This panel will be devoted to the meaning of 1989 in attempts to research future. What predictions or developmental tendencies were addressed by the study of the future (“prognostics” or “futurology”) in the 1970s and 1980s? How did they react to the events of 1989 and what conclusions and predictions did they draw? What influence did 1989 have on the legitimacy of social-scientific expertise in studying the future of socialism, capitalism, and the region of Central and Eastern Europe? How was the future conceptualized after the fall of the “Eastern bloc,” which according to one influential interpretation was supposed to herald the “end of history”?

Keynote speakers: Jenny Andersson, Dieter Segert
Interventions: Pavel Barša, Vítězslav Sommer, Balázs Trenscényi