Everyday Culture in Europe Approaches and Methodologies

This book discusses the history and contemporary practice of studying cultures 'at home', by examining Europe's regional or 'small' ethnologies of the past, present and future. With the rise of nationalism and independence in Europe, ethnologies have often played a major role in the nation-building process. The contributors to this book offer case studies of ethnologies as methodologies, showing how they can address key questions concerning everyday life in Europe. They also explore issues of European integration and the transnational dimension of culture in Europe today, and examine how regional ethnologies can play a crucial part in forming a wider 'European ethnology' as local participants have experience of combining identities within larger regions or nations.

Contents: From national to transnational: a discipline en route to Europe, Máiréad Nic Crath; From CIAP to SIEF: visions for a discipline or power struggle?, Bjarne Rogan; Small national ethnologies and supranational empires: the case of the Habsburg monarchy, Bojan Baskar; How large are the issues for small ethnographies? Bulgarian ethnology facing the new Europe, Galia Valtchinova; Challenges to the discipline: Lithuanian ethnology between scholarship and identity politics, Vytis Ciubrinskas; When is small beautiful? The transformations of Swedish ethnology, Orvar Löfgren; The hybridity of minorities: a case-study of Sorb cultural research, Elka Tschernokoshewa; Turning the world upside down: towards a European ethnology in (and of) England, Ullrich Kockel; Ethnology in the North of Ireland, Anthony D. Buckley; Index.

Máiréad Nic Craith is Professor of European Culture and Society at the Academy for Irish Culture Heritages, University of Ulster, UK. Ullrich Kockel is Professor of Ethnology and Folklife at the Academy for Irish Cultural Heritages, University of Ulster, UK. Reinhard Johler is based at Eberhard-Karls University of Tuebingen, Germany.