Karin Liebhart

A TEMPLE FOR THE NATION: REDESIGNING A COMMON SYMBOLIC SPACE OF CENTRAL EUROPEAN CONSERVATISM

In the wake of ‘1989», the redefinition of a common European identity and national identities turned the symbolic representation of these identities into a major issue of political debates. Especially the construction of conservative and right-wing-populist politics in a redefined central European region relies on a symbolic redefinition of national identities in the frame of and in conflict with the design of a common European political culture. Examples are based on an analysis of the symbolic representation of politics, as the image design of the Austrian ‘Wende»-government (2000-2002), the symbolic representation of Forza Italia and the image-construction of Berlusconi, as well as the cultural representation of the former Hungarian government (1998-2002). The contribution proposes a reconstruction of a common right-wing conservative (political) culture and its representation in the region under the notion of ‘neo-patriotism».

Diskursive Konstruktionen Osteuropas in Zeiten europäischer Krisen

In seinem 2013 im Wiener Universitatsverlag erschienenen Lehrbuch „Transformationen in Osteuropa im 20. Jahrhundert“ geht Dieter Segert unter anderem der Frage nach, wann Osteuropa als Region eigentlich entstanden sei und diskutiert kritisch einige Antworten, die HistorikerInnen und SozialwissenschaftlerInnen auf diese Frage geben (ebd.: 22ff.). Beginnend mit Philip Longworths (1992) Feststellung, die neuzeitliche Grenze zwischen Ost- und Westeuropa sei nahezu deckungsgleich mit der Ostgrenze des Reichs Karls des Grosen Anfang des 9.