in order to (1) mobilize antimigrant rhetoric while marginalizing Hungarian emigrants; (2) respond to demographic deficiencies while supporting a conservative, populist narrative; and (3) maintain its access to symbolic, political, and demographic resources within the Hungarian minority communities. These strategies include a discursive reconceptualization of migration as something that comes only from outside Europe, the use of social and economic policies to selectively privilege key segments of the nation and exclude others, and the creation of a regional Hungarian nation with Budapest at the center.

White Knights On Chargers: Using The US Approach To Promote Roma Rights In Europe?

2004 ◽  
Vol 5 (12) ◽  
pp. 1431-1447 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morag Goodwin
Keyword(s):  
North Carolina ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Racial Discrimination ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Positive Part ◽  
American States ◽  
The Us ◽  
Europe Today ◽  
The U.S

North Carolina has, like most American states, played its (not always positive) part in the struggle against what Clinton, back in 1997 when the U.S. had more domestic concerns on its mind, called “America's constant curse”. But racial discrimination is not, of course, simply America's curse. Europe, for all its self-righteousness of late, has certainly not escaped it. Despite the prevalence of racial discrimination right across the geographic expression of Europe, this paper shall concentrate on a particular set of countries – those termed Central and Eastern Europe – and on a particular group – the Roma, widely acknowledged as the most marginalised and discriminated in Europe today.

Introduction: Politics and Current Challenges of Demography in Central and Eastern Europe

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 879-892
Author(s):  
Tsveta Petrova ◽  
Tomasz Inglot
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Special Section ◽  
Cultural Dimensions ◽  
Policy Responses ◽  
Demographic Challenges ◽  
The Social ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Europe Today

This article belongs to the special cluster, “Politics and Current Demographic Challenges in Central and Eastern Europe,” guest-edited by Tsveta Petrova and Tomasz Inglot. In this article, we introduce a multidisciplinary and multimethod, special section on the intersection of politics, policy, and the current challenges of demography in Hungary and Poland. We argue that aging, declining fertility, and migration as well as their politicization all deserve urgent attention as some of the most pressing concerns for most of Central and Eastern Europe today. Accordingly, we first use European Commission data to paint a comparative picture of the demographic challenges that the region faces. We then introduce the article contributions in the special section that examine aging, declining fertility, and migration. Next we turn to the question of the politicization of these demographic challenges. We discuss how the proposed special section speaks to two important but previously rarely linked debates taking place within the social sciences today: (1) the voluminous literature on the demographic changes and policies in Central and Eastern Europe, including their ethnic and cultural dimensions, and (2) the expanding scholarship on the rise of nationalist populism and decline in the quality of liberal democracy in the region. Lastly, we summarize the arguments of the contributing authors, who pay closer attention to policy responses to and the politicization of the demographic challenges faced by Central and Eastern Europe.

scholarly journals Wounded Words in a Wounded World: Opportunities for Mission in Central and Eastern Europe Today

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 354-373
Author(s):  
András Máté-Tóth
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Opposite Direction ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Social Experiences ◽  
Regional Transformation ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
Traumatized Self ◽  
Europe Today

Abstract The goal of this paper is both descriptive and prescriptive. The European sub-region called Central and Eastern Europe is understood and analyzed mostly through social scientific theories and models which have a Western European or North American origin. The region is often observed from the outside, and many interpretations of regional transformation are based on codes and categories of these external perspectives, which I will call heteropoiesis. I try to argue for an autopoietic approach from the opposite direction: from the inside. In my approach, I focus, first of all, on the historical and contemporary social experiences of the societies of the region. After authoring many theoretical and analytical works on it, I have come to believe that the key characteristic of the region is its wounded collective identity. The main narrative in the region is backward-looking and nostalgic, and also characterized by feelings of victimhood and revenge. Nationalism and xenophobia in the region are consequences of this traumatized self-understanding. To understand Central and Eastern Europe one must understand the wounds of history and the role of the trauma-centered narratives of today.

The Transition to Democracy in Central Europe: A Comparative View

1991 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Attila Ágh
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
The United States ◽  
Transition To Democracy ◽  
New Democracies ◽  
Political Dimension ◽  
Simple Notion ◽  
Europe Today ◽  
Latin American Countries

ABSTRACTThe collapse of Communist regimes in Eastern Europe has also caused the collapse of old-fashioned studies of Communist systems that subscribed to a simple notion of totalitarian uniformity, or a static belief in the continuance of self-equilibrating cycles within socialist states. To understand what is happening in Central and Eastern Europe today we need to be discriminating in a choice of paradigms. European conceptions of democracy as having a socio-economic as well as political dimension are more relevant than formalist American definitions. Moreover, Europe, in the form of the European Community, is also a much more immediate influence than the United States upon what is happening in Central or Eastern Europe. The transition to democracy in Southern Europe provides encouraging models for ex-Soviet satellites. The failure of Latin American countries to democratize provides warnings, such as the risk that Presidential government can produce dictatorship or instability, a risk that is present in new democracies in Europe too.

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