Stamps of Czechoslovakia (1983–1992) and Slovak and Czech Republics (1993–2002): juxtaposing fragmentation and integration theory

ABSTRACT

Geographers, political scientists and historians have used stamps to study how states present themselves to their own residents and those beyond. Stamps represent visual products of a state’s identity. An additional perspective on the topics and themes of stamp issues is observed in new states, especially those that were previously part of another state. We examine here the last decade of issues of Czechoslovakia and the first decade of the new states: the Czech and Slovak Republics. While some common themes about art, nature and history were depicted on the Czechoslovakia issues, the two new states followed different paths, especially in regard to presenting their unique culture and history. We explore these changes in light of fragmentation and integration theories, a useful framework for exploring those emerging similar and different stamps of formerly united and now new states.

KEYWORDS:

• Stamp issues
• visual representation
• new states

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all reviewers for constructive and incentive guidelines that improve scientific validity of this paper. We want to thank especially Mgr. Martin Vančo, PhD, from POFIS for his professional advice on the issue of postage stamps and Dick and Donna Gilbreath for preparing the graphics. This research was supported by the scientific project KEGA 011PU-4/2017 ‘Integration of teaching and the increase of content coherence of related disciplines’ of the specialized module ‘Regional Development and Regional Policy’ and scientific project VEGA 1/0077/17 ‘Political-spatial structure of the state in conditions of globalization’.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Kultúrna a Edukacná Grantová Agentúra MŠVVaŠ SR (KEGA 011PU-4/2017) and Vedecká Grantová Agentúra MŠVVaŠ SR a SAV (VEGA 1/0077/17).