The Historical Geography Research Centre has the honor of inviting you to join the Military and Postmilitary Landscapes conference that is held under the Central European Conference of Historical Geographers series. The conference takes place in the heart of Europe, the historical city of Prague, Czechia, on February 14–15, 2018.
In 2018, we will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of the Great War and three hundred and seventy years since the end of the Thirty Years’ War. All conflicts have causes, course, and consequences. Conflicts may be relatively short, although they are often the result of long-term political, social, cultural, ideological or even environmental transformations.
Tensions stemming from political ambitions of individuals or whole states originated primarily in territories where power and influence concentrated. However, their outreach was often unimaginable. Even regions distant from troubled places had to cope with the consequences of local turmoil that threatened to or eventually resulted in conflicts. Conflicts impacted societies as well as environments where they took place. Through conflicts whole landscapes were erased, the organisation of states and of the world system transformed. Therefore, they provide suitable reference points allowing discrimination between different stages in the development of society (for example, they conclude phases of preparation, and shed light on the strategies and technological advancement of the time). Moreover, also the preparations for potential conflicts (that did not have to escalate into actual conflicts) have had impact on the landscape.
In the broad sense of the term, it is thus possible to think about military landscapes which are characterised by the occurrence of military-strategic features, remnants of troop activity (fortification systems, training areas, military-industrial complexes, etc.) and related activities (changes to the settlement and transport systems, different branches of the economy, etc.), or are filled with symbolic places (e.g. various monuments, cemeteries) pointing at the presence of military activities in the past.
Conflicts often entail certain trauma and disruption in continuous development of communities at different geographical scales. However, they may also give new impetus to future lives. Due to changing societal contexts, the view, understanding and interpretations of particular military landscapes change through generations. Different communities may express disparate attitudes towards the war heritage and its preservation. Military landscapes change their functions and meanings, and postmilitary landscapes have often become problematic areas, e.g. from the point of view of future use and territorial development. Sometimes they function as a place of memory, elsewhere they are subject to commodification.
We have the honor of inviting you to join us at the conference in Prague this February.
Eva Semotanová, Pavel Chromý, Zdeněk Kučera
The conference topics will be focused on, but not limited to: