Civil societies are exposed to particular pressures in times of military conflict. Insofar as they are democratic structures that have a certain autonomy vis-à-vis the state, they come under strong state instrumentalization pressure. Often, tendencies of radicalization and polarization, fanned patriotism and dichotomous friend-foe thinking spread, which can endanger democratic achievements. On the other hand, in this situation the state is crucially dependent on support from civil society engagement, which in turn offers social actors leeway and opens up new fields and opportunities for them.
In cooperation with the All-Ukrainian Association of Teachers of History and Social Studies "Nova Doba", the Georg Eckert Institute organized an international conference in Kyiv on 07 and 08 December 2018 to explore various questions about civil society response to military threat. Among other things, it was about how civil societies change in times of military threat, how they react to attempts of instrumentalization and to what extent new fields of action open up in the process. These considerations were guided by the question of whether democratic values and structures necessarily experience a downgrading in times of bloody conflicts or, just the opposite, function as a special resource.
The conference dealt with societies that have recently been the scene of military conflicts and where these still have a strong impact on society as "frozen conflicts". Ukraine and countries of the Eastern Partnership (Georgia, Armenia and Transnistria) represented a regional focus, but historical conflict situations elsewhere were also examined comparatively.
The conference was devoted to state-society cooperation and opposition and the corresponding negotiation processes, primarily in connection with school education. A central probe, which seems to be very significant for the study of continuity and change, started with social studies and history textbooks, but the practice of teachers was also highlighted as extremely relevant.
The conference brought together textbook researchers, historians, political scientists, educational practitioners and representatives of civil society and initiated a dialogue on identity constructions, pluralism and value orientation. Potential conflicts in textbooks were addressed in the discussion, as well as the role of textbook discussions in the search for understanding.
The presentations were compiled together with two guest contributions in a publication in German and English, which was published in 2019. The same volume was also published in print and digitally in Ukrainian and Russian in early 2020.
