Socialism - construction and deconstruction

2nd International Conference "Socialism on the Bench"

The second International Conference Socialism on the Bench is centred on the theme Socialism: Construction and Deconstruction and aims to connect socialist and post-socialist experiences in Europe by including Yugoslav, post-Yugoslav and European topics. It will take place on the 70th anniversary of the establishment of socialist Yugoslavia and on the 25th anniversary of the first multiparty elections held in Yugoslav republics that were soon to gain their independence. In a broader European historical context, 1945 stands as the year in which post-war state socialist regimes were established, while 1990 marks the peak of their dissolution. Thus, the conference will encompass the questions and problems that rose from the establishment of communist power and from the introduction of socialism in Europe, such as, for instance, the particularities of socialist social and economic model, its domestic and foreign policies in relation to its Cold War and internal ideological enemies, the concept of mass and social equality, the idea of the socialist 'new man' and the application of principles of modernity and its corresponding cultural policies. Along with our focus on formative processes and their various articulations, from political to artistic, our aim is to emphasize the complexity of phenomena that emerge from the dissolution of socialism. The demise of socialism opens up various research topics, ranging from the economic and social crisis of the early 1980s, the so called decadent socialism and its grey areas, to the introduction of market economy and of parliamentary democracy, which led to the dissolution of the Yugoslav federation and other socialist federative states and to the emergence of the concept of "transition" in the 1990s. The dissolution of socialism also includes its post-socialist "remains" in the cultural sphere, particularly contemporary articulations of the new social context and current representations of the socialist period in literature, media, film and culture.