Gregor Tomc also known as Grega Tomc (born 3 February 1952) is a
Slovenia
Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, and ...
musician
A musician is a person who composes, conducts, or performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general term used to designate one who follows music as a profession. Musicians include songwriters who w ...
and
activist
Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fr ...
. In the late 1970s and 1980s, he was the founder and member of the Slovenian punk rock band '' Pankrti''.
Biography
Tomc was born in
Ljubljana
Ljubljana (also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center.
During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the a ...
, Slovenia, then part of the
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II, and lasted until 1992, with the breakup of Y ...
. He is the younger half-brother of the columnist and historian
Alenka Puhar
Alenka Puhar (born 4 February 1945) is a Slovenian journalist, author, translator, and historian. In 1982, she wrote a groundbreaking psychohistory-inspired book ''"The Primal Text of Life"'' (in Slovene: ''Prvotno besedilo življenja'') about ...
. Their mother Helena Puhar was a renowned pedagogue and a
partisan
Partisan may refer to:
Military
* Partisan (weapon), a pole weapon
* Partisan (military), paramilitary forces engaged behind the front line
Films
* ''Partisan'' (film), a 2015 Australian film
* '' Hell River'', a 1974 Yugoslavian film also kno ...
veteran from
Kranj
Kranj (, german: Krainburg) is the third-largest city in Slovenia, with a population of 37,941 (2020). It is located approximately northwest of Ljubljana. The centre of the City Municipality of Kranj and of the traditional region of Upper Carniol ...
, who was a grandnephew of the photographer Janez Puhar, inventor of a process for photography on glass.
Tomc spent his high school years in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...
, where he became a fan of
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
and developed an interest in rock'n'roll music. He studied sociology at the
University of Ljubljana
The University of Ljubljana ( sl, Univerza v Ljubljani, , la, Universitas Labacensis), often referred to as UL, is the oldest and largest university in Slovenia. It has approximately 39,000 enrolled students.
History Beginnings
Although certain ...
. In 1977 he founded, together with his friend Pero Lovšin, the punk rock band '' Pankrti''. He wrote almost all the lyrics of the group and for ten years he worked as their unofficial manager. Under the impression of the
Helsinki Accords
The Helsinki Final Act, also known as Helsinki Accords or Helsinki Declaration was the document signed at the closing meeting of the third phase of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE) held in Helsinki, Finland, betwee ...
, he founded the association People for a Free Society in order to promote the notion of personal freedoms in the
socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...
society in Slovenia.
In 1982, he became a researcher in the Institute for Sociology of the University of Ljubljana, where he was the co-worker of the philosopher
Slavoj Žižek
Slavoj Žižek (, ; ; born 21 March 1949) is a Slovenian philosopher, cultural theorist and public intellectual. He is international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London, visiting professor at New ...
. Together with fellow sociologists Frane Adam and Pavle Gantar, he formed a working group within the Institute for the study of contemporary subculture movements in Slovenia and Yugoslavia. He wrote in many Slovenian alternative and critical magazines, such as '' Problemi'', '' Nova revija'' and '' Mladina''. During the Slovenian Spring (1988–1990), Tomc was active in many political and
civil society
Civil society can be understood as the "third sector" of society, distinct from government and business, and including the family and the private sphere.democratization process in Slovenia, most notably the
Committee for the Defence of Human Rights
The Committee for the Defence of Human Rights ( sl, Odbor za varstvo človekovih pravic) was a civil society organization in Slovenia, which functioned during the so-called Slovenian Spring between 1988 and 1990.
It was founded in Ljubljana on 31 ...
. In 1987, he was one of the 16 co-authors of the manifesto called " Contributions for a Slovenian National Program" published in the 57th issue of the journal ''Nova revija''. In 1989, he was among the co-founders of the
Social Democratic Party of Slovenia
The Slovenian Democratic Party ( sl, Slovenska demokratska stranka, SDS), formerly the Social Democratic Party of Slovenia ( sl, Socialdemokratska stranka Slovenije, SDSS), is a conservative political party in Slovenia. It has been described as ...
, but never actively participated in it. In the first free elections in 1990, Tomc unsuccessfully ran for the
Slovenian Parliament
The Slovenian Parliament ( sl, Slovenski parlament) is the informal designation of the general representative body of the Slovenian nation and the legislative body of the Republic of Slovenia.
According to the Constitution of Slovenia, the ge ...
as an independent candidate.
Since the 1990s, he has been working as a lecturer at the
Faculty of Social Sciences
Faculty may refer to:
* Faculty (academic staff), the academic staff of a university (North American usage)
* Faculty (division), a division within a university (usage outside of the United States)
* Faculty (instrument), an instrument or warra ...
of the University of Ljubljana. During all this period, he wrote essays and columns on contemporary political and social issues. Between 2004 and 2008, Tomc was an outspoken critic of the cultural policies of the centre-right Slovenian government led by
Janez Janša
Ivan Janša (; born 17 September 1958), baptized and best known as Janez Janša (), is a Slovenian politician who served three times as a prime minister of Slovenia, a position he had held from 2004 to 2008, from 2012 to 2013, and from 2020 to 2 ...
. He entered active politics during the municipal elections of 2006, when he was elected to the Ljubljana
city council
A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...
Gregor Tomc was, together with Frane Adam, one of the first Slovenian and Yugoslav sociologist to study the phenomena of contemporary social movements, with an emphasis of youth
subcultures
A subculture is a group of people within a culture that differentiates itself from the parent culture to which it belongs, often maintaining some of its founding principles. Subcultures develop their own norms and values regarding cultural, poli ...
. He later turned to the study of
cognitive psychology
Cognitive psychology is the scientific study of mental processes such as attention, language use, memory, perception, problem solving, creativity, and reasoning.
Cognitive psychology originated in the 1960s in a break from behaviorism, which ...
.
Major works
*''Od Poljske do Pol Pota'' ("From
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...
to
Pol Pot
Pol Pot; (born Saloth Sâr;; 19 May 1925 – 15 April 1998) was a Cambodian revolutionary, dictator, and politician who ruled Cambodia as Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea between 1976 and 1979. Ideologically a Marxist–Lenini ...
". Maribor, 1983);
*Druga Slovenija: zgodovina mladinskih gibanj na Slovenskem v 20. stoletju ("The Other Slovenia: History of Youth Movements in the
Slovene Lands
The Slovene lands or Slovenian lands ( sl, Slovenske dežele or in short ) is the historical denomination for the territories in Central and Southern Europe where people primarily spoke Slovene. The Slovene lands were part of the Illyrian provi ...
in the 20th Century". Ljubljana, 1989);
*''Profano : kultura v modernem svetu'' ("Profane : Culture in the Modern World". Ljubljana, 1994);
*''Small Societies in Transition: the Case of Slovenia: Transformation Processes in a Small Post-Socialist Society'' (co-editor with Frane Adam. Ljubljana, 1994);
*''Šesti čut : družbeni svet v kognitivni znanosti'' ("The Sixth Sense: The Social World in Cognitive Science". Ljubljana, 2000);
*''Mentalna mašina : možgani kot organski motor na duševni pogon'' ("Mental Machine: the Brains as an Organic Engine on Mental Fuel". Ljubljana, 2005).
See also
*
Punk rock in Yugoslavia Punk rock in Yugoslavia was the punk subculture of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The most developed scenes across the federation existed in the Socialist Republic of Slovenia, the Adriatic coast of the Socialist Republic of C ...
*
New wave music in Yugoslavia
New wave in Yugoslavia ( sr-Cyrl-Latn, Нови талас, Novi talas; hr, Novi val; sl, Novi val; mk, Нов бран) was the new wave music scene of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. As its counterparts, the British and the Amer ...