Events Past

Series: Seminars and Colloquia

The Russian diaspora is the third-largest in the world. The Russians fled the country in troves for more than one hundred years. First the Tsar’s crazy politics towards Jews, then the Revolution and Civil War, the Second World War and anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union forced millions to emigrate.In the 90-s, emigration was in the spotlight of society because the borders got opened for the first time in many decades. People started moving in both directions – many of them were leaving the country, but some of the emigrants came back to Russia to capture the new opportunities.

Series: Visual and Performing Arts

Die “Philosophischen Miniaturen” stellten in Lesungen und Gesprächen das Werk des Philosophen Jan Patocka vor. Patocka ist nicht nur der wichtigste tschechische Philosoph des 20. Jahrhunderts, sondern war auch eng mit der Charta 77 verbunden.

Series: Seminars and Colloquia

Starting with the annexation of Crimea in the spring of 2014, scholars and analysts have been debating the standoff between the West and competitors such as Russia, Erdogan’s Turkey, and lately China on Europe’s periphery. “The return of geopolitics” has become a standard phrase to describe the new moment in the international politics of Eastern and Southeast Europe.  A contrast is drawn with the 2000s, the highmark of the European Union’s “transformative power” and NATO’s eastward expansion. But the top-down view highlighting the preferences and actions of big players, including core EU member states like Germany and France, Russia, Turkey etc. overlooks the critical role played by peripheral countries and their elites. Rather than being the object of great powers’ decisions, they manipulate rivalries in pursuit of political advantage.  Though the domestic arena provides entry points for external actors’ influence it also empowers incumbent elites in the target countries. The talk drew on examples from Southeast Europe (the Western Balkans, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece) but drew parallels to the post-Soviet space.

Series: Lecture

The Berlin Republic of today is neither Weimar (1918–1932) nor Bonn (1949–1990). It is by all standards the best democracy ever on German soil. Nevertheless, during the COVID-19 crisis there was a shift from democracy as a mode of governance to what the controversial legal theorist Carl Schmitt (1922) affirmingly described as a “state of exception”; a state that is desired and approved by the people. It was the hour of the executive. Parliament has disempowered itself. There was very little, if any, contestation or deliberation during the first eight weeks of the COVID-19 crisis – neither in parliament nor in civil society. Will the state of exception emerge as the new mode of governance during deep crises in the 21st century? If this is the case, it would erode, de-parliamentarize and illiberalize our democracies as we have hitherto known them.

Series: Lecture

The Allianz Kulturstiftung and the Klett-Cotta publishing house awarded the prize, founded in memory of Jean Améry for important contemporary essays, to IWM Permanent Fellow Ivan Krastev on September 17, 2020. The jury, chaired by Robert Menasse, explained their decision by stating »The clarity of thinking against the appointments of the time: That is, among other things, what Ivan Krastev has in common with Jean Améry«. The prize is awarded every two years for outstanding achievements in the field of contemporary, progressive essays. The award winner talked to IWM Rector Shalini Randeria. 

Series: Seminars and Colloquia

Since Ukraine is an agrarian country, the importance of knowledge about climate change cannot be overestimated. In fact, today we already have regions where we harvest potatoes and corn twice a year, and regions where grapes and peaches ripen, which have not even been cultivated before. It is very important to talk not only about climate change as a global catastrophe, but also about the new challenges and opportunities that come with it.

Series: Conferences and Workshops

Series: Panels and Discussions

The Czech Embassy in Vienna, in cooperation with the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM) generously supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, invited for an evening discussion at the Czech Embassy in Vienna. The debate addressed the growing geopolitical insecurity and the new challenges posed by the global pandemic.

Series: Conferences and Workshops

This symposium on migrants and public health was a platform to investigate and integrate some of the primary concerns arising from the state of public health in India, privatisation of the health care system, the skewed nature of governance in addressing public health
concerns in our cities’ poor, overcrowded neighbourhoods, and the fact that workers leading the response against the pandemic are rendered disposable for fear of disease and
contamination. How do these binaries coexist and become new sites of discrimination?

Series: Panels and Discussions

Belarusian voices are few and far between in international debates about the ongoing protests in Belarus. In this webinar, Belarusian sociologists shared their views and analysis of the current protest wave. Among other things, they discussed the role of striking workers; class, gender, and violence; patterns of mobilization and self-organization; the mobilizing effects of trauma; the impact of urban space; the legacy of previous protests; the role of protest in forging different types of communities; and the ways in which the post-industrial shift and other long-term transformations in Belarusian society have affected its political economy. This webinar took place in English.