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Subproject A06
Securitisation and Discourses on the Rights of Minorities in Central Europe during the 19th and 20th century

1. Funding period (2014-2017)

The subproject consists of two subprojects, each of which takes a comparative look at a part of the eastern territories of the Second Republic of Poland and the Czechoslovak Karpatoukraine during the interwar period. Since the turn of the century, attempts at legalizing conflicts and negotiating settlements have increasingly emerged as possible solutions to these problematic situations in potential conflict areas alongside police-military approaches geared to control and security. The subproject aims to reveal how such discourses of juridification from the level of the central state interacted with already established or customary procedures and practices of balancing interests at the local level, which were equally related to conceptions of law and legal realities. The negotiation, generation and legal implementation of security concepts is understood as an overall communicative process that takes place at different levels (national, regional, local) and is supported by specific groups and constellations of actors. The focus is thus on the interconnections between the perspectives of state institutions, majority and minority representatives, political parties, the media, expert groups and various local actors. The study also examines under what conditions and in what way external legal concepts (i.e., concepts formulated by national administrations and parties, political and social forces in neighboring states, or solutions formulated by international bodies) were received and negotiated or rejected in local contexts.

Cooperation Partners