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CULTURES AND BORDERS International Scientific Conference Vršac, 6th to 8th October 2011 Programme Book of abstracts

IBiSS

Projects 2011-2014

Project 177026:

Cultural heritage and identity

The protection of the cultural heritage is one of the extremely current topics in the process of the formation of different identities, cultural politics and development strategies of the contemporary world. This is the reason why it is crucial to analyze on the one hand the way in which cultural heritage is defined and used, and on the other hand to research what is excluded from the process of preserving and representing the past experiences (in the other words, what is not cultural heritage). This theme unquestionably speaks about the ways in which the state, or any other type of community, wants to represent itself - to the others, and to its own members. Therefore the research of shaping, preserving and presenting what is considered to be cultural heritage is totally discursive, and consequently changeable. Accordingly, diachronic analysis of the way in which cultural heritage is conceptualized, gives the answers to the following questions: what did we want to be in certain periods (how did we want to look like) and how the strategies of identity and representation did change, as well as in which ways were they carried out in the legislation and in practice. 

The special emphasis in this complex project will be on the discourses through which the images of the past have been constructed, and on the ways in which they correspond with the contemporary popular/high cultural patterns.

Leader: Lјiljana Gavrilović

Researchers: Miroslava Lukić-Krstanović, Lada Stevanović, Zorica Divac, Miroslava Malešević, Ivan Đorđević, Srđan Radović, Vesna Trifunović, Jovana Diković, Sonja Žakula, dr Marina Simić.

Project 177027:

Multiethnicity, multiculturalism, migrations – contemmporary processes

Multiethnicity and migrations, together with multiculturalism as one of »identity policies«, are strikingly important problems of contemporary world at the global level. Social organization of multiethnicities, multicultural policy, migrations which contribute ethic and cultural non-homogeneity, pose, above else, the questions of belonging / not-belonging, collective and individual rights and collective and individual identities. These questions essentially challenge the way in which nation state has been understood and has functioned from the 19^th century until today. Both in Serbia and in the surrounding region, these questions are attributed with certain specificities depending on social-cultural context. The project shall deal with these issues from the perspective of ethnology – social and cultural anthropology, meaning that it shall focus on cultural processes, primarily the processes of construction of identities, everyday culture and life and subjective experiences of the protagonists in these complex processes. The aim of the project is to monitor various meanings and functions of (multi)ethnicity and migrations in post-socialism, i.e. in the time of transition, globalization and Euro-integration, first of all of the Serbian society. The focus of research on the society of Serbia in no way excludes other questions which enable comparisons and parallels involving the region, as well as the question of the diaspora – particularly the wave of emigration from Serbia / Yugoslavia during the 1990s and, in final instance, observation of ethnicity and migrations in the global context. 

Leader:  Mladena Prelić

Researchers: Miroslava Lukić-Krstanović, Mirjana Pavlović, Jadranka Đorđević Crnobrnja, Gordana Blagojević, Sanja Zlatanović, Miroslav Niškanović, Aleksandar Krel, Marta Stojić, Goran Bašić, PhD, Jelena Tošić PhD   

Project 177028:

Identity strategies: Contemporary culture and religiosity

A revival of religion at the end of the 20^th cent. was for the most part, an unexpected event. This is supported by a review of the past circumstances- the intellectual heritage of the past, two centuries long modernization paradigm based on principles of rationalism and secularization, as well on the faith about unlimited progress and human potential. An epilogue of moderna, reflected in negotiation of boundaries and creation of global market and economic and cultural capital, has gained its counterbalance in a return of religious concepts to the historical scene. Multifaceted meanings, complexity and often, a dramatic tone of the return reflected the crisis of the sense of the cotemporary world.

In Serbia, this return to religion was especially intensive during the 1990’s. This process could be reviewed at the two basic levels. Firstly, the return signified an increase in interests about mystical and occult knowledge, which has brought about an expansion of Eastern cults and meditation techniques, divination and related alternative medical practices. However, the mainstream of the religion revival refers to the return of the Serbian Orthodox Church into the public scene as well as an increased significance of the Orthodox teachings. At the level of individual, this designated an increase of participation in church rituals and higher frequency of practices of the traditional religious rituals within families. At the collective level, this process assumed a formation of new patterns of collective identity, suggested, supported and constructed mainly from “above”; a closer alliance of the Serbian Orthodox Church and the state aided to this. Furthermore, the church was often an organizer or one of the main participants in different public events- protests, rallies, manifestations etc.

Leader: Aleksandra Pavićević

Researchers: Dragana Radojičić, Jelena Čvorović,  Ivica Todorović, Milina Ivanović-Barišić, Milesa Stefanović Banović, Marijana Mitrović, Đurđina Šijaković, Branko Ćupurdija, PhD, Milica Bakić Hayden, PhD

Project 47016:

Interdisciplinary research of Serbian cultural and linguistic heritage.
Creation of multimedial Internet portal "The Lexicon of Serbian Culture"

Leader: Dragana Radojičić

Subproject: Ethnological and anthropological readings of traditions.

The focus of the subproject is on decoding and analyzing traditions and identities in Serbia and the surrounding regions, including models and strategies that have helped to define, keep and transform the particular traditions, under the influence of history and societal pressures. The analyzed and interpreted data on cultural heritage and identity practices will be presented in the encyclopedic part of the digital Lexicon of Serbian Culture and in anticipated scientific papers, to be integrated with the internet library. The research will include: concepts of tradition in the past and present; everyday life, rituals and customs, mythology, religion and new religions, identity and cultural practices in the rural and urban cultures and subcultures at the local, national and regional level; gender identities, media and identity practices; dualism and parallelism of the customary and civic law, folk and alternative medicine, demography and reproductive strategies, collective memory patterns; models of the cultural and morphological variations between different populations, range of variables and variations of the cultural and biological characteristics, analysis of the social and micro-evolutionary processes that have caused them, especially migrations.

Subproject leader: Jadranka Đorđević Crnobrnja

Researchers: Dragana Radojičić, Jelena Čvorović, Aleksandra Pavićević, Lada Stevanović, Ivica Todorović, Milina Ivanović-Barišić, Milesa Stefanović Banović, Branislav Pantović, Vesna Trifunović, Marijana Mitrović, Đurđina Šijaković.

International Projects

Projects for research period 2001-2005

Projects for research period 2006-2010