The Soviet history research lab kindly invites you to the conference by Mikhail Minakov Demodernization in Post-Soviet Eastern Europe.
In other countries, longtime neighbors killed each other, apparently motivated by the newly discovered incompatibilities of religion, language, or origin. Civic nationalism gave way to tribal, ethnic, and confessional identities in Europe, not only in the East, where nationalism is congenitally ethnic, but also in countries like the Netherlands and Finland, hitherto considered paragons of tolerance and civility. Nativism came back in Canada and the United States. Rational arguments of a geopolitical nature were replaced by claims of self-righteousness and moral superiority (e.g., “Axis of Evil”). Fake news became ubiquitous, spreading instantly around the world by the most modern means of communication. Language came to spell magic rather than inform, and mass media became “a tool of obscurantism” undermining rational thinking.
These snapshots are not random: They are all manifestations of demodernization, a phenomenon that can be observed from the banks of the Neva to the valleys of the Euphrates and over to the shores of the Cape of Good Hope and from the deserts of Central Asia to the Spanish countryside, all the way to the city of Detroit. It brings together seemingly disparate trends and helps us form a picture that shows what continues to affect everyday life in the context of neoliberal globalization, whose slogan could well be a parody on Marx: “Capitalists of the world, unite!”
However, this demodernization varies from region to region. Mykhailo Minakov will talk about the demodernizations as concept and reality in Eastern Europe.
The conference will be the 16th of October 2019, 18h15-20h, UniMail, MS130. The conference will be in English.
It will be the pleasure to see you.
More about Mikhail Minakov:
Senior Fellow, Kennan Institute, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (https://www.wilsoncenter.org/person/mykhailo-minakov)
Editor-in-chief, Kennan Focus Ukraine (http://www.kennan-focusukraine.org/) and Ideology and Politics Journal (ideopol.org)
Associate Fellow, Institute for European Studies, Europa-Universitaet Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder) (minakov@europa-uni.de)
Recent books:
Development and Dystopia. Studies in Post-Soviet Ukraine and Eastern Europe ( https://cup.columbia.edu/book/development-and-dystopia/9783838211121 )
Demodernization. A Future in the Past https://cup.columbia.edu/book/demodernization/9783838211404 )
Photosophy ( https://www.academia.edu/35187313/Photosophy
http://www.minakovphilosophy.com/https://uris.ch/fr/sixieme-boursier-prof-dr-mykhailo-minakov/
The Soviet History Lab 