Book review: The justification of Europe: a political theoryof supranational integration

The debate on the EU’s legitimacy has long suffered from a number of serious misunderstandings. Supranational politics, Jürgen Neyer argues, is not about the making of public order in Europe but about internalizing external effects and fostering the individual right to justification. Anamaria Dutceac Segesten finds the book is a very enlightening read on matters of acute importance for thinking about a solution to the European legitimacy problem

Book review: Europe entrapped by Claus Offe

In this short book, Claus Offe aims to bring into sharp focus the central political problem that lies at the heart of the EU and shackles its ability to deal with the most serious crisis of its short history. Anamaria Dutceac Segesten applauds this provocative but much needed argument calling for more, not less, political debate in the EU today

D4.2 How-to manual for the implementation of SO-CLOSE's digital storytelling tools

A guide for future users in the implementation process of the SO-CLOSE tool

D1.2 Information gathering report : societal, ethical, cross-cultural

This report has been submitted by Lund University (Sweden) as deliverable D1.2 within the framework of H2020 project "SO-CLOSE:Enhancing Social Cohesion through Sharing the Cultural Heritage of Forced Migrations" Grant No. 870939.This report provides a theoretically-informed approach to migration and heritage in response to the SO-CLOSE project's objective to "contribute to social cohesion and fight refugee marginalization or exclusion by facilitating the encounters between similar life stories, through the mediation of innovative digital and artistic tools. It reviews academic publications exploring how present-day global migrations resonate with the contemporary interest in the history of cross-border mobility in the receiving European societies

D5.9-Policy paper 4- Recommendations on policies to promote co-creation of migration heritage between cultural institutions and local communities

This report has been submitted by Lunds Universitet (Sweden) as deliverable D5.9 within the framework of H2020 project "SO-CLOSE: Enhancing Social Cohesion through Sharing the Cultural Heritage of Forced Migrations" Grant No. 870939.Based on the experiences and perceptions of selected stakeholders, this policy paper draws policy-relevant recommendations about the co-creational process of a shared migration heritage via digital storytelling tools. The interpersonal connections and networks emerging from co-creating narratives are a core motivator for cultural institutions and communities to engage in digital storytelling. Policies should be created to support the continuous co-creation of digital heritage of migration, and to provide long-term knowledge transfer on digital cultural heritage for social cohesion

MYTH, IDENTITY AND CONFLICT: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF ROMANIAN AND SERBIAN TEXTBOOKS

The study compares two cases of ethnically diverse societies sharing a substantial set of characteristics but where inter-group relations developed in two opposite directions. In Serbia the entire decade of the 1990s was witness to widespread violence, first in the wars of Yugoslav secession (1991-1996) and later in the conflict over the status of the Kosovo region (1998-1999). In Romania, despite one eruption of interethnic violence in March 1990, there have been no further clashes between Romanians and Hungarians, even if a latent suspicion continued to be verbally manifested between these two communities. By comparing these cases, the possibility opens to verify the impact of taught history on the representations of self and others and, from this premise, to examine its influence on the potential for peaceful or conflictual ethnic relations. The questions asked are: Is myth, as identified in secondary literature in other areas (literature, media, and political discourse) present in the history textbooks of Romania and Serbia? If myths are to be found in history schoolbooks, are there differences in the ways these myths define the in-group and the relationship with the Other between a country that experienced interethnic conflict and a country that did not? The working hypothesis based upon the existing literature is simple: in multiethnic societies, history textbooks reflect the elite's, especially state elite's, interpretation of the past and outline the acceptable/ desirable representations of the dominant ethnic group and of the diverse Others with whom this group interacts. If the history and the self image of the dominant group are presented in a manner that highlights the differences and the uneven distribution of power between the dominant and the minority ethnic group(s), the possibility of domestic tensions increases and, if other conditions are present, there is even a rise in violent civil war along ethnic lines. The study finds that myths are present in the post-communist history textbooks of Romania and Serbia, both in their visual content and in their text. Despite expectations to the contrary, however, the differences in the types of myth used in a conflict case (Serbia) and in a non-conflict case (Romania) are small, thus disputing the importance awarded to history education in preventing or alleviating conflicts

Guidelines of the implementation process

This report has been submitted by Lund University (Sweden) as deliverable D4.1 within the framework of H2020 project "SO-CLOSE: Enhancing Social Cohesion through Sharing the Cultural Heritage of Forced Migrations" Grant No. 870939.This deliverable addresses relevant steps and considerations for the implementation of the three digital sharing tools developed in WP3 of the SO-CLOSE projects in the four locations of the cultural institutions. The implementation process will follow a strategy agreed upon by the consortium that emphasizes the role of curatorship each cultural institution will take on and highlights three specific areas of interest: Firstly, it is highly relevant for curators to make use of storytelling and embed chosen content in engaging narratives that attract audiences and create relevant spaces of meaning-making. The guidelines for storytelling emphasize the use of objects and narratives and how to embed those in digital storytelling. Secondly, for the SO-CLOSE context, cultural memory and the connection of past and present narratives are a focal point of our cultural heritage-making endeavours. How to create these connections especially in a context addressing sensitive and possibly triggering memories and narratives is also addressed in the form of guidelines. Thirdly, the SO-CLOSE project aims to create inclusive and accessible spaces, both online and offline. Therefore, the deliverable offers an overview of accessibility features relevant for SO-CLOSE activities and invites all cultural institutions to consider their approaches from an accessible point of view. Further sources for accessibility requirements and features are listed as well. The deliverable aims at informing the tool implementation process and offering actionable steps as well as theoretically informed considerations relevant for cultural institutions to take on the role of curator throughout the process