Eastern European Studies

This dissertation examines global, regional, state-, group-, and person-level processes involved in the growth of the movement formed around the constructed international language Esperanto. The Esperanto movement emerged in the global arena in the late nineteenth century as a response to inequalities in the nation-state field. In the course of several decades, the movement established a new global field based on the logic of equal communication through Esperanto and on the accumulation of cultural capital. While the field gained autonomy from the nation-state field, it has not been recognized as its equal. Persons endowed with cultural capital but lacking political and economic capital have been particularly drawn to Esperanto. Ironically, while attempting to overcome established unfair distinctions based on differential accumulation of political and economic capital, the Esperanto movement creates and maintains new distinctions and inequalities based on cultural capital accumulation.
At the regional level, the Esperanto movement became prominent in state-socialist Eastern Europe in the second half of the twentieth century. The movement found unexpected allies among independent states in the Eastern European periphery. The growth of the Esperanto movement as the modal movement in the region coincides with the institutionalization of a unique form of civility favoring comprehensive socio-cultural development and the fellowship principle. According to Eastern European civility, the familiar distinctions between the international and the domestic arenas, between the cultural and the political domains, and between the public and the private spheres taken for granted in the West become blurred. The organizational forms the Esperanto movement developed, its practices, and its grounding in three universalist discursive fields−world culture, Marxism, and fellowship−served as institutional carriers of Eastern European civility. The institutionalization of the hybrid Eastern European civility can explain the puzzling case of the Bulgarian transition to democracy. While the country lacked a Western-type civil society and a history of anti-communist contention, it still managed to establish a peaceful and stable democracy.
These findings are based on historical and comparative process tracing involving five independent data sources: original archival research, interviews, and participant observation, and available survey and organizational data.

The symposium will be divided into two interrelated panels: (1) The rule of law and the role of law. The practical and conceptual challenges of the policies for Roma raised by the phenomenon of Roma westward migration: between political local context and legal European dimension. (2) Roma westward migration 'from the inside'. Addressing the ethno-anthropological research gap through the theories of migration. 

The first one aims at promoting a critical reflection and debate around the political and legal context of Romani migration within the EU, both in terms of inclusive and restrictive policies.

The second panel aims at bringing together papers stemming from anthropological studies centered in the internal dynamics of Roma migrant communities, also in comparison with non-Roma groups.

Dostępność funduszy pomocowych Unii Europejskiej ułatwia prowadzenie inwestycji w infrastrukturę turystyczną oraz utrzymanie i rozwój atrakcji turystycznych na poziomie zarówno regionalnym, jak i lokalnym. Zainteresowanie funduszami pomocowymi przez sektor prywatny i publiczny jest jednak ciągle niższe od oczekiwanego ze względu na liczne bariery aplikacyjne. W artykule przedstawiono wyniki badań, których celem była identyfikacja oraz gradacja barier aplikacji o fundusze UE. W badaniu, które przeprowadzono w 31 celowo dobranych gminach województw zachodniopomorskiego i lubuskiego, zapytano przedstawicieli gmin oraz przedsiębiorców turystycznych o najważniejsze bariery aplikacji o środki UE. W grupie przedstawicieli gmin za najistotniejsze uznano: konieczność zapewnienia wkładu własnego, biurokrację oraz procedury związane z refundowalnością wydatków (zapewnieniem płynności finansowej projektu). W grupie przedsiębiorców najistotniejsze bariery to: skomplikowana procedura, konieczność zapewnienia wkładu własnego i brak odpowiednio przygotowanej kadry. W artykule policzono również współczynnik korelacji rang Spearmana w celu zbadania korelacji pomiędzy wskazaniami obu grup. Wynik -0,06 można zinterpretować jako brak korelacji pomiędzy wskazaniami obu grup.

The paper presents results of the survey conducted among both representatives of communes and tourism industry entrepreneurs. The aim of the survey was identification of potential barriers to application for EU funds in the field of tourism. Paper shows that potential barriers among those two groups are not correlated. Public administration stresses the problem of a cash flow and bureaucracy while entrepreneurs underline the paucity of qualified human resources and complicated procedures. Both groups agree only that the necessity of assuring own share in the project hinders seriously the application process for EU tourism funds.

Ethnic inter-mingling has been related to class-based inequalities and is significant to the differences among socio-economic status, income, and education attainment in Croatia. This research attempts to show how class-based hierarches negatively effect perceptions of discrimination in Croatia. The purpose of this paper was to address class-based inequalities and group-based social hierarchies in Croatia, which may suggest differences between socio-economic status, income, and education attainment in Croatia. The following study analyzed data of the phenomena of perceived discrimination in Croatia using 18 items created by the research team about perceived experiences of discrimination in public places. A total of 253 students from the University of Zagreb in Croatia responded to an online and paper survey about their experiences of discrimination. Data is being analyzed and the implications of the results with regards to the role of class differences; income and educational level will be discussed.

Many theoretical and practical works aim at describing the spatial structure of Europe, where spatial relations have undergone continuous
change. The article gives an overview of models describing the spatial structure of Europe. The models’ diversity is highlighted, without
any claim to the completeness of the list of models discussed. The authors describe the economic spatial structure of Europe through
bidimensional regression analysis based on a gravity model. With the help of the gravity model, they generate a spatial image of the
economic spatial structure of Europe. With the images, the appropriateness of the models based on different methodological backgrounds
can be justified through comparison with the authors’ results. The authors aim to contribute to understanding the European economic
spatial structure through a new methodological approach, rather than to create and show a new model that overwrites existing ones.

Honnan ered az a fogalom, hogy ,,Kelet"-Európa? Mikor, hogyan használták és mit értettek ez alatt a huszadik század folyamán? Van-e még értelme Kelet-Európáról beszélni és Kelet-Európa történetéről írni a hidegháború utáni egyesülő Európában? Kelet-Európa korántsem stabil, sőt állandóan változó földrajzi elnevezés. Minden tudományos vagy politikai közösség másképp értelmezi, és a földrajzi meghatározás mögött nem csak szakmai, hanem (ön)legitimációs törekvések és emocionális érvek állnak. Miközben Nyugaton egyszerű szakmai evidencia, a mai ,,kelet-európaiak" számára Kelet-Európa történeti és erkölcsi stigmának számít. Ezzel is magyarázható az a paradoxon, hogy minden fontosabb nyugati egyetemen működik egy kelet-európai tanulmányok központja - ezzel is elismerve a régió létjogosultságát, miközben a volt szovjet tömb országaiban feledésbe merül a régió sajátos 1944 és 1990 közötti ,,sorsközössége". Jelen kötet egy összehasonlító szemléletű, problémaközpontú szintézis Kelet-Európa jelenkori történelméről, amely igyekszik az általános kronologikus összefoglalást tematikus megközelítéssel vegyíteni, középpontba állítva az egyes országok gazdasági és társadalmi fejlődését. Csak egy ,,totális" igényű megközelítéssel magyarázható az utóbbi évtizedek legfontosabb tanulsága: miért csökken, anélkül hogy eltűnne, a ,,szürkezónákat" a Nyugattól elválasztó politikai és gazdasági távolság. Anélkül, hogy teljes mértékben elfogadnánk azt az ,,orientalizmus-kritikát", amely úgy tekint a mai Kelet-Európára mint a szívtelen nyugati kapitalizmus gyarmatára, el kell ismernünk, hogy valamilyen szinten ,,Kelet"-Európa továbbra is létező fogalom, mivel az utóbbi 25 évben sem csökkentek számottevően a ,,két" Európát keresztülmetsző társadalmi egyenlőtlenségek. A szerző kritikai összefoglalója annyit tesz, hogy az olvasó elé tárja azokat a leülepedett ,,emlékezetrétegeket", amelyek ma is összetartják ezt a régiót, és megnehezítik a Nyugathoz való várva várt felzárkózást.
Ezt a könyvet 2010-ben írtam és elsősorban olasz szakmai közönségnek szántam. Empatikus, de alapvetően külső szemlélői pozíciót vett em fel, amit az átdolgozott magyar kiadásban is igyekeztem megőrizni. Sokat tűnődtem azon, mit kezdhet egy magyar olvasó egy nem kifejezett en magyar szempontú régió történett el, amely nem Magyarországból kiindulva tekint a régióra, hanem az egész régiót foglalkoztató általános kérdéseken keresztül elemzi
Magyarország helyzetét. A felhasznált források nagyobbik része a kurrens nemzetközi szakirodalomból ered, kisebb mértékben az általam jobban ismert olasz, magyar és román történetírók, elemzők munkájából merítettem. Ezt tudatosan tett em, és vállalom a döntésemmel kapcsolatos kritikákat. Szerettem volna szembesíteni a gyakran befelé forduló magyar szakmát azzal, hogy másutt és más nyelven is jelennek meg olvasásra, továbbgondolásra érdemes művek; azt kívántam érzékeltetni a magyar olvasóval, hogy ez az ország nem „önmagáért” létezik, hanem a kelet-európai régió szerves része,
sőt egy igen bonyolult, állandóan változó és gyakran ellentmondásos, tágabb globális viszonyrendszerben mozog.

The main hypothesis of the dissertation project is that in order to exist Central-Eastern-European artistic subcultures needed specific venues. These spaces were part of a parallel culture, which was located on the borderline of official and underground phenomena. On the one hand nonconformist artists and artist communities used available spaces creatively, on the other hand interventions generated alternative places that largely eluded the communist regime’s control. I am very much interested in performative and (inter)medial actions within spaces of the Hungarian unofficial art scene and how these spaces are linked to each other in the form of an (invisible) network. To understand and to reconstruct the network of the “second public sphere” in Hungary of the late 1960s until the end of the 1980s, I will have a closer look on the information channels, media and other communication mechanisms that characterized the so called underground. To conclude my research it is also indispensable to ask for the presence and legitimation of artistic countercultures in the XXI. century.
The aim of my research is to develop an adequate definition of the “second public sphere” for the Hungarian Neo-Avant-Garde from performance and media studies point of view. And therefore it is extremely important to use theoretical tools that have their origin in the geopolitical region and time under consideration here. (In my presentation I will elaborate on the distinction between e.g. public sphere-theories of the “West” and the “East” in detail.) It is also crucial to reflect on the practical side of parallel culture’s art too (oral history, dialogue with artists) and the reliability of sources such as secret service files.

As well as promoting debates about liberal democracy, the dramatic events of 1989 also bought forth a powerful revival in the interest of the notion of civil society. This revival was reflected mainly in two broad tracts of literature. The first focused primarily on events surrounding the Solidarity movement in Poland and the tumultuous events of 1980-81. The second was concerned with the Velvet Revolutions more broadly. Following the events of 1989, there appeared a number of works sharing the common central argument that civil society played a key role in the overthrow of these Communist regimes in 1989.

Matt Killingsworth's book presents three broad arguments, all of which reject the way civil society has been applied in the analysis of opposition and dissent in totalitarian Czechoslovakia, the GDR and Poland.

First, it argues that the totalitarian nature of Soviet-type regimes means that it was not possible for a genuine civil society to exist. Second, the civil society paradigm, as it has been applied to opposition and dissent in Soviet-type regimes in Eastern Europe, lacks analytical rigour. Third, the book argues that the dominant liberal interpretation of dissenting opposition in Soviet-type regimes is both politically and morally flawed.

The internal displacement situation in Ukraine is constantly changing due to the fast evolving nature of the conflict in the east. What started as trickle of displaced people moving from Crimea during the spring, by June had turned into a veritable flood when the Ukrainian government stepped up its military operations against the pro-Russia separatists.
30.09.2014
This article, and updated version of a post of the same title on the IDMC website - http://www.internal-displacement.org/blog/2014/divided-and-displaced-in-ukraine-two-groups-facing-two-different-futures - was originally published in German in the Laender-Analysen journal - http://www.laender-analysen.de/index.php?topic=ukraine&url=../ukraine/archiv.html

Die Flüchtlingssituation in der Ukraine verändert sich wegen der schnellen Entwicklung des Konflikts im Osten ständig. Was im Frühjahr mit den von der Krim flüchtenden Menschen als kleines Rinnsal begann, hat sich in eine veritable Flut verwandelt, als die ukrainische Regierung ihre Militäraktionen gegen die prorussischen Separatisten verstärkte.
30.09.2014
Link to full journal issue: http://www.laender-analysen.de/ukraine/pdf/UkraineAnalysen137.pdf

This article argues for a reconsideration of Adorno’s “The Meaning of Working through the Past” in light of recent scholarship on Germany and Eastern Europe in World War II, including Timothy Snyder’s Bloodlands. Adorno’s influential essay is shown to be marked by the spatial politics of the Cold War. A redefinition of the “spatial turn” through Luhmann’s sociology is proposed; space may be understood as a form of historical and cultural semantics. The place of space in Adorno’s other work is discussed. Respecifying Adorno’s model of memory helps re-specify recent tendencies to its global generalization

Over the past 10 years, the liberalization of financial sectors in both emerging and developed economies has led to a corresponding increase in cross-border lending to heights never before seen in the world economy. Cross-border lending saw growth across all emerging markets, being a particularly important key source of capital for firms in Central, Eastern, and Southern Europe (CESE) that were acceding to the EU or in talks to accede. However, this rebound in cross-border lending has been threatened of late by both market turmoil and, perhaps more seriously, by new regulatory proposals. Is there another round of credit tightening in store for CESE countries? How will current regulatory proposals related to cross-border lending affect the business of banking? “Receding Tide or Gathering Tsunami? Cross-Border Lending in Emerging Europe” tackles these questions. The study examines recent trends in cross-border lending in the CESE countries and traces the effects of proposed regulations on lending in the region. While the CESE countries saw cross-border lending cushion the blow of the financial crisis, and even saw lending start to pick-up again in 2009, 2011 and 2012 were not kind to cross-border flows.

But how much of this change was due to the fundamentals? This report finds that: 

• The ongoing Eurozone crisis has shown once again the sensitivity of cross-border lending to broader macroeconomic trends;
• Riskiness across the CESE region is widely dispersed, with incredibly stable markets such as Poland competing with increasingly volatile markets such as Hungary;
• Regulations increasing capital surcharges has led to deleveraging of assets in the CESE countries, decreasing further credit available;
• The series of new regulations coming from Western Europe is increasingly uncoordinated with supra-national (i.e., EU and Basel) conventions, and they are all attempting to act on similar types of risks through broad instruments;
• The higher the levels of financial liberalization in a particular CESE country, the higher the levels of credit and foreign bank claims – and correspondingly deeper capital markets.

Given these results, IEMS concludes that more financial liberalization will help the CESE countries to weather future financial shocks. Moreover, if current trends continue to focus on eliminating most forms of risk, regulations might just force a reallocation of risk appetite from Austrian and Italian banks to Polish and Russian ones.

Prezentowany artykuł stanowi próbę oceny polityki zagranicznej III Rzeczpospolitej. W tym celu
autor dokonuje porównania z istniejącą przeszło siedemdziesiąt lat wcześniej, poprzedniczką obecnego państwa
polskiego – II Rzeczpospolitą. Takie podejście badawcze wynika z funkcjonowania w okresie międzywojennym
idei prometejskiej,  która  oddziaływała na politykę  zagraniczną  względem  Związku  Radzieckiego. Analizowane
obecne relacje  III  Rzeczpospolitej  z  sąsiadami  na  wschodzie  wydają  się  więc  tym  bardziej  ciekawe,  gdy
spojrzymy na nie pod kątem ciągłości i odwołań do okresu wcześniejszego. W tym celu autor porusza wybrane
wydarzenia  z  okresu  1990-2008. Wyszczególnione  w  poniższym  artykule  zostały:  „polityka  dwutorowości”,
„Pomarańczowa Rewolucja” a  także działania prezydenta  Polski Lecha Kaczyńskiego podczas  wojny rosyjskogruzińskiej (sierpień 2008 r.). Na koniec zaś znalazło się odniesienie do wciąż nierozstrzygniętego sporu o polską
politykę zagraniczną: czy jest ona ucieleśnieniem „Polski Piastowskiej” czy też „Jagiellońskiej”.