The Changing Democracies project: an attempt to find the keys to exposing European memory to democratic transformation
Abstract
What is it like to live without democracy? Has democracy lived up to the expectations of the actors of the protests against the dictatorship? What does democracy need to function healthily and effectively? These are the questions that the researchers of the international project 360 Degrees of Democracy are asking and trying to answer through a critical reflection on the recent democratic transformation that took place across Europe between the 1980s and the 1990s. Oral history research based on the experience of local communities seeks to fill the gaps in our knowledge of life in non-democratic systems and the experience of their disintegration through the method of storytelling.
Recorded testimonies will be used for educational approaches and curatorial principles to start a dialogue about democracy across generations, cultures and states. The paper will offer insights into an ongoing project that aims to educate and popularise through direct work with teachers, students and witnesses.
A key output of the project will be a travelling exhibition based on the records of eyewitness narratives, curated by memory institutions across the European Union in a collaborative effort to shape European memory through research and education.