Archive

The concept of neighbourhood seems to have a specific density, producing a crisis-like complexity between proximity and distance. The next Caucasus Network roundtable will focus on questions about the dynamics of neighbourly relations in the Caucasus region from social, political, and spatial perspectives.

The collapse of the Soviet Union profoundly changed the political tectonics of the world as well as many regional orders. Leading experts in the field of global studies will explore the short- and long-term effects of the Soviet collapse on politics, social and economic systems and individual life in the Global South.

The dramatic events in Belarus following the presidential elections of August 2020 were characterised by a high degree of bottom-up creativity. Even prior to this moment of mass mobilisation, Belarusian resistance drew on visual and theatrical means of political engagement, drawing attention to a state and society hidden from view.

David Leupold explores how urbanity conditions social relations in present-day Bishkek and Yerevan. Engaging with the wide-spread consensus that space shapes and, in return, is shaped by social relations, this paper asks: which role plays urban materiality that has outlived the system to which it owes its existence?

What do recent regional or global trends of mass protests tell us about the state of democracy and authoritarianism and about state-society relations more generally? The ZOiS Conference 2021 explores the factors shaping recent waves of protest activism in Eastern Europe and beyond.

Climate change is already having a serious impact on Russia's environment. While the international climate movement is now also finding supporters among Russian youth, some Russian politicians and scientists emphasize the positive aspects of warming for the country. We want to build on this Russian debate and discuss young people's commitment to climate change.

What does it mean to be a Russophone author in Ukraine and Kazakhstan? What is the current state of Russophone literature in the respective countries? What tendencies or changes can we observe? We discuss these and other questions with Andrey Kurkov (Ukraine) and Yuriy Serebriansky (Kazakhstan) in the second edition of our Russophone Voices project.

Economic disparities within the EU are persistent and even growing, and so are economic disparities between the EU and its neighbours. While the former undermines the internal legitimacy of the European integration process, the latter undermines the EU’s external attractiveness as a market and regulatory power. How can the EU improve its abilities to help promote development in the peripheries?

Regina Elsner explores the analytical opportunities and boundaries of the concept of “religious activism” to suggest a new interdisciplinary dialogue between anthropology and theology. The analysis focuses on the role of the Orthodox Church on the sociopolitical developments in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.

The protests against the rigged presidential elections and the regime of Alyaksandr Lukashchenka quickly developed into a mass mobilization in Belarus. Images play an important role in this mobilisation. In a conversation with photographers from Belarus and political scientists, we want to illustrate how images influenced the protests.

Films make history. But films also interpret history, and sometimes, they shift the emphasis. Political scientist Félix Krawatzek talks to film-makers about how and in which context certain historical events have taken centre stage in recent cinematography while others have drifted to the margins of our collective consciousness.

Julia Glathe examines political debates on immigration in post-Soviet Russia and shows how the social construction of immigration as a political issue is related to questions of economy, identity and morality in a globalized world. The empirical analysis focuses on the Russian expert discourse.

After a month of military combats in Nagorno-Karabakh, a Russian-brokered truce has stopped the fighting around the conflicted territory between Armenia and Azerbaijan. In this conflict, Armenia and Azerbaijan view the other as an enemy who employs a very similar rhetoric. With this online event, we want to start a discussion about the challenges and possibilities of living together and living with differences.

Misook Choi explores how state capitalism emerged and sustained in the post-socialist bloc over the last three decades. The longitudinal comparison traces economic institutions and industrial strategies which crystalize socio-political compromises in Eastern Europe. In this session, we will discuss the results.

Online Workshop for young scholars organised by the Centre for Historical Research of the Polish Academy of Science, the Centre for East European and International Studies, Herder-Institute for Historical Research on East Central Europe, Institute for Lithuanian History, Northeast Institute – Institute for Culture and History of the Germans in North Eastern Europe.

The virtual roundtable will focus on discussing the scope and causes of economic inequality in Eastern Europe, ask for the conditions under which it fuels political instability and for the relevance of this question for policymakers.