At the end of August 2025, the Faculty of Humanities will host a conference on the impact of depopulation in Europe. It will focus on how the depopulation of peripheral rural areas and urban centres affects cultural and natural heritage in the broadest sense, as well as the relationship between humans and nature. We are accepting proposals for papers on various aspects of depopulation in both urban and rural areas, focusing on cultural heritage, cultural transmission, relationship to place, memory, demographic anxiety or the effects of demographic change on local communities.
Date: 27. - 29. 8. 2025
Conference venue: Faculty of Humanities, Charles University, Pátkova 2137/5, 182 00, Prague 8 - Libeň
Keynote speakers:
Associate Professor in the Anthropology of Migration,
School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography
Professor of Public Folklore,
Institute for Northern Studies
Professor of Creative Ethnology,
Institute for Northern Studies,
Submission of abstracts:
Please send abstracts of papers (max. 300 words), together with contact details and your brief professional profile, to herindep@gmail.com
The deadline for abstract submission has been extended to 28 February 2025.
You will be notified of the acceptance of your paper by 16 March 2025.
Roundtable Challenges of depopulation for Europe's regions: defining the field
As part of the Heritage and depopulation in Europe conference we plan to organize a round table Challenges of depopulation for Europe's regions for representatives of local governments, policymakers, representatives of non-profit organizations, memory and cultural institutions and other local actors from the Czech Republic, Lithuania and the Shetland Islands, focused on the practical consequences of depopulation in the regions, especially in relation to cultural heritage. The roundtable will address the issue of depopulation in Europe, with a particular focus on heritage.
By depopulation we mean population decline in certain countries or regions. Depopulation occurs because of economic and political processes (e.g. the outflow of people from Eastern Europe after 1989), conflicts and political upheavals (displacement/expulsion of populations in Central Europe after World War II), or because of urbanization and globalization, when young and educated people leave peripheral areas for urban centres. Consequences of these processes are the population ageing, the deterioration of infrastructure (roads, schools, quality of health care), the changing relationship between man and landscape, but also the threat to cultural heritage. By heritage we mean in a broader sense everything that local communities consider to be meaningful and "lived", to be a value with historical continuity, and to be something that should be passed on to future generations. Heritage in this sense can be both material (house, church, fortress) and intangible (knowledge, craft, technology), but heritage can also be landscape, or a specific relationship between man and nature. However, "heritage" can also be considered a relationship to a place, the memory of a place or landscape, or the values, knowledge, ways of life of minority or non-dominant groups. The aim of the round table is to bring together actors from regions that are struggling with the impacts of demographic change, to formulate the topics and problems they encounter, and to enable them to share possible solutions and examples of good practice. Maybe they are dealing with similar problems as you are elsewhere. Maybe it's possible to be inspired somewhere, or to inspire someone...
The round table will provide interpreting between Czech and English.
If you consider taking part in the roundtable, please fill in the questionnaire at this link no later than 3 March 2025.
Roudtabe Challenges of depopulation for Europe´s regions
A detailed conference programme is being prepared and will be annouced as soon as possible.
In the case of any questions, please .
