Remembering Europe - Civil Society Under Pressure Again

Type: 
Workshop
Audience: 
CEU Community + Invited Guests
Building: 
Nador u. 9, Monument Building
Room: 
Gellner
Thursday, December 7, 2017 - 5:30pm
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Date: 
Thursday, December 7, 2017 - 5:30pm to Saturday, December 9, 2017 - 1:30pm

The workshop gathers civil society representatives, journalists and political/social scientists from Central and Eastern Europe to reflect on the attacks on civil society during the twentieth century and generate effective practical and policy responses to today's growing pressure against critical civil society that upholds Europe's constitutive tradition of protecting human rights as well as its environmental and democratic values.

At this innovative workshop civil society representatives, journalists, political/social scientists, and historians mostly from EU member states in CEE engage in a public debate that traces the historical legacies and collective memory of the curtailment of civil society participation under non-democratic regimes, assesses the progress accomplished during the democratic transition and EU accession, and looks also at the regional and global backlash after the economic crisis in 2008. The workshop will also serve to plan policy and action responses against pressure from governments, mass media, and other sources of threat, such as the various forms of "uncivil society". Special attention will be paid to the opportunities offered by European citizen participation and the transnational cooperation of these civil society actors as a way to resist these pressures.

The workshop is hosted by the Department of History and Pasts, Inc., Center for Historical Studies at CEU, in partnership with the Andrássy University - Budapest. It is part of BlueLink's "Remembering Europe: Civil Society Under Pressure Again" project, supported by the Europe for Citizens program of the EU. The organizers will contribute focused research which maps pre-EU practices and legacies of ostracism and marginalization of the civic sector, and civil society responses to them. Scholars in multiple academic fields, civil society representatives, journalists and policy makers from EU member states in CEE will present position papers and multimedia/oral presentations.

The opening session will take place at Auditorium B, Nádor 15.

For more details see the attached program.