German & Hungarian´s Identity Management in SE-Central EU

Contemporary minority research stands as a transdisciplinary hinge connecting minority politics, legislation of minority rights and minority organisations of the civil society. It describes tendencies of harmonization, acculturation and assimilation as well as different forms of cultural contacts in multiethnic and multilingual areas. The present project focuses on the German and Hungarian minority in Bosnia and Herzegowina (BiH), Croatia (CRO), Hungary (H), Romania (ROM), Serbia and Montenegro (SCG) and Slovenia (SLO). The research is centred on the identity management (IM) of the German and Hungarian speaking population. Nonetheless, not only the identity construction of the individuals and the "we-collective" (IM from inside) is planned to be studied in the framework of this project, but also the influence of "the others" (IM from outside): the majority population, the other minorities living in the area and the German or Hungarian institutions adopted from abroad. The research methods are based on the priorities of historical disciplines such as Contemporary History and the History of South-Eastern Europe on one hand, while on the guidelines of Ethno-Cultural Anthropology and Historical Anthropology on the other. Within the scope of the project the researchers are to conduct micro-studies in Slovenia, Republika Srpska (BiH) (Germans), Baranya County (H) (Germans), Slavonia (CRO) and the regions of Transsylvania (ROM), Vojvodina (SCG). Although the project aims to have the identity management of the German and Hungarian minority as its central theme, this main focus of the research will be enlarged with other related topics. These are the following: "cultures of memory", the different approaches to memory (including autobiographical literature) and the relevance of "places of memory"; gender roles assigned to women in and by the minorities` cultural societies; minorities` institutions and, in connection with these, the related political, judicial and educational problems. The particular results of the studies on the quality and intensity of identity management in the studied areas are going to be compared in a transnational context. Another goal of this project is to build up a transdisciplinary scientific network in the field of minority research in Southeast-Central Europe. It could guarantee an effective and sustained collaboration in research and teaching.