Conference “Care. Culture. Collective.”

The two-day conference “Care. Culture. Collective. Voluntariness and Coercion in State Socialism” on December 03-04, 2026, at the University of Erfurt will focus on the historic conditions of voluntariness under state socialism and on the relationship between the individual and an authoritarian state from the 1970s to the 1990s.

The 1990s have increasingly become the focus of historical research. Across Europe, this decade was marked by a shift toward neoliberal forms of governance. The market became the organizing principle not only for the restructuring of economic institutions as such, but also for new forms of individual self-governance.

For those who had previously lived under the state socialist systems that were now dissolving, the transition to the neoliberal societies of the 1990s initially represented a transformation on multiple levels: the reconfiguration of state institutions as well as new forms of individual self-regulation in response to changing social expectations.

This conference asks whether state socialism itself already contained appeals to individual agency that later enabled neoliberal techniques of government to take hold. In the case of post-socialist societies in particular, the question arises as to how the history of neoliberalism in the 1990s can be related to the history of state socialism. Accordingly, the conference explores which technologies of the self, forms of neoliberal governmentality, and practices of voluntary individual action had already emerged within state socialist societies.

The event is co-organized by Carsta Langner, conducting the subproject “Voluntariness and Solidarity” in our research group at the University of Erfurt, and Elena M. E. Kiesel, former researcher in our subproject on “Voluntariness and Dictatorship” and currently working within the project “Difference – Transformation – Cohesion,” also at the University of Erfurt, and Lukas Bartl, member of the Max Weber Centre for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies with his Phd project on health education in the GDR. We cordially invite you to participate in the conference. It will take place on campus at the University of Erfurt, Research Building “Weltbeziehungen” (C19), room C19.00.04 (ground floor).

The main theme focuses on voluntariness under state socialism and thus on the relationship between the individual and the state. In order to make voluntariness analytically tangible in its historical context, we ask: In what ways was participation in state socialist societies cultivated from childhood onwards? Which appeals to internationalism can be traced, and how were they internalized? How were people encouraged to demonstrate initiative in workplaces and mass organizations? And what forms of creative eigensinnig appropriation or individual reinterpretation can be reconstructed? Which forms of individual self-care can already be identified in the 1970s and 1980s? What long-term mental and psychological consequences can be discerned? And how do gender and voluntariness relate in these contexts?

Although the papers presented at the conference focus primarily on the (East) German case, comparative perspectives will also be included. Questions concerning the similarities and differences of state socialist cultures of subjectivity, both past and present, across national borders will be discussed collectively. By examining the relationship between the authoritarian state apparatus and the individual, the conference also brings into focus the tension between voluntariness and coercion under state socialism and in post-socialist societies. Through selected case studies, we investigate the appeals, campaigns, and interpellations that encouraged voluntary participation under state socialism, how these were internalized, and which long-term consequences can be observed.

CONFERENCE PROGRAM

As the number of participants is limited, we kindly ask to register via email to Lukas Bartl (lukas.bartl[a]uni-erfurt.de) in advance. Thank you!