CE Dictionary of Political Concepts: Summary of the 2nd Seminar

The second seminar took place in Budapest on May 23rd, 2010 in the Library of the Polish Institute in Budapest.

After a short discussion participants have agreed that the final book should not exceed 400 pages in length, and is to be published next year. Marcin Moskalewicz suggested that this publication be followed by more volumes in the future, as well as accompanied by a wiki-like online tool for integrating worldwide discussion on the subject matter. The question of establishing a policy for online publishing was also raised. Martin Ehl brought up the issue of advanced planning of the on-line component prior to starting work and opted for strict deadlines to keep dynamics of further meetings and efforts.

Each volume (provided more than one will be published) should contain 10-12 entries co-written by a team of 4 – preferably, but not necessarily one author from each V4 country. One person per team would take on the responsibility of an editor in the preparation of a 30-40 page long essay/entry.

Balazs Trencsenyi suggested that “major league” intellectuals have second hand experience based on work like ours and therefore we should rely on our own resources. He also put forth an the question of intellectual property of the authors taking part in the project. These issues are to be addressed in Bratislava. Finally, he advised to plan our work using a cluster-based arrangement of ideas.

Finally the group agreed on a non-final list of clusters on which we will work further.

• east – west, central europe, regions
• socialism, communism, post-communism
• minority – assimilation – integration, inclusion/exclusion (Roma issue?)
• nation, nat. character, nationalism
• transition, crisis, reform (economic)
• left – center – right: ideology
• people, folk, populism (leadership, war, military)
• underground, civ. society, resistance
• history, tradition, politics of history, soil
• social, equality, gender, health
• messianism, church
• city-related
• rights, freedoms

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