Eastern Europe

Smoking among adolescents in Russia in comparison with other countries of central and Eastern Europe and former Soviet Union

by Tatiana Andreeva

Fighting corruption in Eastern Partnership countries: views from the civil society

by Polina Panainte

The joint study was prepared within the project “Civil society participation in policies to combat corruption in the Eastern Partnership countries” that is being implemented by International Centre for Human Development (Yerevan), the Ukrainian Institute for Public Policy (Kyiv), Institute for Public Policy (Chisinau) in cooperation with FRIDE (Madrid) with financial support from the Black Sea Trust, a project of the German Marshall Fund of the United States

This study is intended to shore up the objective of greater civil society involvement in the EaP and the course of... more This study is intended to shore up the objective of greater civil society involvement in the EaP and the course of reforms in eastern partner countries. The key objective of the study is to present the views of civil society on anti-corruption policies and reforms in the Eastern Partnership countries, to give an overview of foreign—including EU—assistance in this area, and to analyse the role and potential of civil society in combating corruption. The report offers a number of recommendations for international donors, CSOs and the EU on how to make their efforts in  assisting anti-corruption reforms in Eastern Partnership countries more effective.

Odessa et les confins de l’Europe: un éclairage historique (Odessa and the frontier of Europe: a historical perspective)

by Stella Ghervas

published in Stella Ghervas & François Rosset (eds), "Lieux d’Europe. Mythes et limites" (Places of Europe: Myths and Limits), Paris, Editions de la Maison des sciences de l'homme, 2008, pp. 107-124.

Réactualisée par le récent débat sur l'adhésion de la Turquie à l'Union européenne et par la crise ukrainienne, la... more Réactualisée par le récent débat sur l'adhésion de la Turquie à l'Union européenne et par la crise ukrainienne, la question des confins de l'Europe apparaît de manière contrastée dans le cas d'une ville comme Odessa. Dès son origine, elle a été conçue comme une ville libre et ouverte tout en servant de capitale à la Nouvelle Russie. Construite à l'européenne par des architectes français, elle a vu d'emblée s'installer différentes communautés nationales, et Pouchkine a pu dire à juste titre qu'on y «respire l'Europe».

Néanmoins, Odessa reste d'un point de vue géographique «doublement périphérique» par rapport à la Russie et à l'Europe. Tout au long du XIXe siècle, on y «exile» les intellectuels exclus des capitales de l'Empire des tsars. La ville prospère, mais de Paris, Londres ou Berlin, elle paraît en marge de l'Europe urbaine et culturelle. En 1847, Balzac ne vit lui-même «de la frontière européenne à Odessa qu'un même champ de la Beauce». Le triomphe de la révolution bolchevique introduira une véritable coupure dans l'histoire de la ville et de ses relations avec l'Europe.

Par un jeu de miroirs, le cas d'une ville-carrefour comme Odessa, lieu emblématique d'une Europe multiculturelle et multinationale, dit quelque chose du sens multiple de l'Europe, témoigne de ses déchirements et de ses conflits intérieurs. Elle permet aussi de mieux cerner les contenus de la civilisation européenne et de préciser les contours du Vieux Continent.

The State and Economic Development

by Nemanja Sukalo

International business through barter and countertrade

by Raj Aggarwal

Questions à Stella Ghervas-Interview-RFIEA

by Stella Ghervas

Interview sur l'Europe à 27, Réseau français des instituts d'études avancées (RFIEA), 2009.

Resource use and resource efficiency in Central and Eastern Europe and the Newly Independent States

by Christine Polzin

Co-authored with S. Giljum, B. Lugschitz, S. Lutter and M. Dittrich, published in "Promoting innovative industries and technologies for a sustainable future in the Europe and NIS region: Compendium of Background papers", UNIDO, Vienna, 2012, pp. 131-163

This study provides a comparative assessment of material consumption and material productivity in 30 selected... more This study provides a comparative assessment of material consumption and material productivity in 30 selected countries covering Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the Newly Independent States (NIS) in the Caucasus and Central Asia between 1995 and 2008. It was also commissioned by UNIDO. To facilitate comparison, the region was divided into three geographical groups: New EU Member States (NMS), South East Europe (SEE) and Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA).

The results of the study reflect the extremely diverse development of the 30 countries. Many of them have gone through processes of economic transition and market liberalisation, with diverging effects on their use of natural resources. To varying degrees, the collapse of Communism and the transition towards market economies was initially (between 1989 and 1995) accompanied by high rates of inflation, a marked decline in output (on average by 40%), a stagnation in material extraction and a decline in resource consumption until the year 2000. During the first half of the 1990s, this development was exacerbated by conflicts in SEE and the Caucasus and extended in some parts of EECCA by the Russian currency crisis in 1997/98. These initial years of economic decline were swiftly followed by a period of strong economic growth, which was also reflected in a rise of resource use and resource efficiency.

While the economies of the new EU-members recovered faster and earlier, the process took longer and the falls were even deeper in most of the South East European and EECCA countries. The average per capita consumption of the 30 countries increased by 25% between 1995 and 2008, from 9.8 to 12.2 tonnes. This is above the global average of 10.4 tonnes but still below EU-15 average of 18.6 tonnes per capita in 2008.

Material consumption decoupled relatively from economic growth during the whole period under consideration in the 30 countries. Thus, material productivity rose continuously by an average 42% between 1995 and 2008. This general improvement in resource efficiency across the region partly reflects the economic restructuring that has taken place since the early 1990s and is partly due to increased production efficiency in some sectors.

The 'divided self' of the Polish state owned companies: Culture and environment

by Monika Kostera

Co-authored with MAciem Wicha
Published in: (1996) Organization Studies 17/1, p. 83-105.
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In the course of the current transition to a market economy, Polish state-owned enterprises are expected to change... more In the course of the current transition to a market economy, Polish state-owned enterprises are expected to change their functioning very quickly in order to 'adapt' to the new rules of the game. Nevertheless, adaptation to market principles is hampered by old cultural mind frames, which the actors adopted to cope with communist governance. The reasons behind this cultural 'lag' are examined in this paper. It aims to develop a model of the culture of organizing enacted in big consolidated state-owned enterprises, to show how the old cultural patterns emerged. Currently, their existence hinders change.

Differing managerial responses to change in Poland

by Monika Kostera

Published in:(1995) Organization Studies 16/4, p. 673-697.
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The paper is about alternative ways managers and enterprises respond to the contemporary situation in Poland. Adopting... more The paper is about alternative ways managers and enterprises respond to the contemporary situation in Poland. Adopting a cultural perspective and interpretive approach, it first seeks to establish in which ways the social role of
*I would like to thank the three anonymous reviewers and OS for their contributions to this paper.
manager has changed in regard to the professional dimension and contextual constraints. The main point concerns the current situation, where different ways of enactment of organizations' environments coexist, as do different managerial roles, as representing these different cultures of organizing. The paper proposes a typology of enterprises and roles, which can be used both in theory and practice, but perhaps more specifically by consultants who intend to introduce important change in East European enterprises. Taking the differences in responding to change into account would perhaps make the change itself more effective and more realistically aimed.

Staging the new romantic hero in the old cynical theater

by Monika Kostera

Co-authored with Miroslaw Proppe and Miroslaw Szatkowski
Published in (1995) Journal of Organizational Behavior 16/6, p. 631-646. (1995)
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Poland is undergoing a major systemic shift: from centrally planned toward a market economy. All dimensions of... more Poland is undergoing a major systemic shift: from centrally planned toward a market economy. All dimensions of societal life are involved in the change. The paper discusses the social role of the Polish managers currently against the background of what it used to be like under communism from a social constructivist perspective. The role is considered from the point of view of the actors: how they construct their role.

The modern crusade: Missionaries of management come to Eastern Europe.

by Monika Kostera

Published in (1995) Management Learning 26/3, p. 331-352.
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The paper deals with the communication between the West (industrialized "capitalist" countries) and Eastern... more The paper deals with the communication between the West (industrialized "capitalist" countries) and Eastern and Central Europe, which the paper claims to be uni-directional. Using the metaphor of economic enterprises as religious institutions and business administration as religion, the paper suggests that these organizations perform a crucial ontological role in the modern societies. After the fall of communism in 1989 the values of the capitalist modernity are transferred to the post-communist countries by guest lecturers and consultants taking part in assistance programs and in other ways involved in the transition process. This is depicted by the use of the religious metaphor as missionary activity. The paper ends with a discussion of the uni-directional communication, which in the light of the dawning post-modern society, is perhaps not the best way of a common, East-Western construction of a new social reality.

The Kitsch-Organization

by Monika Kostera

Studies in (1997) Culture & Organization (then: Cultures, Organizations and Societies) 3, p. 163-177.
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The paper discusses kitsch as the discourse of depriving experience of beauty and surprise. It argues that people... more The paper discusses kitsch as the discourse of depriving experience of beauty and surprise. It argues that people often construct kitsch when they organize. Three different Kitsch-Organizations are depicted: the Polish communist youth organization from the 1950-ties, a foreign enterprise operating currently in Poland, and a school of organizational behavior. Kitsch, not being equivalent to "low" or "popular" culture is a degrading construct. Adopted as a second level metaphor to the studies of organizations, it can be of use for critical social constructivist analysis.

Pannonian Winds of Shame

by Nemanja Sukalo

Some might agree that the EC ruling on Malev was justified, however I do not and I think it breached the Lisbon Treaty. Some might agree that the EC ruling on Malev was justified, however I do not and I think it breached the Lisbon Treaty.

The Eastern Partnership, the Union for the Mediterranean and the Remaining Need to Do Something with the ENP

by Dimitry Kochenov

CRCEES Working Papers No. WP2009/01

The questionable practice of conditionality used outside of its initial pre-accession context, the grouping together... more The questionable practice of conditionality used outside of its initial pre-accession context, the grouping together of countries which have little or nothing in common, and the lack of real incentives for the European Union’s neighbourhood partners, as well as a reliance on a range of ‘phantom’ common values, together suggest that the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) is falling short of the ambitious goals originally set for it. This paper summarises the main drawbacks of the ENP and then proceeds to an analysis of the ability of the newly introduced ‘Eastern Partnership’ and the ‘Union for the Mediterranean’ initiatives to remedy the key deficiencies of the policy. The conclusions are discomforting: instead of targeting the main drawbacks of the policy, new layers are built on the ENP’s questionable core, increasing the complexity of the EU’s relations with its neighbourhood and sending a signal that, all the pro-active rhetoric notwithstanding, the Union is not ready to be wholeheartedly engaged with the ENP partners.

K. Kelemen - The New Hungarian Constitution: European Criticalities

by Katalin Kelemen

draft only - presented in Trento, Italy (Winter Trento European Seminar), December 15-16, 2011

Health care systems as determinants of health outcomes in transition countries: Developing classification

by Liubov V. Borisova

published in "Social Theory and Health", 9(4)

In recent research much attention has been paid to the divergent health outcomes that have emerged across the region... more In recent research much attention has been paid to the divergent health outcomes that have emerged across the region of Central and Eastern Europe. Though rare the focus of research, one important source of variation in health outcomes can possibly be traced to the evolution of health care systems. In this paper, they and their transformations are relocated at the epicentre of the health story. First the health care systems in transition are classified into a typology through a combination of qualitative assessment of Health in Transition Reports from the World Health Organisation (WHO), and cluster analysis based on the literature-driven framework. This resultant classification is then utilised in a panel regression using the fixed effects and panel-corrected standard errors model on the WHO Health for All dataset for 25 transition countries of Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia across transition years 1989-2007. Through this the research adds an important strand to the health in transition and health care classification literature. Firstly, the study shows that the health care systems of transition countries can be classified into separate groups. Secondly, evidence is presented that the structural differences in health care, reflected in the typology partially explain cross-country health outcomes.

Material Deprivation, Social Class and Life Course in the Balkans, Eastern Europe and Central Asi

by Alexi Gugushvili

Studies of Transition States and Societies

This paper employs the factor analysis technique and data from the UNDP/UNICEF Social Inclusion Survey  to... more This paper employs the factor analysis technique and data from the UNDP/UNICEF Social Inclusion Survey  to construct a material deprivation index for fi ve transitional societies in the Balkans (FYR Macedonia and Serbia), Eastern Europe (Moldova and Ukraine) and Central Asia (Kazakhstan). The distribution of deprivation between these societies can be largely explained by their level of economic development, but within-county variance is not limited to monetary dimension. Controlling for settlement type, human capital and employment status in multivariate settings, the paper tests the hypothesis of the continuous importance of occupational social class and the emerging role of different life phases in individuals’ welfare outcomes. The results reveal that all specifi ed social classes and most of the defined life phases have diverse and statistically significant effects on the constructed deprivation index and the likelihood of being under 70 per cent of the median deprivation threshold. Belonging to non skilled manual, farmers and skilled manual social class as well as being a child or lone parent were revealed to have the highest risk of material deprivation. These fi ndings are in line with the conclusions made for the Western welfare democracies on the complementary nature of social class and life course dimensions in explaining social hardship.

Cr. Luca, «Greek and Aromanian merchants, protagonists of the trade relations between Transylvania, Wallachia, Moldavia and the Northern Italian Peninsula (second half of the 17th–first half of the 18th century)», Transylvanian Review, XIX, Supplement no. 5, 2010, p. 313–336

by Cristian Luca

Dreamers of a New Day: A Generational History of Intellectuals of the Left who Built Socialism in Central Europe, 1930-1970

by Anna Hajkova

The post-doc project. Academia should give an option to describe more than one project!

Comparazione giuridica ed Europa dell'est

by Katalin Kelemen

published in "Rivista di Diritto Civile", 2010, No. 6, p. 861