Torsello, Davide - Pappová, Melinda: Social Networks in Movement. Time, interaction and interethnic spaces in Central Eastern Europe - Nostra Tempora 8. (Somorja-Dunaszerdahely, 2003)

Appedixes

Research on the ethnic problematic 287

differentiation. In addition, our aim was to clarify some of the sources of tension and reciprocal recrimination as well as to understand the extent of tolerance, not only towards the majority of the population. With regard to the revival of a movement to acknowledge Ruthenians as an independent nation, which in the last decade has been shown not to have a merely episodic character, it is very important to understand the present relations and trends inside the ethnic group. The results of the study were published in an independent monograph (Gajdoš et al 2001).

The German minority

Another independent grant project of the Institute is the "German minority in Slovakia after 1918, reflex of the geopolitical, economic and social changes in the historical memory of its members”. Although there was no precedent in the Institute for such a project, we achieved interesting results also in this historically orientated subject (Olejnik 1996, 1998, 1999; Gabzdilová 1999b).

Despite having an insufficient number of research assistants, the Institute continues to participate in numerous research projects.16 Our library is also not sufficiently supplied: it lacks both a documentation and an editing centre. Only one or two researchers can be assigned to the study of one minority group. A broader interdisciplinary aspect is missing, too. Under the present conditions, opportunities to increase the number of research staff - for example, by sociologists, anthropologists, demographists, specialists on political geography, linguists, philosophers or economists - remains, unfortunately, only an illusion.

The Institute must seek to win new research members beyond state budget possibilities. As a state institution, the Institute’s possibilities to apply for grants from groups from the third sector (i.e. foundations), which provide support principally to non-governmental organisations, are limited. In spite of this situation, we remain optimistic about the future