The Central Europe Symposium: 'Europe' Then and Now

18 April 2013

Little more than a decade ago, 'Europe' represented an ideal and a model to the region of Central Europe, where the shadow of the former Iron Curtain was still a recent memory. Now, that same 'Europe' is the site of social and economic crisis on a scale unseen since World War Two. Does Central Europe, with its experience of fundamental social and economic change, offer lessons for the current crisis of 'Europe'?

Keynote speaker: Vice-Chancellor Erhard Busek (Chairman of the Institute for Danube Region and Central Europe): "What Central Europe contributes to the European Project"

Political Science panel: The Question of 'Europe'Not long ago few would have questioned that a priority for post-socialist countries in Central and East-Central Europe was to learn from the Western European countries of the EU zone how to become 'normal', modern European societies. Today, those founding EU countries are undergoing a level of social and economic upheaval unprecedented in recent memory. Does the conscious reflection on the identity of 'Europe' that the post-socialist societies of necessity undertook reveal new perspectives on the current identity crisis in the EU as a whole?

• Speakers: Prof. László Csaba, Dr. Roderick Parkes, Dr. Andraž Zidar

Economics panel: Economics and the Moral Society

While economics has always held tangible consequences for society at large, the study of macro-economic patterns and processes has traditionally been the reserve of highly trained specialists. At a time when economic crises have given rise to widespread social disturbances, however, the study of economics confronts ever more urgently moral or indeed philosophical questions regarding broader social structures. Have economic questions become the most important moral questions of today?

• Speakers: Mr. György Barcza, Prof. Jan Svejnar, Nataša Williams

Cultural History panel: Culture and the Public Sphere

In Central Europe 'the intellectual' has traditionally been a figure who reflects on social and political questions as much as cultural ones. Today it is increasingly difficult to separate the cultural from the public sphere as a whole. Does Central Europe present a model of the 'engaged intellectual' that has particular relevance for those societies that have traditionally drawn distinct boundaries between cultural, political, and economic discourse? 

• Speakers: Prof. Balázs Mezei, Wojciech Przybylski

This event is organised by UCL SSEES and the Central European Embassies.