CEES Events 2014-15
5 Sep 2014: Roundtable Discussion “Eastern Partnership: Between Russia & the European Union”
Date: Fri 5 Sep 2014
Time: 17:40
Venue: Room 466, Gilbert Scott Building
Presenter: Suvi Salmenniemi, University of Turku, Finland
This roundtable event will take the form of a moderated discussion between leading experts in Russian and European politics. Following the recent signing of Association Agreements with Moldova, Georgia, and Ukraine, speakers will provide informed analysis of current political, social, and economic trends in terms of European integration within the Eastern Partnership countries. Focus will also be placed on the significant role of Russia and the various mechanisms of Russian influence in the region. In light of the current Ukraine crisis, the panel will consider to what extent the EU has ignored or responded to (legitimate?) Russian interests and what should now be done to ensure stability within and across the Eastern Partnership region.
Speakers include:
- Dr András Rácz (Finnish Institution of International Affairs)
- Mr Bruce Pannier (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
- Dr Samuel Greene (Kings College London)
All welcome.
This event is supported by CRCEES and Assessing Accession
For more information please email Ammon.Cheskin@glagsow.ac.uk
17 Sep 2014: The politics of therapeutic consumption: Insights from Russia
Date: Wed 17 Sep 2014
Time: 16:00
Venue: CEES Seminar Room, 8 Lilybank Gardens
Presenter: Suvi Salmenniemi, University of Turku, Finland
This paper discusses the relationship between therapeutic technologies and political resistance. While modes of political governance are subject to increasing pressure globally, manifesting itself in the ‘crisis of democracy’, a sense of political disempowerment and the decline of the influence of ‘old’ social movements, the therapeutic industry of self-help and happiness is proliferating with an accelerating pace not only in the West but also in post-socialist societies and the Global South.
Previous research has suggested that therapeutic technologies depoliticize by promoting individualism, diminishing commitment to social institutions, and encouraging a withdrawal from collective forms of political resistance. This paper suggests that something more complex is afoot here. Drawing on interviews with consumers of self-help technologies in the Russian city of Saratov, the paper suggests that therapeutic technologies may also serve as vehicles of politicization. It argues, first, that therapeutic consumption in Russia is a distinctively communal practice, generating and maintaining social relations and communities rather than simply cultivating individualism. Secondly, it argues that therapeutic technologies and communities can serve as a locus and resource of political critique and engagement. It unravels the different layers and dimensions of politics: the politics of subjectivity with resistance to the normalizing power of therapeutic technologies and the complex negotiation of habitus vis-à-vis the shifting logics of social fields, and the ways in which therapeutic technologies are mobilized to criticize neoliberal capitalism and its conceptions of personhood and the social. The paper concludes by suggesting that we need to problematize the narrow conception of politics and resistance in order to better understand the dynamics of political struggles in contemporary world.
Biography:
Suvi Salmenniemi is Associate of Professor of Sociology at the University of Turku in Finland. She specialises in political sociology, cultural studies, feminist and social theory, sociology of class and inequality and (post)socialism. Her ongoing research is a multi-sited ethnography on therapeutic technologies and the politics of happiness in Finland and Russia. She is the author of Democratization and Gender in Contemporary Russia (2008, Routledge) and the editor of Rethinking Class in Russia (2012, Ashgate). Her work has also appeared in British Journal of Sociology, Sociology, Europe-Asia Studies and International Sociology.
All welcome.
The CEES West Coast Seminar Series is supported by the MacFie Bequest, named after Professor Alec MacFie, Adam Smith Professor of Political Economy at the University from 1945 to 1958.
Enquiries: Ammon.Cheskin@glasgow.ac.uk, +44 (0)141 330 2845
29 Oct 2014: Not without my territory? Pros and cons for territorial and non-territorial protection of minorities (The case of Hungary)
Date: Wed 29 Oct 2014
Time: 16:00
Venue: Room 1103, Adam Smith Building
Presenter: Mate Paksy (Balassi Institute, Hungary)
This Work in Progress seminar critically engages with the work of Karl Renner and Otto Bauer and their theories of a clear “de-territorialization” of minority groups. Under their influence certain contemporary Western scholars suggest that Central European countries like Hungary, Romania or Slovakia should follow them when implementing the territorially blind principle of personality (i.e. looking to groups of individuals, irrespective of location) instead of federal-territorial autonomy.
In my presentation first I will sketch the origins and contexts of Renner and Bauer’s theory that fits within the German-Austrian tradition of the Allgemeine Staatslehre. Many early scholars in this field were originally lawyers. Debates between “non-territorial vs territorial” approaches therefore appear not only in political science, but in legal science, too.
Finally I will discuss the arguments of those scholars who consider territorial autonomy to represent better practise in general and especially suitable for Hungarian minorities in particular. I will conclude that the principle of territoriality will always preserve its priority over the principle of personality. Instead of “de-territorialization”, the social scientist should try to understand that a given territory is not simply a neutral geographical unity, but a particular space where—irrespectively of its ethnical composition—the political community lives.
All welcome.
The CEES Seminar Series is supported by the MacFie Bequest, named after Professor Alec MacFie, Adam Smith Professor of Political Economy at the University from 1945 to 1958.
Enquiries: Ammon.Cheskin@glasgow.ac.uk, +44 (0)141 330 2845
5 Nov 2014: Russia and Crimea: a perspective from below
Date: Wed 5 Nov 2014
Time: 16:00
Venue: Room 407A, Boyd Orr Building
Presenter: Eleanor Knott (London School of Economics)
"In this talk I will discuss the findings and analysis of my current research where I analyse relations between Crimea and Russia from a bottom-up perspective. I will draw on the approach of everyday nationalism to look at the lived experience of this relationship using data collected from fieldwork in Crimea (2012, 2013). In the presentation I will focus on everyday engagement with Russia through the lens of meanings and practices:
- Meanings: What does it mean to be Russian in Crimea?
- Practices: How are Russian policies practised in Crimea?
In terms of meanings, I look at how being Russian is given meaning, experienced and/or subverted. In terms of practices, I will discuss both everyday engagement with Russian citizenship, where none of those I had interviewed had acquired Russian citizenship, and practices of Russia’s Compatriot Policy. I will use this analysis, to gauge the interaction between these meanings and practices with ideas about territorial configuration, politically vis-à-vis Crimea’s relationship with Russia and Ukraine.
The presentation will argue that in the years preceding Crimea’s annexation by Russia in 2014, there was a fractured understanding of what it meant to be Russian, a lack of interest in engaging with Russia as a kin-state, and a lack of secessionist sentiment."
All welcome.
The CEES Seminar Series is supported by the MacFie Bequest, named after Professor Alec MacFie, Adam Smith Professor of Political Economy at the University from 1945 to 1958.
Enquiries: Ammon.Cheskin@glasgow.ac.uk, +44 (0)141 330 2845
12 Nov 2014: Anti-nuclear movements in the Eastern Europe 2006-2013
Date: Wed 12 Nov 2014
Time: 16:00
Venue: CEES Seminar Room, 8 Lilybank Gardens
Presenter: Ekaterina Tarasova (Södertörn University, Sweden)
Since the first half of 2000s the world society has been observing the expansion of national nuclear energy programs in a number of countries. This expansion is often referred to as “Nuclear Renaissance” by the nuclear power industry. This development has been accompanied by the trend in public opinion showing considerable positive attitudes towards nuclear energy in these countries. Since the issue of nuclear power has been actively debated in the public sphere the question of what is the public reaction to these new nuclear energy policies arises. It becomes crucial to scrutinize how these changes in discourse on nuclear energy shape the deliberation about nuclear energy as well as contentious actions. This paper approaches anti-nuclear movements through the analytical framework of discursive opportunity structure.
All welcome.
The CEES Seminar Series is supported by the MacFie Bequest, named after Professor Alec MacFie, Adam Smith Professor of Political Economy at the University from 1945 to 1958.
Enquiries: Ammon.Cheskin@glasgow.ac.uk, +44 (0)141 330 2845
19 Nov 2014: Challenges of the EU’s Eastern Partnership
Date: Wed 19 Nov 2014
Time: 16:00
Venue: CEES Seminar Room, 8 Lilybank Gardens
Presenter: Dr Margarita Šešelgytė (University of Vilnius, Lithuania)
European Neighbourhood policy (ENP) was launched in 2004 to enhance relations with the countries across the expanded boarders after “big bang” enlargement and to ensure stability and security in the neighbourhood. Based on its own historical experience the EU has chosen to do this through the Europeanization process by extending a European model of governance to the neighbouring countries “to promote a ring of well governed countries around its Eastern and Southern borders”. A new advanced version of ENP for the Eastern neighbours - Eastern Partnership (EaP) was launched in 2009. It had more individualistic approach, more ambitious goals and in 2013 Vilnius summit had to culminate in signing and initialling of Association Treaties between the EU and the most successful Eastern neighbourhood countries. However with Ukraine’s retreat and major security crisis which has developed subsequently it might be argued that ENP failed to achieve its main goal. Instead of ensuring stability and security at the Eastern borders the EU engagement has directly or indirectly provoked a major security crisis since the end of the Cold war. Why has EaP failed? What lessons could be drawn from the crisis in Ukraine for the future? One of the points of criticism argues that due to the anxiety of the EU not to provoke Russia – as the legitimate player in the Eastern neighbourhood - the EU was concentrating too much on the low politics goals, thereby diminishing its influence and hampering the results. The other one claims, that becoming too active in the high politics with no sufficient instruments to support it, the EU contributed to the destabilization of the region. There are other important dilemma’s that the EU has to address in order to be successful in the neighbourhood: how to effectively address hard security hostile behaviour with soft security measures, how to devise a strategy based on positive sum attitude to interact with the player which sees the situation from the zero sum point of view, finally, how to accumulated political will in the neighbourhood countries for long term and painful reforms.
All welcome.
The CEES Seminar Series is supported by the MacFie Bequest, named after Professor Alec MacFie, Adam Smith Professor of Political Economy at the University from 1945 to 1958.
Enquiries: Ammon.Cheskin@glasgow.ac.uk, +44 (0)141 330 2845
20 Nov 2014: Greater Development Issues in Indonesia : Bridging Social and Economic Empowerment
Date: Thu 20 Nov 2014
Time: 17:00
Venue: CEES Seminar Room, 8 Lilybank Gardens
Presenter: Professor Bambang Shergi Laksmono (University of Indonesia)
The paper intends to briefly highlight the meaning of the shifting concepts of development and policies on poverty in Indonesia. This will entail the shift from the Trilogi Pembangunan of the Suharto Era towards the Pro-Growth, Pro-Poor, Pro Job strategy adopted in the Reformasi Era. The government has outlined a neat grid of 4 layer quantile target groups that match with specific and tailored programs. Just how effective are these concepts? How effective is the multi-sectoral approach, usually hampered by ego-sectoralism. And how effective are the programs in the context of the complexities related to the family situation and livelihood of the urban or rural poor? Broad dimensions of governance will also be explained. The paper ends with the introduction of an alternative poverty analytical framework that provide a better understanding of the need to integrate economic and social empowerment.
All welcome.
The CEES Seminar Series is supported by the MacFie Bequest, named after Professor Alec MacFie, Adam Smith Professor of Political Economy at the University from 1945 to 1958.
Enquiries: Ammon.Cheskin@glasgow.ac.uk, +44 (0)141 330 2845
26 Nov 2014: Ottoman Heritage in the West Balkans: Syncretic Versus Binary Narrative
Date: Wed 26 Nov 2014
Time: 17:00
Venue: CEES Seminar Room, 8 Lilybank Gardens
Presenter: Dr Senija Čaušević (SOAS, University of London)
The presentation will elaborate upon the binary effects of the normalising discourse of 'Europeanness' and the symbolic violence it may wreak through the ideology and its subsequent consumption in the 'post-Ottoman' Balkans. We investigate the interpretation of Ottoman heritage in the West Balkans in order not only to enhance the possibility of deeper understanding of shared history and identity amongst the country’s people, but also to highlight the significance of wider Ottoman context as important markers of ways of being European that need not depend upon binary spatial divisions of ‘East and West’ or ‘Christendom and Islam’. We note, however, the intersection of the utility of that binary both for certain strains of ethno-nationalist opinions in the West Balkans, as well as a commercial heritage sector driven to offer the country up in a familiar, consumable narrative.
All welcome.
The CEES Seminar Series is supported by the MacFie Bequest, named after Professor Alec MacFie, Adam Smith Professor of Political Economy at the University from 1945 to 1958.
Enquiries: Ammon.Cheskin@glasgow.ac.uk, +44 (0)141 330 2845
18 Dec 2014: The Russo-American Relationship: Through the Lens of the Cohen Papers
Date: Thu 18 Dec 2014
Time: 13:00
Venue: CEES Seminar Room, 8 Lilybank Gardens
Presenter: Darren Reid is the inaugural Cohen Research Associate in the Cohen Institute for Leadership and Public Service at the University of Maine. He graduated from the University of Glasgow in 2013 with an MRes in Global Security.
The contemporary Russo-American relationship has reached a nadir similar to the height of the Cold War. The optimism of the early post-Cold War period has now completely evaporated, and the prospect for a genuine, substantial, productive, and strong relationship between the United States and Russia now seems far away. What explains this atrophy of the post-Cold War Russo-American relationship? The paper asserts that in order to understand the present, one must look to the past. It applies the notion of what’s past is prologue to the study of contemporary US-Russian relations. The utilization of the University of Maine’s Cohen Papers as primary research material allows for new perspectives and analysis on a relationship that has dominated international relations since the beginning of the twentieth century.
This seminar draws on work done for the University of Maine’s Cohen Papers project consisting of three separate research agendas: (1) What’s past is prologue: Understanding Contemporary Russo-American Relations; (2) Loose Nukes: Russia’s Domestic Instability and the Birth of Putinism; and (3) Two Birds, One Stone: America’s Response to Soviet Espionage in the United Nations. These three research agendas explore specific periods in Russo-American Cold War history that help elucidate on the current state of the relationship.
The presentation begins by introducing attendees to the William S. Cohen Papers, which are being utilized throughout this project as primary research materials. After discussing the research highlighted above, Darren will take some time to discuss his experiences (in a more generic context) after graduating from the MSc/MRes Global Security program at the University of Glasgow and life as a research associate in North America.
Information on the Cohen papers can be found at: http://library.umaine.edu/cohen/
The CEES Seminar Series is supported by the MacFie Bequest, named after Professor Alec MacFie, Adam Smith Professor of Political Economy at the University from 1945 to 1958.
Enquiries: Ammon.Cheskin@glasgow.ac.uk, +44 (0)141 330 2845
4 Feb 2015: Germany as a Kin-State Post 1949: Changing Perspectives
Date: Wed 4 Feb 2015
Time: 016:00
Venue: CEES Seminar Room, 8 Lilybank Gardens
Speaker: Professor Karl Cordell (Plymouth School of Government)
Abstract: In this presentation I chart the changing nature of Germany’s kin-state ‘obligation’ since the foundation of the Federal Republic in 1949. The Federal Republic of Germany was initially faced with several problems, not the least of which was how to accommodate and integrate millions of refugees from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Initially, I show how the policy choices pursued by the administrations of Konrad Adenauer of the Christian Democratic Union, although successful in terms of domestic politics had serious negative ramifications with regard to relations with its relations with Eastern Europe. It was only in 1969 and the coming to power of Willy Brandt and the Social Democratic Party of Germany that the situation began to change. The middle part of the presentation deals with such changes. In turn the latter part of the presentation deals with the position in Germany of Aussiedler (re-settlers), Spätaussiedler (late re-settlers), from the 1980s and particularly since the collapse of communism in Europe in 1990. The paper concludes by contrasting the former role of Germany as a kin-state with its contemporary role as a kin-state. The paper also considers the controversial role of the Bund der Vertriebene (Federation of Expellees) whose stance and policies still cause controversy despite the fact that the events that caused such misery and hardship occurred over 60 years ago.
Bio: Karl Cordell is professor of Politics at the Plymouth School of Government. He has published widely on ethnic politics in East/Central Europe and is co-editor of the journal Ethnopolitics.
This seminar series is supported by the University of Glasgow MacFie Bequest: http://www.universitystory.gla.ac.uk/biography/?id=WH0079&type=P
For more information on the CEES Seminar series, please contact Ammon.Cheskin@glasgow.ac.uk.
18 Feb 2015: What can replace the transition paradigm in studies of ethnic relations in post-communism?
Date: Wed 18 Feb 2015
Time: 16:00
Venue: CEES Seminar Room, 8 Lilybank Gardens
Alexander Osipov,
European Centre for Minority Issues
Flensburg, Germany
What can replace the transition paradigm in studies of ethnic relations in post-communism?
‘Ethnic relations’ is used here as a broad denomination for social relations involving creation, expression and institutionalization of ethnic divisions. This thematic area is one of the most conservative segments of post-communist studies, remaining subject to the so-called transition paradigm. This paradigm dominated post-communist studies for more than a decade before being widely discarded (Carouthers 2002; Kapustin 2001).
Studies of ethnic relations, however, remain highly dependent on a reincarnation of the same ‘transition paradigm’. This approach goes hand in hand with two discursive patterns which manifest themselves in multi-disciplinary ethnic studies: (1) the tendency to regard ethnicity in terms of agency and not structure and (2) unwitting confusion of the normative and empiric (manifesting itself in such tropes as ‘genuine’/ ‘fake’ ‘autonomy’ or ‘representation’). This often brackets out too many relevant phenomena and fails to place ethnic relations in the context of really existing post-communist social and political order(s).
I argue that neo-patrimonialism is the most promising theoretic framework for approaching the post-communist realities, suggesting that ethnic politics develop in neo-patrimonial environments where public activities are subject to patron-client networks and informal institutions, and resources are allocated in exchange to personal and institutional loyalties (Eisenstadt 1973; Erdmann and Engel 2007). I also consider whether this framework applies only in illiberal societies or if to countries with market economy, rational bureaucracies and rule of law as well (Bach 2011; Theobald 1982).
The CEES Seminar Series is supported by the MacFie Bequest, named after Professor Alec MacFie, Adam Smith Professor of Political Economy at the University from 1945 to 1958.
Enquiries: Ammon.Cheskin@glasgow.ac.uk, +44 (0)141 330 2845
25 Feb 2015: Farewell to Male Breadwinning: Resurrecting the Socialist Past to Better Understand the Post-Socialist Present
Date: Wed 25 Feb 2015
Time: 16:00
Venue: CEES seminar room, 8 Lilybank Gardens
Farewell to Male Breadwinning: Resurrecting the Socialist Past to Better Understand the Post-Socialist Present
ABSTRACT
State socialism undeniably shaped institutional legacies of post-socialist EU member states; not only had it produced an extraordinary leap in terms of female employment, it also heralded significant change in the role of the state in the family. Post-socialist countries are often homogenised and treated as a single country cluster in the welfare-state regime and comparative policy literature. This paper attempts a more nuanced assessment via analysis of their socialist past. It demonstrates that countries adopted different models of state socialism, endorsing and legitimizing different family policies and gender roles. It shows that they departed state socialism with mixed legacies and collective experiences about social organisation of childcare and female employment, and invites perspectives for further academic debate about the ‘common socialist legacy’, distinct ‘post-socialist’ family policy regime, and a uniform shift to ‘neo-familialism’.
Key words: female employment, childcare, family policy, state socialism, varieties of familialism
Short bio: Dr. Javornik is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Leeds, working in the Work, Care and Global Transitions group within the Building Sustainable Societies programme. She is a member of CIRCLE (Centre for International Research on Care, Labour and Equalities) at Leeds, the Work Futures Research Centre in Southampton, and a Visiting Scholar at the UIceland, ULjubljana (SI), and UUmeå (SE).
This seminar series is supported by the University of Glasgow MacFie Bequest: http://www.universitystory.gla.ac.uk/biography/?id=WH0079&type=P
For more information on the CEES Seminar series, please contact Ammon.Cheskin@glasgow.ac.uk.
10 Mar 2015: Lecture: Latvia's Presidency of the European Union
Date: Tue 10 Mar 2015
Time: 15:00
Venue: Sir Alwyn Williams Building (5th floor)
Speaker: His Excellency Mr Andris Teikmanis, Latvia's Ambassador to the UK
All welcome.
Refreshments will be provided after the lecture. For catering purposes, please inform Sue.Keast@glasgow.ac.uk by Friday 6th March if you plan to attend.
18 Mar 2015: Social rights, welfare reform and expectations of the state in contemporary Russia
Date: Wed 18 Mar 2015
Time: 16:00
Venue: CEES Seminar Room, 8 Lilybank Gardens
Abstract:
While violations of civil and political rights in Russia such as freedom of speech have long received a great deal of attention from the international community and domestic human rights groups, social rights such as the right to health, housing and social security have traditionally been discussed far less, despite the fact that these rights tend to rank higher in Russians’ own estimations of which rights matter to them most. This paper seeks to address this imbalance by exploring the long yet contested history of social rights protection and promotion in Russia and to relate this history to contemporary attitudes towards the major welfare reforms Russia has undergone in the post-Soviet period and expectations of what the State can and should provide to its citizens in terms of welfare assistance. It draws on a number of interviews conducted in various regions of Russia in 2011 and 2014 to set out the terms for a new research project which will explore these issues in more detail and put them in comparative perspective alongside similar developments in Ukraine.
This seminar series is supported by the University of Glasgow MacFie Bequest: http://www.universitystory.gla.ac.uk/biography/?id=WH0079&type=P
For more information on the CEES seminar series please contact Dr Ammon Cheskin: ammon.cheskin@glasgow.ac.uk
25 Mar 2015: Locals into Poles: National Identities in the Making in Upper Silesia, 1870s-1930s
Date: Wed 25 Mar 2015
Time: 16:00
Venue: CEES Seminar Room, 8 Lilybank Gardens
4pm, Wednesday 25 March, CEES Seminar Room, 8 Lilybank Gardens
Dr Andrzej Michalczyk (Ruhr-University Bochum)
We already know a good deal about how national identity emerged among political elites and people from the upper and middle classes. But we don't yet know much about how a sense of belonging to a national community was spread among 'common people' and adopted by them. This paper will take a micro-historical, actor-centred approach to analyse the influence of nationalism and demonstrate how 'modernization' established itself at the local level and in the everyday life of local people at the turn of the century during a period of a dramatic social transition in East-Central Europe.
This seminar has been jointly organised by Mary Heimann (Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, University of Strathclyde). For questions please contact Marymary.heimann@strath.ac.uk or Ammon cheskin (ammon.cheskin@glasgow.ac.uk)
This seminar series is supported by the University of Glasgow MacFie Bequest: http://www.universitystory.gla.ac.uk/biography/?id=WH0079&type=P
13 May 2015: Russophobia, russo-hypopsia, and the making and unmaking of the Eastern Partnership
Date: Wed 13 May 2015
Time: 17:00
Venue: CEES Seminar Roon, 8 Lilybank Gardens, G12 8AZ
5pm, CEES Seminar Room, 8 Lilybank Gardens
Professor Raymond Taras, Tulane University
The Eastern Neighborhood Initiative launched in 2008 by the improbable alliance of Poland and Sweden sought to promote closer EU relations with former Soviet republics. But President Medvedev warned that Russia did “not want the Eastern Partnership to turn into partnership against Russia”. In March 2015 EU foreign policy head Federica Mogherini deplored how this region was now “in flames” and called for “more flexible ways of working with the neighbours of the neighbours”, that is, Russia. Is there a basis for Russia framing the Polish-Swedish initiative “russophobic”, thereby explaining the need for an EU review in Riga in May 2015? What does russophobia mean anyway after the outbreak of armed conflict in Ukraine? Can there be a political payoff from reconceptualising relations with Russia to stress not fear or hate of it but instead mistrust and suspicion?
This seminar is supported by the Centre for Russian Central and East European Studies (CRCEES). CRCEES is a centre of excellence funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council and the British Academy.