Issue Theme: The Past in the Present Political Practice
Deadline for submissions: January 31, 2019
Contact: stred@mua.cas.cz
Publication languages: Czech, English, German
Journal Website:
Full text of the journal: www.ceeol.com
Abstracts: http://cejsh.icm.edu.pl
Indexing: ERIH+, SCOPUS, CEEEOL, CEJSH, EBSCO
The relationship between political representations and the past continues to be a topic that deserves to be critically analyzed by the social sciences. The instrumental politicization of history can be seen as a strategy that politicians use to legitimize their normative order. In Central Europe, through recent important historical anniversaries we can observe a new dynamic to the relationship between historical narratives and narrowly defined political actors, who increasingly exploit historical events for their campaigns.
The planned issue will therefore focus on significant aspects connected to the political instrumentalization of history in Central Europe during the last two centuries. The editors welcome empirical, theoretical, or methodological papers from the fields of history, political science, as well as other social sciences and humanities. The papers may cover – but need not be limited to – the following topics:
- The role of political actors in commemorative events and the creation and support of dominant accents in the historical tradition
- The transformation of how traditional iconic paradigms are formed in connection to the transition of political administrations
- The proportion between local and foreign paradigms in politics and propaganda, such as the links between positive and negative historical legacies and the usage of national and foreign motifs.
- Elected candidates and their predecessors. Positive or negative historical connotations of political campaigns or actual political practice within the institutional tradition. How candidates and elected representatives use the legacies of their predecessors in political practice.
- Sources of a citizen’s or a society’s historical awareness, the influence or interest of politicians on their formation; the transformation of how history is taught and caught between academic and political interests.
