Central European Dictionary – First Seminar Summary

The first meeting took place in the AMO office in Prague on Sunday, April 25th. The group consisted of participants from all V4 countries – Dagmar Kusa (SK), Paweł Marczewski (PL), Marcel Tomasek (CZ), Łukasz Jasina (PL), Agnes Gyagi (HU), Maria Staszkiewicz (PL), and Wojciech Przybylski (PL). Michal Koran (CZ) and Martin Ehl (CZ) were in touch afterwards due to air traffic delays because of volcanic ash cloud.

The group has workied during most of the day agreeing on goals and principles necessary for further collaboration. Below you will find a list of key conclusions. For more deails please see the mission statement by Paweł Marczewski and Wojciech Przybylski.

Goal is to collaborate on a dictionary that can communicate the mixed and sometimes conflicting views on Central Europe, to get away from economic determinism and introduce more complex concepts. We need to provide swapping perspectives: looking at nationally fragile issues from an outside point of view. Entries should not be typical political science entries, should not have a common dictionary format. They should rather be short essays, should have space for disagreement. The dictionary will be an area of disagreement rather than an encyclopedia. We expect to trigger discussion on issues that are at the heart of what is political from the point of view of Central Europe.

Structure of preliminary meetings:

• 1st notion of Central Europe (PRAGUE)
• 2nd key concepts (BUDAPEST)
• 3rd list of authors and distributing key concepts (BRATISLAVA)
• 4th summary, assigment of work, planning next steps (CRACOW)

Public debatesOur events will be accompanied by public debates, airing the different perspectives, inviting also people from outside on topics that are potential key entries:

• Colonizers of colonized: notions of imperialism in Central Europe; 24th May
• Central Europe – East or West connected to the promotion of the East or West issue; in the framework of the Visegrad Saloon. Second week of June. Bratislava
• Faces of liberalism in CEu in Bratislava: after elections in Slovakia and Poland; 22nd or 23rd June
• Central European Tower of Babel: In Search of Common Language in Krakow, during the Summer School at Vila Decius; 14th July

This project is generously supported by the