Čarna Brković - Writing socialist histories...

...writing European futures.

Disappointment is arguably one of the key affective dynamics of our historical moment, fueling ‘angry politics’ and contributing to a political shift to the right. This political-affective structure has something to do with how socialist pasts have (or have not) been written about. Actors from socialist countries played an important role in shaping international arenas between 1945 and 1989, although their contributions have often been overlooked. By reconstructing the ways in which socialist actors contributed to the international Red Cross and Red Crescent movement, this talk poses the question of whether rewriting international histories can help envision European futures beyond disappointment. It also suggests that rediscovering forgotten socialist internationalisms follows the aim of empirical CS/EE to conceptually shift from focusing on ‘difference’ to studying ‘diversity’, thus overcoming the binary between ‘self’ and ‘Other’.