Nation-Building and Minority Strategies in a Changing International Environment

PROGRAM

The international order has undergone profound shifts throughout the twentieth century, from world wars and decolonization to the bipolar standoff of the Cold War, prompting adaptive strategies among both ethnocultural majorities and minorities. Today, our world is changing at an unprecedented pace once again. Liberal democracies are under serious pressure worldwide; democratization no longer seems a one-way street. The resilience of the international order is put to the test, the regulatory capacity and the legitimacy of international organizations is being increasingly challenged by illiberal and autocratic tendencies. Even the inviolability of frontiers and the sovereignty of states are eroded as universally acclaimed principles underpinning interstate relations. The relevance of the international human and minority rights regime is also diminishing. Its capacity to safeguard the interests and rights of minority communities and to prevent the radicalization of majority nation-building, discrimination and exclusion is declining. An international environment perceived as wobbling and hollowing may also nourish discourses of securitization with regard to minority issues.

Under such circumstances, some of the strategies of ethnocultural claim-making, mobilization and interest representation that were devised and tested during the past few decades become less efficient or even obsolete, and agents acting on behalf of the minority communities face enormous pressure to come up with innovative and adaptive solutions to protect the position and interests of their constituencies. This also raises the question of how actors seek to mediate, connect, or navigate between different political, cultural, and institutional contexts. Furthermore, these strategies can only be fully understood against the background of their historical development and of the long-term trajectories of nation-building, migration, and minority–majority relations.

The aim of our conference is to explore the consequences and implications of the shifting circumstances detailed above through empirical and theoretical papers, comparative or single case studies. We wish to provide an opportunity for scholars working in the fields of social sciences and humanities, including political science, sociology, legal studies, anthropology, ethnography, linguistics, history, cultural studies and international relations, to present the results of their recent research on ethnocultural minorities in Central and Eastern Europe and beyond.

The working languages of the conference is Romanian and English. There is no fee charged for participating at the conference.

The conference is held at the Sapientia University, Faculty of Sciences and Arts, Cluj-Napoca, Calea Turzii 4.

The conference is organized by the Romanian Institute for Research on National Minorities in Cluj-Napoca, Romania (ISPMN) together with the Institute of Danube Swabian History and Regional Studies in Tübingen, Germany (IdGL), Sapientia University, Faculty of Sciences and Arts, Romania, and EURAC Research in Bolzano, Italy.

Organizing Committee: Cristian Cercel (IdGL), Sergiu Constantin (EURAC), Alice Engl (EURAC), Ágnes Kiss (ISPMN), Tamás Kiss (ISPMN), Lehel Peti (ISPMN), Daniela Simon (IdGL), István Gergő Székely (ISPMN), Tibor Toró (Sapientia).