Call for Contributions: Childhood and Youth in Eastern Europe

Day-to-day lives and environments: What did everyday life and the various worlds inhabited by children and adolescents look like across this most diverse region? What were the particularities of and differences between urban and rural environments? How and where were young people integrated into social processes and procedures, and how were they affected by them? What role did membership in specific groups play in early life? How did social, political, and cultural contexts shape these young lives? What role did aspects of multiculturalism or transculturality play for children and adolescents – also in comparison to the adult world? In what other ways could children's and adults' worlds of experience differ? What visibility did children and adolescents have in the societies of Eastern Europe?

Upbringing, school, education, and training: How were schools and education organized and designed? How did they differ in different regions? How and where were cultural and social contexts reflected in school? Where were they not? What role did questions of cultural identity and symbolic orders of the adult world play? How were they transmitted to children and young people? Which institutions and personalities stood out from the rest? What – possibly competing – role did specific secular or religious entities play? 

Family and parenthood: What is the role of the family as a social group? What did parenthood mean at different times? What kinds of public discourses, forums and media existed? 

Artistic and cultural testimonies and representations: How are childhood and adolescence represented and processed in visual art, literature, and music? What did art and culture for children and young people look like, what role did they play as audiences and recipients? What did children's books, primers, and textbooks convey and in what ways?

Objects and sources: The portal also welcomes the presentation of (museum) objects and sources, for example toys, relevant utilitarian and household objects, other goods and products for children, inventories from relevant institutions (schools, orphanages), or children's and school books. Historical accounts and records, diary entries, and other ego-documents or sources from memory culture may also be presented and included.

Discourses of childhood: How did the categorizations of childhood and adolescence shift over time? Who spoke about childhood and youth, and in what context?