Date: December 1-2, 2011

Venue: Vytautas Magnus University

Organizer: Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy with research cluster „Disintegration of Communism and Post-Communist Transformations“

The aim of this conference is to discuss economic, sociological, cultural and political turning-points in
the Central and Eastern Europe at the end of the 20th century. Today, these transformations can be
evaluated from transgenerational perspective by people who have lived experience of significant social
and political changes and people who know that period only from the textbooks which might be the
source of varying or even conflicting approaches.

The goal of the conference is to encourage a dialogue between scholars from different countries and
different generations, to re-evaluate early post Soviet transformations in Central and Eastern Europe
taking into account current social and political developments. Conference organizers welcome original
insights about the period which was crucial in shaping liberal democracies and market economies in
Central and Eastern Europe.
The conference addresses the following topics:

• Transition from the planned to market economy: drama and tensions;
• The concept of citizenship after 1990: between passion and irony;
• Old and new collectivism: community crisis passed or obtained?
• Nationalism: game, instrument, power or inertia?
• Democratization of public sphere: between engagement and anomie;
• New challenges for art and artists: diversity articulation and fear of management;
• Development of environmental consciousness and risk construction.