In 2009 participants, observers and historians will be recording their interpretations of 1989, structuring commemoration and remembrance. Of great significance to us is that in the past twenty years a new generation was able to ‘go West’ and ‘go East’. The end of the cold war, the collapse of the Soviet empire, the globalisation of trade and the wider circulation of ideas and cultural artefacts has enabled the post-1989 generation to move back and forth between the ‘East’ and the ‘West’, making us multilingual and multicultural. Yet, this mobility is not unhindered (new borders and new visa regimes) and life chances are far from equal. We ask:
1. Which are the defining moments in our biography? And how are these related to 1989 and its impact? What defines to post-1989 generation? 2. What are our expectations for the 20th anniversary in 2009? Vis-à-vis national remembrance, is there scope for trans-national public commemoration? Of which kind? 3. As the dust settles: Which are the most significant consequences of 1989? Not just in CEE, but in the whole of Europe, in East Asia, in the Americas, globally?