BASEES Study Group on Contemporary Societies

British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies

About BASEES Study Group on Contemporary Society

Background

This Study Group has its origins in an ESRC-funded seminar series (Trans-National Issues, Local Concerns: Insights from Russia, Central and Eastern Europe and the UK) which ran during 2003-04 with the aim of exploring contemporary social issues in the post-socialist region and related conceptual and methodological concerns.

This Study Group aims to provide a focal point for research concerning contemporary societal trends and social issues evident in the countries of the former Soviet Union (FSU) and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). It is strongly inter-disciplinary in its conception and actively encourages participation from all areas of the social sciences including those engaged in postgraduate study. Furthermore, it places emphasis on the involvement of both practitioner and policymaker audiences.

Key Aims

• To foster research co-operation between social scientists working in UK universities, facilitating the development of joint research projects and publications;
• To enable academics and postgraduates to engage in the exchange of ideas and form close networks, supported by regular conference, seminar and workshop participation; 
• To promote active debate with respect to issues of methodology and research design;
• To consider the changing boundaries and definitions of post-socialism and the value of transnational comparison;
• To support the active exchange between academics, practitioners and policymakers, with particular reference to those working in CEE and the FSU;
• To support and encourage postgraduate work related to contemporary social issues in CEE and the FSU
  

Further information about the group's activities can be obtained from:

Vikki Turbine, University of Glasgow, UK

Svetlana Stephenson, London Metropolitan University, London, UK

Rosie Read, University of Bournemouth, UK

Rebecca Kay, University of Glasgow, UK

Dominique Moran, University of Birmingham, UK

Jonathan Oldfield, University of Glasgow, UK

Workshop Activities

January 2010: details to appear shortly

January 2009: "Exploring the ways in which particular socio-cultural contexts influence the understanding of, and discourse surrounding, social issues such as human rights, well being and welfare", University of Glasgow

January 2008: “The State in Everyday Life: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives”, University of Glasgow

January 2007:   “Wellbeing & Welfare: Theoretical and practical reflections on research practice in the post-socialist countries”, University of Birmingham

Sessions sponsored by the group at the BASEES Annual Conference :

BASEES 2008, 29-31 March, 2008:

The Withdrawing State? Re-thinking Social Security, Welfare and the Privatization of Care After Socialism I
Chair: (tbc)
Rosie Read  (Bournemouth University, UK), ‘Care, Social Security and the Post-Socialist ‘withdrawing state’: New Perspectives’
Tatjana Thelen (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Germany), ‘“Care for the Veterans”. Shifting Provision, Needs and Meanings of Enterprise-Centered Pensioners’ Care in Eastern Germany’
Rebecca Kay (University of Glasgow, UK), ‘Researching Care, Social Security and the ‘withdrawing state’ in a Rural Russian Context’
Discussant: Julie Hemment (University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA)

Political and Social Attitudes in a Changing Russia: Human Trafficking, Prisoners and Youth Crime
Chair: Rebecca Kay (University of Glasgow, UK)
Mary Buckley (Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge), ‘Russian Public Opinion on the Politics of Human Trafficking’
Judith Pallot (Christ Church, University of Oxford, UK), ‘Gender and Penalty in Post-Soviet Russia’
Svetlana Stephenson (London Metropolitan University, UK), ‘Evolution of Violent Street Groups in Russia: 1980s-2000s’

Everyday Agency in Provincial Russia I
Chair: (tbc)
Vikki Turbine (University of Glasgow, UK),  ‘Women’s Experience of Claiming Rights in Contemporary Russia: Empowering or Limiting Agency?’
Francesca Stella (University of Glasgow, UK),   ‘“…they approached them and asked them, are you tema?” Lesbian Sexuality, Visibility and Everyday Space in Ul’ianovsk, Russia’
Sophie Mamattah (Univeristy of Glasgow, UK), ‘The Roles of Space, Place and Agency in Shaping Case Study Research’
Irina Kosterina (REGION Research Centre, Russia), ‘The Transformation of Women’s Networks in Villages of the Ul’ianovsk Region: A Case Study of Young Families’

Everyday Agency in Provincial Russia II
Chair: (tbc)
Evgenia Lik’ianova (REGION Research Centre, Russia), ‘Education Reform: A View from the Provinces’
Natal’ya Goncharova (REGION Research Centre, Russia), ‘Young People’s Everyday Attitudes Towards Food and Body’
Elena Omel’chenko (REGION Research Centre, Russia), ‘Ul’ianovsk Patriotism: Youth Narratives and Civic Participation’

The Nature of Informal Economies in Post-Soviet Russia and Ukraine
Chair: John Round (University of Birmingham, UK)
John Round (University of Birmingham, UK), ‘Everyday Tactics and Spaces of Power: the Role of Informal Economies in Contemporary Ukraine’
Peter Rodgers (University of Aston, UK), ‘Corruption in the Post-Soviet Workplace: the Experiences of Recent Graduates in Post-Soviet Ukraine’
Courtney Dobson  (University of Birmingham, UK), ‘Entrepreneurship in Russia: Exploring Patterns and Problems of its Development in the SME Sector’

Natural Resource Use and Nature-Society Interaction: Russian Debates in Historical Perspective
Chair: (tbc)
Denis Shaw  (University of Birmingham, UK), ‘Nature and Society: Debates among Soviet Geographers in the Late Stalin Period’
Aleksandra Bekasova and Julia Lajus (Institute for the History of Science and Technology, RAS, Russia), ‘Attitudes Towards Russian Natural and Human Resources in Historical Perspectives, C18th – early C20th’
Jonathan Oldfield (University of Glasgow, UK), ‘Russian Intellectual Contributions to the International Environmental Process: UNESCO and the Biosphere Conference of 1968’

Trans-National Issues, Local Concerns and
Meanings of Post-Socialism:
Insights from Russia, Central Eastern Europe and Beyond

Edited by
Moya Flynn
Rebecca Kay
Jonathan Oldfield

This edited collection aims to contribute to current understandings of societal change in the countries of Central Eastern Europe (CEE) and Russia, via a purposeful movement away from the generalised debates associated with ‘transition’ theory and a simultaneous engagement with the complexities of everyday life throughout the region at the local-level. As such, in addition to addressing the problematic nature of a discursive east-west divide, the edited collection brings together a range of academics and practitioners working on specific locally-situated concerns including drug use, HIV/AIDS, health, identity and welfare, as well as issues related to minority ethnic groups. While drawing attention to the salience of a common socialist past, these empirically-rich chapters highlight the importance of moving beyond a simplistic east-west analytical framework in order to acknowledge the multi-faceted societal realities evident within the former socialist countries of CEE and Russia. The origins of this edited collection lie in an ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council, UK) seminar series “Trans-National Approaches to Locally Situated Concerns: Theoretical and Practical Insights from Russia, CEE and the UK”, which ran from October 2003 to October 2004 and comprised five individual workshops and seminars.

This edited collection will be of interest to academics, postgraduates and practitioners interested in exploring the nature and character of social change in former socialist countries of Central Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

Published by University Press of America, 2008
Contact Rebecca Kay (R.Kay@lbss.gla.ac.uk)
for additional information & pre-publication orders

Membership

Membership of the Group is free. If you would like to be placed on the email distribution list, please contact one of the named contact points.   Contact

In order to support the activities of the group, a contribution of £10/year (full-time) and £5 (postgraduate/unwaged) is suggested.  Please contact Maggie Baister (m.baister@lbss.gla.ac.uk) for more details.