Who and what does Europe belong to?

Lecture and discussion: Colonial cultural assets and their whereabouts

Hofrat Dr Wolfgang Muchitsch, Director of the Universalmuseum Joanneum, reports on his museum's efforts to restitute to Brazil a collection of cultural artefacts brought back from Brazil by Styrian missionaries.

The question of which art objects, cultural artefacts and other artefacts are in European museums
and how they got there is increasingly preoccupying more and more people. What claim does Europe have to objects with a colonial history? Helmut Konrad (University of Graz, History), Lukas Meyer (University of Graz, Philosophy) and Alessandro Pinzani (Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil) will discuss this question.

Lecture: Does Europe have an identity?

Dr Bärbel Frischmann, Professor of History of Philosophy at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Erfurt, gave a lecture on the aspects of the formation of European identities as part of the "Who and what does Europe belong to?" thinking period. For her, the definition of an "identity", e.g. of Europe (or the EU in the narrower sense), requires an inward fixation and an outward demarcation. Both have become more problematic under the conditions of modern lifestyles and globalisation processes. Internally, homogenisation is increasingly difficult when ideas of identity spread as a "patchwork", as a puzzle, as contingent. Externally, boundaries are dissolving. Economic, political and cultural co-operation as well as global media networks mean that individual states or communities can hardly be defined in terms of identity. On the other hand, many people desire a fixed identity for themselves, but also for their country or region, at the cost of isolating themselves from others. As a result, marginalisation, xenophobia and nationalism are rampant.

The lecture discussed what is associated with the desire to define "identity", what is problematic about the concept of identity and whether it makes sense to speak of an "identity" for Europe (or the EU in the narrower sense) or whether this perspective of identity should be abandoned.

Lectures: "On the Internal and External Legitimacy of the European Union" and "After the End of History - Political Turnaround and U-turn in Central Europe"

Em.o.Univ.-Prof. DDr. Peter Koller, Karl-Franzens University Graz: The legitimacy of political communities, i.e. of state communities, but also of plurinational communities such as the EU, has two sides: internal legitimacy from the perspective of the members and external legitimacy vis-à-vis the social outside world. Based on an outline of the normative requirements of both sides, an attempt will be made to briefly illuminate the merits and deficits of the EU, both in terms of its internal and external relations.

Dr László Levente Balogh, Lecturer at the University of Debrecen, Chair of Political Science: Immediately after the collapse of real state socialism in Central and Eastern Europe, liberal democracy, the market economy and the welfare state were seen as models without alternatives for post-dictatorial societies. The Western political model suddenly appeared to be a successful model whose symptoms of crisis and inherent tensions were concealed or at least put in brackets. It was not only naivety and fatalism that played a significant role in the adoption of this order, but also the zeitgeist of the doctrine of the "end of history". After the great but short-lived enthusiasm of the "zero hour" died down, serious irritations arose very quickly. Since the end of the 1990s, a grey area has emerged in this space that can no longer be readily considered democratic, but in which democracy has been labelled with different adjectives depending on the country, always clearly indicating damage to the rule of law and restrictions on civil liberties. In this situation, populist movements and leaders emerged who were not only able to seize power, but also to remain in power, often making them a recipe for political success today. This points to the fact that liberal democracy is not a one-way street and can still be jeopardised in Europe today.

Philosophical café about death

"Death is not an event in life. Death is not experienced." [6.4311] Ludwig Wittgenstein

What we can experience, however, is a philosophical exchange of ideas about death. On the evening before All Saints' Day, Denkzeitraum cordially invited you to a philosophical café on the topic of "death" at Grätzeltreff Geidorf.

Who does Europe belong to? Long Night of Philosophy

As part of the 2019 Thinking Period, we invited people interested in philosophy to discuss Europe with students from the University of Graz during the Long Night of Philosophy. In addition to the question of who owns Europe, the philosophical café also addressed topics such as What constitutes Europe? What does Europe mean for us in everyday life?

Panel Europe and Colonialism

A normative and idealistic view of Europe: It is about the ideas of the European Enlightenment, freedom, autonomy, the individual, human rights, justice, responsibility and tolerance as well as historical forms of their institutionalisation in the rule of law, separation of powers and the welfare state - with the safeguarding of, among other things, democratic participation rights and substantial equality of opportunity and the provision and maintenance of public goods as complex state tasks. Europe's idealistic, often universalist claim is in tension with the historical and current experiences of exclusion of people and groups who do not feel that their contributions to the cultural foundations of Europe are adequately recognised and do not see their claims to participation and protection of their fundamental rights realised, or at least not sufficiently. Many people and groups in and outside Europe have been (indirect) victims of the colonial exercise of power by European states, expansion and particularist discrimination by European actors.

Jennifer Page (PhD, Harvard University), postdoctoral researcher at the Ethics Centre of the University of Zurich, explores this tension with a view to slavery in North America and the United States and its structural and normative consequences and asks about the special responsibility of state actors.

Prof. Øyvind Stokke, UiT-The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, discusses the consequences of the implementation of the policy of "Norwegianisation" against the indigenous population of Scandinavia and the injustices committed against the Saami and Kvens and examines how their experiences can be recognised today and how their claims to self-determination can be met.

Human Rights - European Genesis, Universal Validity?

As part of the 2020 thinking period, we invited those interested in philosophy to two lectures and a discussion on the topic of human rights. Romina Rekers (University of Buenos Aires) presented questions of justice in connection with the #MeToo movement and its Spanish-language counterpart #YoSiTeCreo. She attributed the possibility of rampant systematic sexual violence against women to epistemic injustice, among other things. In addition, Wolfgang Benedek (University of Graz) explored the following questions: What are the roots of modern human rights today? What are the current challenges from the perspective of science and in practice? How could a "culture of human rights" be realised?

We invited people interested in philosophy to the Grätzltreff Geidorf as part of the Denkzeitraum programme. We discussed and exchanged views on the topic of Europe again: what does it mean to us, in general, politically, philosophically, literarily... We picked up the thread from November.

Internet café - Who owns the virus

Before any meetings were made impossible by the exceptional situation, we were already looking forward to planning a series of Philosophical Cafés on topics related to our current question(s) "Who or what does Europe belong to?". However, these plans could not be realised as it was no longer possible to come together. But because thinking also consists of referring to concrete circumstances and thinking them through critically, we did not discard our plans, but simply adapted them - because we need philosophy, especially in a crisis!

We have therefore launched a thinking period internet café on the topic of "Who owns the virus?". We used our Facebook group(https://de-de.facebook.com/Denkzeitraum) to discuss topics and aspects of this crisis using various impulse texts. To this end, we created a post every few days, which could be discussed (in the comments column).

Philopath on the topic of "movement"

Everyone does it, nobody talks about it: Movement.
During this philosophical walk through the botanical garden, we explored questions about growth and change and discussed what philosophers have to say about it.

Philopath on the topic of "Justice"

The question of what justice is and how it can be achieved in a society has preoccupied philosophy since its beginnings. During this philosophical excursion through the Botanical Garden, we explored possible solutions.

Café Philosophique: To philosophise is to learn to die

Based on Montaigne's essay of the same title, after a brief introduction we talked about Stoic philosophy, life, suffering, death and dying - and how philosophising accompanies us.

Café Philosophique: What really helps in a crisis

The years change, the pandemic remains. In the new year, now in its third lockdown, it was once again time to reflect on our times - and where better to do that than in a Café Philosophique?
"What really helps in difficult times?" is the question that preoccupied us.

Inscrire - Writing human rights in the public space

With Francoise Schein, Barbara Reiter

Organised by Barbara Reiter, Maria Heinemann and Claudia Beiser, funded by Grätzeltreff and supported by the Austrian Society for Political Education.

Participatory neighbourhood project as a workshop on 15 and 16 October 2021.

Panel discussion on the question of the restitution of colonial goods

with opening statements by Claudia Augustat, Raphael Gross, Wolfgang Muchitsch, Katrin Vohland
Organisation and moderation by Lukas Meyer, introductory words by Helmut Konrad.
21 October, Botanischer Garten/Holteigasse 6

How should museums deal with cultural artefacts that came to Europe under questionable circumstances during the colonial era? Anyone investigating this question is soon faced with a dilemma: do indigenous groups have an (at least ethical) claim to the return of colonial goods, possibly even without conditions, or can the former imperial states claim to own these goods, exhibit them in their museums and conduct research? As Helmut Konrad emphasised in his introductory remarks, the question of restitution is "a matter that concerns us all". The Humboldt Forum in Berlin, in particular, has already done a lot on the subject, but so have the British Museum and the Ethnographic Museum in Graz. It is a matter that "can at least be labelled with a moral question mark". And this view was shared by all four panellists introduced by Helmut Konrad, who each spoke in a ten-minute opening statement about how their museums deal with the consequences of the colonial era: Claudia Augustat (Weltmuseum Wien), Katrin Vohland (Naturhistorisches Museum Wien), Raphael Gross (Deutsches Historisches Museum) and Wolfgang Muchitsch (Universalmuseum Joanneum).

Philosophical café on the topic of war and human rights

Our topic of human rights and everyday life has sadly become a hot topic. How do we
deal with the human rights violations that are happening here and now in Europe? How much
powerlessness and helplessness remains? We exchanged ideas and reflected together.