Interdisciplinary conference organised by the Institute for Cultural Analysis of the Germans of Eastern Europe (IKDE), Freiburg, in collaboration Institute for Cultural Analysis and European Ethnology at the University of Freiburg.
Why “We”?
The word ‘we’ marks a clear distinction, creating an ‘inside’ and an ‘outside’. Belonging to a certain group is a marker of assurance and identification, perhaps even a necessity for navigating everyday life. Nevertheless, it is challenging to define precisely the conditions under which a sense of community emerges and those under which it becomes fragile, in particular, when ‘we’ are faced with crisis situations.
The concept of ‘we’ can unite, but it can also divide, creating oppositions and frontiers; it possesses a compelling power that has historically made it attractive to totalitarian regimes, yet it also serves a valuable purpose when it comes to shared cultural heritage and memory culture projects.
With regard to minority and diaspora contexts, multiethnic regions and migration societies, questions therefore arise concerning the mobilisation and formation of groups, the negotiation of belonging, and the emergence of (unexpected) alliances. The focus here is on various aspects of ‘we’ in and from Eastern Europe, subjected to analytical scrutiny through interdisciplinary discussion.
Throughout the conference, we will thus examine these processes, their narratives and representations in terms of their entangled trajectories and dynamics.