Topics of EuroVision2000
EuroVision2000 will take a look at topics like the economic, social and cultural transformation of Europe, the many-sided, but sometimes contradictory, transformation in the countries of the former Eastern Block, and the consequences with regard to personal biographies, informal economies and migration, as well as racism, which is increasing in the whole of Europe.
Traditionally, the exclusive status of Europe was defined by the demarcation and devaluation of "other cultures", for instance by the demarcation of former colonies, the Orient, Africa and Asia, and also of the USA. The transformation of Europe, forced by the East as well as the West since 1989, has been attributed to global competition. However, in the framework of the current reconfiguration of the European Union, of the extension of EU borders towards Middle, Central and Southeast Europe, and in conjunction with the new accessions to NATO, the "old" privileged pivotal point of Europe has self-evidently remained in the West.
Political and societal experiences and realities of the countries of the former socialist alliance are deliberately ignored just as was previously the case with regard to the countries of the global South.
The adaptation and normalisation processes that accompany the political and economic orientation towards accession to the EU trigger off a whole series of societal and social changes in every-day life in the countries of the former Eastern Block. They also cause new exclusions of different kinds, depending on the individual country. This affects not only the many-sided, and often contradictory, adaptation processes of (Western) European culture, which is defined as global culture, but also the reconstitution of a new national identity and the social exclusions which result from this. Additionally, old (gender) orders are reintroduced.
Culture acquires a central significance in these exclusion and inclusion processes. European or national identities were historically formed by claiming cultural differences. The fusion of nation states into "one new Europe", and the great social, political and economic changes, are conveyed as attractive and justified, for instance through new cultural models. All that does not comply with the idea of an economically innovative, flexible and efficient Europe is increasingly being devalued and excluded.
The aim of EuroVision2000 is a critical examination of current and historic forms of border construction, as well as exclusion processes, related to the formulation of national or general European identities.
