APVV / CE projects |
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Project of the Slovak Research and Development Agency (APVV)
Name: Individual and Society – their
Mutual Reflexion in Historical process
Duration: 1.7.2016 / 30. 06. 2020
Registration number: APVV-15-0349
Principal investigator: Slavomír Michálek
Project summary:
The goal of the project is to offer an innovative approach towards the question
of individual through an original methodological approach, which is not used
often by the Slovak historiography. Topics dealing with an individual in history
have during the last decades almost exclusively concentrated on standard
biography of one person. The research of rituals, reflexion, individual
self-reflexion, conflicts and political culture is absent or only limited. The
same can be said about the reconstruction of life contexts, socio-cultural
changes and transformation processes. The content of the project represents the
reflexion of individual and his/her identity in the society, formation of
stereotypes, one's own (and strange) view of his/her neighborhood and everyday
activities, social surroundings and formation of a network of social
relationships. A book has never been published in Slovakia, which would focus on
dealing with the place of individual in society from interdisciplinary
perspective, for example in cooperation with similar social sciences (sociology,
philosophy, ethnology, political science, auxiliary sciences of history,
military history, but also historical anthropology or history of architecture).
The goal of the project is therefore to enhance the current basic research (political,
economic and social history) and to offer new perspectives on history through
the eyes of individual protagonists - people in chronological period from 16th
to 20th century. The ambition of the project is to bring a new conceptualization
of the history of Slovakia and to reflect the works and research groups of
neighbouring countries in order to follow the present-day trends in European
historiography.
Name: Continuities and discontinuities of
political and social elites in Slovakia in 19th and 20th centuries
Duration: 1.7.2015 / 30.6.2019
Registration number: APVV-14-0644
Principal investigator: Valerián Bystrický
Project summary:
The project objective is to analyze the establishment and personnel reproduction
of elites, strategies of maintaining the position and the status of elites in
the Slovak society. The ambition of this project is to broaden our knowledge
about the phenomenon of social power through studying the circulation of elites
in the history of Slovakia. The project will focus on the periods of political
and social ruptures, geopolitical and regime changes in the 19th and 20th
centuries and will analyze the roles of the elites during these events. The
focus will be on the elite’s behavior – the “old ones” (the established ones) as
well as the “new ones” (potential or counter-elites). The researchers working
for the project will contribute with relevant data and information that will be
important not only in the Slovak but also in the wider Central European context.
Name: Medieval castles in Slovakia. Life,
culture, society
Duration: 1.10.2013 / 30.9.2017
Registration number: APVV-0051-12
Principal investigator: Daniela Dvořáková
Project summary:
The aim of the project is to provide a comprehensive look at the phenomenon of
the castle, its role in medieval society, its perception by medieval people as
well as all aspects of daily life in a castle. The second part will consist of a
list of all castles located in Slovakia in a structured form: a brief history (with
changes in ownership), a list of written sources about the castle, castle
belongings. Since there are almost 100 castles located in Slovakia, it makes
them an important phenomenon. The research into this subject will contribute not
only to the knowledge and understanding of life in the castles, but will also
facilitate the comparison of the trends and cultural niveau in the Central and
Western Europe.
Name: Slovakia in the 19th century
Duration: 1.7.2012 / 31.12.2015
Registration number: APVV 0119-11
Principal investigator: Dušan Kováč
Project summary:
The „long“ 19th century – starting with the reforms of Joseph II. and lasting
till the late 1890s – was in many aspects a key period from European and
subsequently as well Slovak perspective. During this period conditions for
national, civic and social emancipation had been established. Slovak
historiography has started intensive research work of this period in the 1950s
and 1960s. Among the research outputs have been two academic synthesizes as well.
However, these works are, considering the time of their publication, already
outdated. In the last decades, the research of the 19th century history of
today’s Slovakia slowed down. The project is therefore aims on the acceleration
of this research with the goal to publish a new academic synthesis dealing with
Slovakia in the 19th century. The longtime awaited scientific outcomes will not
be oriented only towards the national emancipation but will consider also
economic, social, cultural and intellectual determinants significant for the
territory of the today’s Slovakia.
Name: State borders and identities in
modern Slovak history in Central European context
Duration: 1.7.2012 / 31.12.2015
Registration number: APVV–0628–11
Principal investigator: Slavomír Michálek
Project summary:
In the historical perspective, the state and nation are chronologically
restricted phenomenon, formed in a specific time and space. The aim of the
project is a complex analysis of the state borders phenomenon, in its various
levels: from political and diplomatic aspects of the borders creation, towards
the dimension of the border representation and micro-history. According to this
perception, borders are not only geopolitical problem, but also a social and
cultural phenomenon, influencing the public sphere. Project team will look for
an answer to a question, how the establishing of state borders and their changes
have been influencing the identity and identifications of the population (of
course not only in the bordering regions, but also in the whole state).
Other crucial questions are: How are the borders established and what they
represent in the modern society? How were the borders demarcated? Was there a
particular form of the social environment created along the politically drawn
borderlines? To what extent gave these processes rise to cultural
particularities? How were the concepts of the national territory in Slovak
society created and what was their content? To which extent is state power the
determining factor in the territorial questions and what other factors
influencing the lives of people are involved? How was the question of borders (border
conflicts) utilized as a mean of political mobilization?
Centers of Excellence of the Slovak Academy of Sciences
Name: Castles in Slovakia.
Interdisciplinary cross-sectional view on the castle phenomenon
Duration: 1.10.2013 / 30.9.2017
Principal investigator: Ján Lukačka
Project summary:
Aim of the project is to create a number of representative scholarly
publications introducing the castles in Slovakia as a complex phenomenon:
historical, anthropological, cultural, social, military and economic. Its
ambitions is to broaden the existing predominantly casteologic, architectonic
and archeological research. The research team will focus on the functions of
castles from their establishing during the Middle Ages till the present. The
experts will analyze different aspect of the life in the castle, influence of
castles on their surroundings from anthropological, residential, environmental,
cultural and historical point of view. They will also focus on the perception of
castle by the people involved in its various functions.
Name: Slovak History in the History of
Europe
Duration: 4.8.2011 / 31.12.2014
Principal investigator: Dušan Kováč
Project summary:
The main goal of the project is to make actual research on Slovak national
history more comparative in European framework. European historiography has
created conditions for such a move in recent years. The research and the
published outcomes should enable the members of the research team to take part
in various multilateral international projects focused on all-European
comparative research in history. All these activities should at last enable to
perceive Slovak history in present-day European interpretative framework, which
should be also presented to Slovak public. It is one of the necessary steps on
the way to transform the discussion in Slovak historiography from ideological
and political sphere to scholarly discourse.