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Peer
Review Publication
6th CEU Conference in Social
Sciences
“Social Science Perspectives on Global Transformations and Social Change”
16-18 April, 2010
Central European University
Budapest, Hungary
“Social Science Perspectives on Global Transformations and Social Change”
16-18 April, 2010
Central European University
Budapest, Hungary
We encourage graduate students and young faculty to apply
with papers to one of the following panels. Applications consist of the
paper abstract (max. 250 words) and a short CV/resume (max. 2 pages) to
be sent directly to the panel chair (e-mail address is provided in brackets).
Deadline for paper applications: March 1, 2010. Results
are available after March 4. However, applications may end earlier, as soon
as the panel chairs are satisfied with the composition of their panels.
Panel 1: Politics 2.0: Politics and Political Science in the Information Age
Chair: Dylan Kissane (dylan.kissane@laposte.net)
Just as the internet has transformed the worlds of information and communication so to is the internet changing the political world. Whether employed as a driver for funding a Presidential race, a low cost media machine for fringe groups, a space for bringing supporters together or even when harnessed as a tool of political propaganda, the Internet is changing the way politics is practiced and, as a result, having a marked impact on what political scientists choose to focus their research upon. This panel is intended to draw together some of the cutting edge research on the impact of the internet generally and Web 2.0 more specifically on national and international politics. The panel will also welcome papers commenting on the impact of the internet and Web 2.0 on the disciplines of political science and international relations. Note: all presenters selected for this panel will be encouraged to submit their papers for review and possible publication in a special issue of the CEU Political Science Journal to be published in December 2010.
Panel 2: Blurry Lenses? Perceptions of the Past after Two Decades
Chair: Marius Stan (marius22stan@yahoo.com)
Central and Eastern European societies have undergone massive changes from the breakdown of communism. Their nowadays populations can be roughly divided in two categories. On the one hand, most of the people experienced the life in both regimes (e.g. communism and post-communism). Studies indicate that their memories are affected ny time, shaped by experiences and environment, and altered by numerous external and internal factors. On the other hand, the youth had no direct contact with the previous regime as they were either born after its fall or spent only the first few years under communist rule. Previous research reveals that stories about the past circulate among generations. Under these circumstances, it is unclear how the communist past is perceived today and a few questions arise: Do people regret/reject the past because they remember it? Is there a generation cleavage in perceiving the past? What factors allow/impede the spread of certain attitudes towards the previous regime? This panel gathers papers that can provide answers to these questions and lay out possible explanations to this process. Both single-case and comparative analytical papers are encouraged. The papers should have solid theoretical grounds, analytical/empirical components, and systematic approach.
Panel 3: Changing boundaries of political membership
Chair: Costica Dumbrava (costica.dumbrava@eui.eu)
Before tackling specific problems related to democratic politics, we need to address fundamental questions about the substance of the demos (who is the demos?). It is intriguing that at the very (historical) roots of democracy- classical Greece, a fine democratic model went hand in hand with gross inequalities and forthright exclusions (e.g. women, metecs). Far from being a malady of the beginning, comparable exclusionary practices continue to characterize democracies to this day. The panel aims at tackling problems related to internal and external boundaries of (democratic) political membership. Unlike more traditional approaches, it proposes to take into account both dimensions of ill-defined boundaries: under-inclusion (foreigners inside), and over-inclusion (members outside).We welcome papers that maintain focus on political membership while addressing various issues, such as: immigration and (non)political incorporation, emigration and external membership, diasporas and co-ethnic citizenship, new geographies of membership (global, post-, trans-, etc.) We encourage approaches that combine theoretical and empirical ‘material’, while employing various methodologies (case studies, comparative studies, historical method, empirically-informative normative analyses, etc.).
Panel 4: Are They Drifting Into Adulthood? Past, present and future of New European Democracies
Chair: Daniela Sirinic (dsirinic@gmail.com)
The aim of this panel is to discuss conceptual issues of democratization and empirical democratic theory. We would welcome proposals that aim to analyse democratic transition, democratic stability or democratic quality of European countries that have recently (guess this is the time frame) embarked on a democratic journey. Specifically, the panel is open to proposals which, through the lens of democratization theory, analyze constitutional and institutional development, party system and individual parties, elections and coalition politics, civil society development and influence, or conditions of successes and failures of new democracies. Furthermore, as a token for the future development of this field, we invite papers from various conceptual and methodological frameworks (such as: structure – and actor oriented, case studies or longitudinal comparative and historical analysis).
Panel 5: Roles, Functions, and Organization of Political Parties in New Democracies
Chairs: Oleksandr Svyetlov (svyetlov@googlemail.com)
Sergiu Gherghina
The first decade of post-communist party politics in Central and Eastern Europe and Former Soviet Union is marked by low voter and elite loyalties, instability of parties, and numerous splits and mergers. Apart from these commonalities, there are country specific paths of development regarding the roles, functions and organization of political parties. With longitudinal and cross-country perspectives this panel considers political parties and party systems and attempts to illustrate the diversity of transformations that took place in the post-communist European politics. We accept both single case studies built on solid theoretical and empirical approaches and implications and comparative perspectives that allow the identification of trends. Some of the questions to be addressed in this panel are: What is the role of Communist legacies and how do they influence the development of post-communist party politics? Are there any ways of breaking with path-dependencies? How do party organizations, their functio ns and roles differ across the region? Do these parties get more dependent on the state or more responsive to the electorate? Thus the panel´s papers will connect past, present and future developments and shed some light on the paths of political system transformation and political parties as its constituents.
Panel 6: Political Participation in a Comparative Perspective
Chair: Gabor Toka (tokag@ceu.hu)
Panel completed, no more applications are accepted.
Panel 7: Social Consequences of Economic Crisis
Chair: Marta Kahancova (perg@ceu.hu)
The world economic crisis of 2008 has been dubbed the worst crisis since the Great Depression, given its almost global scope and impact on a variety of sectors and social groups. But the ways in which the crisis has affected socio-economic landscapes of different countries of the world has in many ways depended on the prior institutional underpinnings of their national systems. This panel invites contributions which explore the ways in which the crisis has revealed the specific strengths or weaknesses of these systems and especially the ways in which it has acted as a catalyst for change in perception, understanding and performance of different institutions. The focus of the panel is on micro-level institutions, especially in the field of labour relations (employment, job stability, restructuring, training provisions etc.) but we also welcome the papers which deal with a more macro-level perspective, especially those analysing the change in welfare or industrial policies.
Panel 8: Economic Nationalism in Europe
Chair: Thomas Fetzer (perg@ceu.hu)
With intensifying economic exchanges and integration of markets across the world, but especially on the European continent, economic nationalism understood in the traditional sense as protectionist state policy has become largely obsolete. This does not, however, mean that states have abandoned all efforts to promote and safeguard national economic interests, but the range of available measures has certainly changed, and their objectives have become less straightforward and sometimes contradictory. At the same time, a variety of non-state actors (trade unions, local businesses and even multinational firms) have been relying on appeals to national interests to safeguard their positions on the international markets. The European states have intertwined their interests very closely by tying them to the common European market, but still remain the biggest competitors as the bulk of imports and exports of these countries still remains within the confines of the EU. The panel welcomes contributions which explore the role of nationalism in the formulation of economic policies of European states; the ways that appeals to the nation structure interaction between producers, consumers and regulators; and the ways in which national or supranational economic interests influence the relations between countries members of EU and between EU and the rest of the world.
Panel 9: Six years after, twelve members more: The impact of the Eastward Enlargements on the Policy-Making Process and Political Dynamics of the EU
Chair: Stefano Braghiroli (stefano.braghiroli@gmail.com)
In less than four years the EU has almost doubled its members. The “return to Europe” of the new member states has originated an intense debate concerning the effectiveness of the EU conditionality and the legacy of the communist past on the political and institutional dynamics of those countries. Enlargement has historically represented a powerful factor of internal change for the EU; however, in the last decade it has been increasingly accompanied by growing skepticism concerning EU's “absorption capacity”. Hence, politicians and scholars have been, once again, confronted with the challenge of reconciling “deepening” with “widening”.This panel concentrates on the last two waves of enlargement which seem to have fundamentally affected not only the size of the EU, but also its nature. The impact of the new membership and of the enlargement process on the functioning of the European engine are still largely unexplored, and often deliberately neglected by the scholarly literature. This panel proposes a comparative perspective and concentrates on a more comprehensive analysis of the changing dynamics within the EU-27 both at systemic and citizenry level, thereby exploring related theoretical and empirical implications. Our aim is to discuss the impact of the Eastward enlargements on the policy-making process and institutional/political dynamics of the EU and its consequences both at supranational and domestic level.
Panel 10: Political Behavior
Chair: Gabor Toka (tokag@ceu.hu)
Panel completed, no more applications are accepted.
Panel 11: Quantitative Research Methodology
Chair: Levente Littvay (littvayl@ceu-budapest.edu)
Panel completed, no more applications are accepted.
Panel 12: Parliaments in Crisis: Why and Where to?
Chair: Irina Ionescu (ionescu_irina2003@yahoo.com)
More and more citizens reject nowadays the very essence of what a Parliament is supposed to do – deliberate and argue between alternatives, make compromises and even keep the status quo if no solution is reasonable. This substantial deficit is paralleled by low levels of citizen trust, fueled by corruption scandals and the attacks of populist, anti-institutional politicians. The phenomenon is particularly affecting young democracies, mostly those from Latin America and Eastern Europe. Many of the presidents of these countries claim a monopoly of representing directly the people, while demonizing the legislative and its dishonest members. Beyond these legitimizing tactics, we believe the roots of the problem are much deeper - going from the connections between individual MPs and business interests financing campaigns, to the parties’ recruitment policies towards prospective legislative candidates. Furthermore, there are the weaknesses that contemporary parliaments face as institutions, given the dominance of governments over the decision-making process – a reality that the new democracies have only recently begun to fully grasp. What is to be done? Should parliaments readapt radically through institutional adjustments - strengthening their committees, so as to sanction quickly any infringement of laws by their members or to involve more actively in policy decisions? Or is it enough to rebuild credibility trough PR strategies? At the same time, the Parliaments as institutions are not loosing alone the game, the parliamentary party organizations share the responsibility, and might have the upper hand in changing the situation. Or, it can be equally argued that the crisis itself has led to questioning quick and (too) short-term oriented governmental decisions, as compared to slower, but better grounded decisions (both technically and enjoying broader political support), which only parliaments can foster. Single case studies and comparative approaches are equally welcomed, as long as they focus on the identified problem and its possible solutions.
The working language of the conference is English. There is no participation fee. Accommodation and meals will be provided for all participants.
General enquiries (not submissions) at: ceuconf2010@yahoo.com
Panel 1: Politics 2.0: Politics and Political Science in the Information Age
Chair: Dylan Kissane (dylan.kissane@laposte.net)
Just as the internet has transformed the worlds of information and communication so to is the internet changing the political world. Whether employed as a driver for funding a Presidential race, a low cost media machine for fringe groups, a space for bringing supporters together or even when harnessed as a tool of political propaganda, the Internet is changing the way politics is practiced and, as a result, having a marked impact on what political scientists choose to focus their research upon. This panel is intended to draw together some of the cutting edge research on the impact of the internet generally and Web 2.0 more specifically on national and international politics. The panel will also welcome papers commenting on the impact of the internet and Web 2.0 on the disciplines of political science and international relations. Note: all presenters selected for this panel will be encouraged to submit their papers for review and possible publication in a special issue of the CEU Political Science Journal to be published in December 2010.
Panel 2: Blurry Lenses? Perceptions of the Past after Two Decades
Chair: Marius Stan (marius22stan@yahoo.com)
Central and Eastern European societies have undergone massive changes from the breakdown of communism. Their nowadays populations can be roughly divided in two categories. On the one hand, most of the people experienced the life in both regimes (e.g. communism and post-communism). Studies indicate that their memories are affected ny time, shaped by experiences and environment, and altered by numerous external and internal factors. On the other hand, the youth had no direct contact with the previous regime as they were either born after its fall or spent only the first few years under communist rule. Previous research reveals that stories about the past circulate among generations. Under these circumstances, it is unclear how the communist past is perceived today and a few questions arise: Do people regret/reject the past because they remember it? Is there a generation cleavage in perceiving the past? What factors allow/impede the spread of certain attitudes towards the previous regime? This panel gathers papers that can provide answers to these questions and lay out possible explanations to this process. Both single-case and comparative analytical papers are encouraged. The papers should have solid theoretical grounds, analytical/empirical components, and systematic approach.
Panel 3: Changing boundaries of political membership
Chair: Costica Dumbrava (costica.dumbrava@eui.eu)
Before tackling specific problems related to democratic politics, we need to address fundamental questions about the substance of the demos (who is the demos?). It is intriguing that at the very (historical) roots of democracy- classical Greece, a fine democratic model went hand in hand with gross inequalities and forthright exclusions (e.g. women, metecs). Far from being a malady of the beginning, comparable exclusionary practices continue to characterize democracies to this day. The panel aims at tackling problems related to internal and external boundaries of (democratic) political membership. Unlike more traditional approaches, it proposes to take into account both dimensions of ill-defined boundaries: under-inclusion (foreigners inside), and over-inclusion (members outside).We welcome papers that maintain focus on political membership while addressing various issues, such as: immigration and (non)political incorporation, emigration and external membership, diasporas and co-ethnic citizenship, new geographies of membership (global, post-, trans-, etc.) We encourage approaches that combine theoretical and empirical ‘material’, while employing various methodologies (case studies, comparative studies, historical method, empirically-informative normative analyses, etc.).
Panel 4: Are They Drifting Into Adulthood? Past, present and future of New European Democracies
Chair: Daniela Sirinic (dsirinic@gmail.com)
The aim of this panel is to discuss conceptual issues of democratization and empirical democratic theory. We would welcome proposals that aim to analyse democratic transition, democratic stability or democratic quality of European countries that have recently (guess this is the time frame) embarked on a democratic journey. Specifically, the panel is open to proposals which, through the lens of democratization theory, analyze constitutional and institutional development, party system and individual parties, elections and coalition politics, civil society development and influence, or conditions of successes and failures of new democracies. Furthermore, as a token for the future development of this field, we invite papers from various conceptual and methodological frameworks (such as: structure – and actor oriented, case studies or longitudinal comparative and historical analysis).
Panel 5: Roles, Functions, and Organization of Political Parties in New Democracies
Chairs: Oleksandr Svyetlov (svyetlov@googlemail.com)
Sergiu Gherghina
The first decade of post-communist party politics in Central and Eastern Europe and Former Soviet Union is marked by low voter and elite loyalties, instability of parties, and numerous splits and mergers. Apart from these commonalities, there are country specific paths of development regarding the roles, functions and organization of political parties. With longitudinal and cross-country perspectives this panel considers political parties and party systems and attempts to illustrate the diversity of transformations that took place in the post-communist European politics. We accept both single case studies built on solid theoretical and empirical approaches and implications and comparative perspectives that allow the identification of trends. Some of the questions to be addressed in this panel are: What is the role of Communist legacies and how do they influence the development of post-communist party politics? Are there any ways of breaking with path-dependencies? How do party organizations, their functio ns and roles differ across the region? Do these parties get more dependent on the state or more responsive to the electorate? Thus the panel´s papers will connect past, present and future developments and shed some light on the paths of political system transformation and political parties as its constituents.
Panel 6: Political Participation in a Comparative Perspective
Chair: Gabor Toka (tokag@ceu.hu)
Panel completed, no more applications are accepted.
Panel 7: Social Consequences of Economic Crisis
Chair: Marta Kahancova (perg@ceu.hu)
The world economic crisis of 2008 has been dubbed the worst crisis since the Great Depression, given its almost global scope and impact on a variety of sectors and social groups. But the ways in which the crisis has affected socio-economic landscapes of different countries of the world has in many ways depended on the prior institutional underpinnings of their national systems. This panel invites contributions which explore the ways in which the crisis has revealed the specific strengths or weaknesses of these systems and especially the ways in which it has acted as a catalyst for change in perception, understanding and performance of different institutions. The focus of the panel is on micro-level institutions, especially in the field of labour relations (employment, job stability, restructuring, training provisions etc.) but we also welcome the papers which deal with a more macro-level perspective, especially those analysing the change in welfare or industrial policies.
Panel 8: Economic Nationalism in Europe
Chair: Thomas Fetzer (perg@ceu.hu)
With intensifying economic exchanges and integration of markets across the world, but especially on the European continent, economic nationalism understood in the traditional sense as protectionist state policy has become largely obsolete. This does not, however, mean that states have abandoned all efforts to promote and safeguard national economic interests, but the range of available measures has certainly changed, and their objectives have become less straightforward and sometimes contradictory. At the same time, a variety of non-state actors (trade unions, local businesses and even multinational firms) have been relying on appeals to national interests to safeguard their positions on the international markets. The European states have intertwined their interests very closely by tying them to the common European market, but still remain the biggest competitors as the bulk of imports and exports of these countries still remains within the confines of the EU. The panel welcomes contributions which explore the role of nationalism in the formulation of economic policies of European states; the ways that appeals to the nation structure interaction between producers, consumers and regulators; and the ways in which national or supranational economic interests influence the relations between countries members of EU and between EU and the rest of the world.
Panel 9: Six years after, twelve members more: The impact of the Eastward Enlargements on the Policy-Making Process and Political Dynamics of the EU
Chair: Stefano Braghiroli (stefano.braghiroli@gmail.com)
In less than four years the EU has almost doubled its members. The “return to Europe” of the new member states has originated an intense debate concerning the effectiveness of the EU conditionality and the legacy of the communist past on the political and institutional dynamics of those countries. Enlargement has historically represented a powerful factor of internal change for the EU; however, in the last decade it has been increasingly accompanied by growing skepticism concerning EU's “absorption capacity”. Hence, politicians and scholars have been, once again, confronted with the challenge of reconciling “deepening” with “widening”.This panel concentrates on the last two waves of enlargement which seem to have fundamentally affected not only the size of the EU, but also its nature. The impact of the new membership and of the enlargement process on the functioning of the European engine are still largely unexplored, and often deliberately neglected by the scholarly literature. This panel proposes a comparative perspective and concentrates on a more comprehensive analysis of the changing dynamics within the EU-27 both at systemic and citizenry level, thereby exploring related theoretical and empirical implications. Our aim is to discuss the impact of the Eastward enlargements on the policy-making process and institutional/political dynamics of the EU and its consequences both at supranational and domestic level.
Panel 10: Political Behavior
Chair: Gabor Toka (tokag@ceu.hu)
Panel completed, no more applications are accepted.
Panel 11: Quantitative Research Methodology
Chair: Levente Littvay (littvayl@ceu-budapest.edu)
Panel completed, no more applications are accepted.
Panel 12: Parliaments in Crisis: Why and Where to?
Chair: Irina Ionescu (ionescu_irina2003@yahoo.com)
More and more citizens reject nowadays the very essence of what a Parliament is supposed to do – deliberate and argue between alternatives, make compromises and even keep the status quo if no solution is reasonable. This substantial deficit is paralleled by low levels of citizen trust, fueled by corruption scandals and the attacks of populist, anti-institutional politicians. The phenomenon is particularly affecting young democracies, mostly those from Latin America and Eastern Europe. Many of the presidents of these countries claim a monopoly of representing directly the people, while demonizing the legislative and its dishonest members. Beyond these legitimizing tactics, we believe the roots of the problem are much deeper - going from the connections between individual MPs and business interests financing campaigns, to the parties’ recruitment policies towards prospective legislative candidates. Furthermore, there are the weaknesses that contemporary parliaments face as institutions, given the dominance of governments over the decision-making process – a reality that the new democracies have only recently begun to fully grasp. What is to be done? Should parliaments readapt radically through institutional adjustments - strengthening their committees, so as to sanction quickly any infringement of laws by their members or to involve more actively in policy decisions? Or is it enough to rebuild credibility trough PR strategies? At the same time, the Parliaments as institutions are not loosing alone the game, the parliamentary party organizations share the responsibility, and might have the upper hand in changing the situation. Or, it can be equally argued that the crisis itself has led to questioning quick and (too) short-term oriented governmental decisions, as compared to slower, but better grounded decisions (both technically and enjoying broader political support), which only parliaments can foster. Single case studies and comparative approaches are equally welcomed, as long as they focus on the identified problem and its possible solutions.
The working language of the conference is English. There is no participation fee. Accommodation and meals will be provided for all participants.
General enquiries (not submissions) at: ceuconf2010@yahoo.com