Colorful Rumors

Recently, I heard rumors that Gucci’s next fashion collection will be dominated by Montenegrin Lilac. The styling experts of the fashion magazine Vogue recommend it to mix with Bosnian Baby-blue, while the upcoming knitwear in Serbian Pink doesn’t go with any color except maybe Russian Taupe. I am not sure though if one should always follow the dictate of fashion.

Nationbranding at its Best

brand logo

Ten years ago, I went on a school trip to our then capital Bonn which included a a visit of the Slovene embassy. On the way to the embassy I was sitting in the bus and nervously skimming through an Encarta article about Slovenia – printed out in the last minute. When I left the embassy, I already knew a great deal more about the country, in my bag a pile of glossy tourist leaflets. I chucked the Encarta printout in the next bin. The leaflets I kept for a couple of years. Fascinated by a paper wheel thingy which showed different facts on Slovenia when turning the inner part, I promised myself that one day I will find out if you really can ski in the Julian Alps and swim in the Adriatic Sea the very same day. Slovenia’s tourist board thus always had a talent in creating nice stuff.  The new trademark though – I feel sLOVEnia – tops every paper wheel thingy. As an attempt to create a single trademark used by government agencies, NGOs and by the business sector alike, this is nation branding at its best (I am thankful that they delivered me some more food for my PhD thesis). Curious about the SlOVENE GREEN, I found out more about this intriguing color: (Source: ‘Trademark of Slovenia – A Story of the Senses, Dec 13, 2007, Eturbonews)

‘In Slovenia, green represents more than just a colour; it is “Slovenian green”, expressing the balance between the calmness of nature and the diligence of Slovenians. It speaks of unspoilt nature and our focus to preserve nature as such. It symbolises the balance of a lifestyle which combines the excitement with which we pursue our personal motivations and a common vision to go ahead with nature. The Slovenian green also shows our orientation to the elementary, to what we feel inside. Last but not least, the Slovenian green speaks of the harmony of all the senses with which we experience Slovenia. Slovenia is therefore not only memorable for its visual images. The memory of Slovenia combines the smell of a forest, a babbling brook, the surprising taste of water and the softness of wood. We feel Slovenia.’

In case you need some slOVE, the Government Communication Office outreach strategy is almost as efficient as Obama’s campaign team, just wait a bit, they’ll come for you….

CfP “Nature in International History”, Harvard, March 13-14, 2009

The Ninth Annual Graduate Student Conference on International History (ConIH 9) will take place at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on March 13-14, 2009. The conference theme is “Nature in International History”. Submissions are invited that examine nature in its international dimensions, more information can be found here.

CfP “Fields of Dreams: Landscapes of Myth and Imagination”, Brock University (CA), Oct 2009

The Brock University St. Catharines, Ontario, hosts the Greenscapes Conference 2009, October 1-3. Deadline for paper proposals is January 5. Papers are invited that “explore landscapes of myth and imagination in real and virtual sites, literary texts, images, and installations” on the following topics:

• Landscapes of allusion (texts, myths, folktales, legends)
• Sacred and Secular Utopias
• Profane imagination: ruin, decay and social transgression
• Gardens of the ‘first time’: origin myths and social legends
• Dream landscapes: fear, desire, and exploring the unconscious

Definitely an intriguing conference theme.

Civilizing Nature: Conference Report

A report of the Conference “Civilizing Nature: National Parks in a Transnational Historical Perspective”, German Historical Institute in Washington, D.C., 12-14 June 2008, is available here (in German). Thanks again to the organizers for this great conference.

Nested Environmentalism

Have you ever felt the excitement when stumbling about the first clue, an empirical hint, a nice quote or anything alike which indicates that there is something behind this vague feeling you based a whole research hypothesis on? Reading Bakic-Hayden’s “Nesting Orientalisms: The Case of Former Yugoslavia”, Slavic Review, 54(4), 917-931 (Winter, 1995) I found her quoting the (then) Serbian minister of the environment referring to the problem of waste disposal sites in Serbia in terms of an “Albanization of communal hygiene”. Beautiful.   

Years later…

I have to admit, I really like this spot…

 

The First World Conference of Environmental History  (WCEH) hosted by the International Consortium of Environmental History Organizations (ICEHO) and the Roskilde University will take place in Copenhagen, August 4-8, 2009. The title of the conference: “Local Livelihoods and Global Challenges: Understanding Human Interaction with the Environment”. The deadline for the submission paper proposal has been extended to April 20, so hurry up!  

 

When Santa Turns Green

The New York Times (supplement for the SZ, 24. Dez.) remembers its readers in a number of articles that eco-friendly consumerism is a very tricky affair. A research project of the University of California, for example, took the local food hysteria under scrutiny and came to the conclusion that local food is - environmentally speaking – not always the better choice. All the pros and cons which a consumer has to take into consideration when trying his/her best to save the world eventually lead to an equation with dozens of variables unsolvable for the average Tesco consumer who is already now overchallenges by the choice the milk shelf offers (milk, guaranteed British milk, local Kentish milk, Organic…?).

However, more important for the season is the article which warns us that “eco-friendly Christmas may ruin the holiday spirit”. Now as the holidays have past without major calamities, I can heave a sigh of relief and be proud of our eco-friendly used-newspaper-wrapping-tradition and the fact that no carbon footprints were left in the snow while I walked per pedes to town for Christmas shopping. The salad drier I bought for my mum will hopefully be as sustainable as the last one, which she had for…well, I think she possessed this ugly thing since my birth.

Nationbuilding on the Skiing Slopes

In the latest issue of the Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Europe (Vol. 7, No. 2, 19-35) Vlado Kotnik, researcher at the Institute for Anthopology in Ljubljana, gives an interesting account of “the role of the televised landscape in presenting alpine skiing as a Slovenian national pastime”. Though not offering overly suprising insights, the article once again confirms the significance of the alpine landscape as a nodal point of Slovene national discourses.

The fact that quite a lot of Slovenes actually do not ski, just confirms the constructed character of national identities. I assume that those spoil-sports do not consider themselves less Slovene than the part of the population which follows the annual call of the snowcapped mountains.