Domsa Károlyné, Fekete Gézáné, Kovács Mária (szerk.): Gondolatok a könyvtárban / Thoughts in the Library (A MTAK közleményei 30. Budapest, 1992)
KÖNYVTÁR ÉS KORSZERŰSÉG – LIBRARY AND MODERNITY
L. Kiuzadjan cases of activities in which very strong national teams have participated it has rarely been possible to come to sufficiently well-founded explanations and generalisations. So, for a certain period, the Centre had a monopoly on East-West social science relations. It was an institution with an ambitious task: to do independent comparative research on the very thing that divided the two political systems. This constrained the type and quality of the research, and it is a lesson which has to be learnt by everyone in cross-national comparative research: How to avoid the Lowest Common Denominator Syndrome? Hopefully, this more overtly political function of the Centre has now come to an end. In the same way, the Centre's unique position in the domain of East-West comparative research has been overtaken by events beyond anybody's control. Regarding the past and future of the Vienna Centre, let us refer to Mrs. Francine Fournier, Assistant Director General for Social and Human Sciences of UNESCO, who, in her address to the recent meeting of the Vienna Centre's Board of Directors, found that, on account of the considerable achievements made by the Vienna Centre during the nearly three decades of its existence in the fields of comparative research, data collection and establishing networks of institutions and individual scholars, it seemed to be particularly pertinent to encourage and enforce this work, it being understood that the Vienna Centre must adjust itself to the new situation in Europe. Indeed, there is an opportunity to restructure the Centre, and to make use of its cumulative knowledge and experience of East-West relations. The creation of what has become known as the Vienna Centre was a true and useful experiment which must nowadays be transformed in a proper way into a modern international non-governmental institution, not only facilitating and coordinating scientific cooperation within Europe but also contributing to the complicated processes of shaping the newly unified Old Continent. One experience out of several can illustrate this potential for development. The first twenty years of the Centre's existence were dominated by its East-West role. In the eighties, however, the Centre began to deal with the North-South axis, establishing a research programme on the Mediterranean countries and those bordering the Black Sea. This has been supplemented by subsequent work in this region, broadening the geographical and thematic scope of the Centre's work and extending the participation of the southern Mediterranean countries. The incorporation of this North-South aspect may be regarded as an important step away from traditional paradigms, towards a truly European outlook. Last year's changes throughout Europe require a comparable reassessment of conventional political and scientific concepts; we essentially need a new framework which grasps the fact that international relations have changed. This way of thinking prompts two important questions: What did the Centre achieve during these past years? What makes the Centre still worthwhile, even in today's Europe? 152 Thoughts in the library "
