The conference “Urban Memory. The City and Its Inhabitants in the 20th century”. ****************************************************************************************** * Alexandra Bitušíková ****************************************************************************************** The conference "Urban Memory. The City and Its Inhabitants in the 20th century". 6th-7th November 2008, Brno, Czech Republic. The team of researchers from the Institute of Ethnology of the Academy of Sciences of the based in Brno together with their colleagues from the Moravian Museum, Archives of the Cit Institute of History of the Faculty of Arts at the Masaryk University in Brno organized a Memory: The City and Its Inhabitants in the 20th century." The event took place on the 6th 2008 in the heart of Moravia, Brno, in the wonderful Dietrichstein Palace, one of the seat Museum. The aim of the conference was to bring together scholars from different disciplines who st phenomenon of urban memory and issues related to it such as identity forming, collective m urban spaces; and urban images and symbols. More than eighty participants, mainly ethnolog anthropologists, historians, sociologists and other social scientists from Czech Republic contributed to the success of the conference with their presentations or remarks and comme Twenty six papers and intense discussions in just two days made everyone "awake" and activ chairs were very strict in keeping the time available for each speaker. This approach is n appreciated by the presenters themselves, but it is crucial if the space for the discussio protected. The organizers divided the program thematically in several sessions. The first two session to "The transformations of the city in the 20th century." Katarina Popelková andJuraj Zajo Institute of Ethnology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava presented two case Slovak city of Nitra in the inter-war period. In addition to the empirically-based researc challenged the methodology of exploring identity and memory of the city in the historic pe only be seen and studied as a reconstruction. Elena Kurincová of the Slovak National Museu presented a fascinating life story of a "Bratislavan" born at the beginning of the 20th ce multiple naturalization processes in one city and several political and state regimes. Iva the Department of Ethnology of the Faculty of Arts at Charles University in Prague took us 1948 and post-1989 city of Tachov and its dramatic re-emigration history. Daniel Luther of Ethnology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava introduced the development of di transformation of urban spaces in Bratislava in relation to urban memory of its inhabitant and Petr Szczepanik of the Department of Film Studies and Audiovisual Culture of the Masar Brno presented an innovative project on the film and cinema culture in Brno before 1945. The third session was focused on "Looking for identity and urban memory". Daniel Drápala o of European Ethnology of the Faculty of Arts at the Masaryk University in Brno;Alexandra B Research Institute of Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia; Petra Košlíková o of Historic and Anthropological Sciences of the Faculty of Arts at the West Bohemian Unive and Ladislav Lenovský of the Faculty of Arts at the Constantin Philosopher University in N different perspectives of the memory and identity forming in Czech and Slovak cities of Ro Bystrica, Plzeň and Piešťany. "Collective memory and the city" was the theme of the fourth and last session of the first Monika Vrzgulová of the Institute of Ethnology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratis session with a new and interesting topic on the memory of the generation of the "sweet six of Trenčín. Peter Salner of the same institute analyzed and challenged the concept of soci using the example of (not only) the Jewish community. Katarína Koštialová of the Research Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica devoted her contribution to the impact of the soci group of railway workers in Zvolen on city identity and memory forming. Helena Bočkováof t Slavic Studies of the Faculty of Arts at the Masaryk University in Brno analyzed the role traditions in the Czech national identity building in Brno. The busy first day culminated with a pleasant and friendly networking social dinner, fille atmosphere and nice Moravian food and wine, and accompanied by lovely music presented by t Bezobratři. The second working day continued with two sessions on "Urban spaces and memory." Michaela the Institute of Ethnology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava presented a pap as a means of legitimization of regimes on the example of the city of Nové Zámky. Jolana D the Research Institute of Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica talked about identity an reconstruction in two former mining cities of Central Slovakia - Banská Bystrica and Bansk Jarmila Čermáková of the Archives of the City of Brno presented celebrations of the 28th o in the course of history, and Martin Pelc of the Institute of History at the Salesian Univ showed and analyzed the images of the city of Opava and its parks. Martin Juřica of the Ar City of Ostrava presented the changes of one street in Ostrava. Slavomíra Ferenčuhová of t Social Sciences of Masaryk University in Brno brought a sociological perspective on the pl urban planning in Brno in the context of the European development. Jana Vitvarová of Depar and Anthropological Sciences of the Faculty of Arts at West Bohemian University in Plzeň d to the topic of "danger" in urban memory in Plzeň. Ondřej Daniel of the Multicultural Centre in Prague opened the last session with his intro web portal European city. Andrea Zobačová of the Institute of Ethnology of the Academy of Czech Republic based in Brno continued with the contribution dedicated to the memory of th Karel Fojtík and his studies of working class dwellings in Brno. Stanislav Brouček of the Ethnology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic in Prague brought us to the wor diaspora living in an urban environment abroad. Jakub Machek of the Institute of Economic History of the Faculty of Arts of Charles University in Prague introduced the historic mem the Prague newspaper from the turn of the 20th century. The conference opened an interdisciplinary dialogue and revealed a number of theoretical p the study of urban memory. All presenters have been encouraged to publish their contributi publications. We can only hope that we will have an opportunity to read the majority of th Alexandra Bitušíková [ URL "LM-110.html "]