The Place of Solidarity in Polish and Global History: An Evaluation after 40 Years

The Place of Solidarity in Polish and Global History: An Evaluation after 40 Years

Organizer
Historical Research Office of the Institute of National Remembrance; Faculty of Philosophy of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań; Polish Philosophical Society, Poznań Division
Venue
Location
Poznań
Country
Poland
From - Until
04.06.2020 - 05.06.2020
Deadline
20.04.2020
Website
By
Connections. A Journal for Historians and Area Specialists

Polish Solidarity from 1980–81 was a mass pacifist movement of resistance against real socialism, which demanded respect for employee rights, a return of civil freedom and national sovereignty, and liberalization of culture. Solidarity subverted the Yalta division of Europe and used the universally supportive attitude of Western societies to convince the Euro-Atlantic states to revise their foreign policy with respect to the Soviet Union. As a result, Solidarity became the most important link in the chain of factors leading to the fall of real socialism in 1989–1991.

The aim of this conference is to reflect on the historical, social, and spiritual heritage of Solidarity. Three sections are planned for the conference.

Solidarity and the Cold War: the aim of that part of the conference will be to answer the question about the influence of Solidarity on the course of the Cold War in the 1980s, the activity of social movements in Western countries, and the development of operation in Eastern European countries.

The Self-Governing Republic. On the Ideological Heritage of Solidarity: the aim of that part of the conference will be reflection on the ideology of Solidarity and its relations with the dissident thought in Eastern and Central Europe as well as on the (potential) significance of the ideological heritage of Solidarity for the contemporary world.

Solidarity in Social and Historical Sciences: the subject matter of that part of the conference will be the usefulness of various paradigms/concepts of social science (for example, the concept of new social movements, of a network society, of the theory of revolution in historical-comparative sociology, etc.) in the research on Solidarity.

Patronage:
- Mobilization. An International Quarterly
- The Wielkopolska Commission of the Independent Self-Governing Trade Union “Solidarność”

Coordinators: Prof. Krzysztof Brzechczyn, dr Przemysław Zwiernik

Please send paper proposals consisting of paper title, a brief (up to 250 words) abstract and a short biographic entry (up to 100 words) to krzysztof.brzechczyn@ipn.gov.pl

Programm

Contact (announcement)

Krzysztof Brzechczyzn
Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, Oddział w Poznaniu
ul. Rolna 45 A
61-487 Poznań, Poland
przemyslaw.zwiernik@ipn.gov.pl


Editors Information
Published on
06.03.2020
Classification
Temporal Classification
Additional Informations
Country Event
Language(s) of event
English
Language of announcement