Physical Violence in Late Socialism: (Dis-)Entangling Statehood, Labor, and the Nation

International Joint Research Project "Physical Violence and State Legitimacy in Late Socialism":
By stressing the notion of physical violence and its significance for state legitimacy, the project seeks to contribute to the general discussion of late socialist societies. The first annual conference will explore physical violence within two core fields related to the legitimatory strategies and discourses of communist statehood: the social and the national. By contextualizing physical violence within these highly ambiguous fields, we aim to contribute to the dismantling of powerful stereotypical narrations and images of state socialism; for example, the remnants of binary mental maps coined by the Cold War or interpretations that have emerged on the grounds of post-socialist nation-(re)building.

Flyer  Programme First Annual Conference (PDF)
 
For more information: Project website "Physical Violence and State Legitimacy in Late Socialism"