Publication details

Eugenic Thinking in the CEE Countries: Never-Ending Story of Root Metaphors?

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Title in English Eugenic Thinking in the CEE Countries: Never-Ending Story of Root Metaphors?
Authors

SHMIDT Victoria

Year of publication 2017
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Education

Citation
Description The very recent interest to eugenics grapples with the dilemma of narrowly contextual or hyperlocal historicity vs. transhistorical self-deconstructive constructivism. Limited ability to solve this dilemma remains a core issue when attempting to explore eugenics in CEE countries. The relativist intention either to label any type of biopolitical speculation as eugenic or reject its specifics in favor of transhistorical notions regarding modernity ignores the contexts of CEE countries. The reluctance of CEE social scholars to engage with master narratives about eugenics resonates with extremely narrow range of contexts regarding timeline and the sphere of eugenics' influence provided by the historians of eugenics in CEE countries. In my study, I aim to elaborate the arguments in favor of recognizing eugenics as a specific epistemic community which was simultaneously a driving force of building the nations and also was shaped by the various compositions of factors. Particularly, I focus on inter-country cooperation between eugenicists (or eugenically thinking scholars) as a specific realm of transferring and legitimizing produced knowledge and offered treatments.
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