Katharina Seibert; Department for Contemporary History, Univ. of Vienna (Web) in coop. with Barnabás Bálint (Univ. of Oxford)
Time: 10.-11.6.2021
Venue: virtual space, via Vienna
The turmoil of the mid-20th century saw young people mobilized for action across Europe in an unprecedented manner. Concurrently, against the backdrop of the struggle between democratic and authoritarian projects, young people increasingly became a target of state legislation, (mass) organizations and other institutions. From the end of the First World War to the aftermath of the Second World War, Europe witnessed fundamental changes in the social regimes that determined societal power distribution.
This workshop approaches interwar history by looking through the lens of age and gender as interdependent categories of analysis. In doing so, the organizers reveal how adult perceptions of youth and gender framed young men and women’s lives and their roles in society. Furthermore, the organizers explore how these perceptions collided with youth agency, probing the specific age- and gender-related dynamics of empowerment and organization.
By zooming in on the concrete young actors and the institutional settings that limited their scope of action, processes of subjectivation will be contrasted with institutionalized attempts to control and lead the young. As such, the organizers contribute to a global academic discussion on age, gender, the lifecycle, and intersectionality and add to more recent studies of youth that go beyond the analysis of youth organizations.
The full programme is available online (PDF)
Link to the registration (Web). Details about zoom will be sent upon registration.
For further questions, please contact: rallyingeurope.zeitgeschichte@univie.ac.at