Newsletter - Social Science in Eastern Europe 2000-2
Sweden
Social Science Research on Eastern Europe in Sweden
The development of Russia is no longer crucial for Eastern Europe - actors in
Russia and Central Europe, respectively, have now different teleological
perceptions. The Baltic states are orientating themselves in relation to Russia,
the Nordic countries and Europe. The Bulgarian and Romanian political
leaderships aspire to develop their countries into European states. However,
they are situated in the Balkans, where the security political situation is
quite different from that of Russia and Europe.
In the bipolar world of East and West, the term Eastern Europe implied a
certain problem orientation, referring to the position of the states as Soviet
satellites. This implicit problem orientation is now gone, and the use of the
term might prevent us from identifying what important patterns are emerging from
the structure of the new multipolar situation of world politics.
Contacts between researchers in Western, Central and Eastern Europe develop
continuously. States, which formerly belonged to Eastern Europe, will be
included in the multifaced Europe. Therefore we could expect that in the near
future, research on Eastern Europe will become part of "normal"
research on Europe and will be carried out together with - or at least in
dialogue with - the researchers in this area of study. Research on Eastern
Europe will probably disappear as a phenomenon, at least as regards problems of
modern Europe. Social science research on Russia, the Baltic states and the
Balkans will find research problems with their roots in the structure of the
present day situation of these former East European regions which are
increasingly becoming very different from one another.
The last ten years have accentuated the need for rethinking the label Eastern
Europe as a handy name, summarizing the states included in the former Soviet
sphere. Which countries are included in the term today? Russia, the Baltic
states, the Russian Federation, including the problem complex involving the
states in North and South Caucasus? Is Central Europe to be considered part of
Eastern Europe - Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary; possibly also
Slovenia and Croatia? Germany is situated in Central Europe but is not
considered as part of Eastern Europe. Should Bosnia-Herzegovina and Yugoslavia
together with Bulgaria, Romania and Albania be labelled the Balkans again and,
consequently, these former East European states should be excluded from Eastern
Europe in the 21st century? Or is South-eastern Europe a proper term for this
region to be included in Eastern Europe?
The term Eastern Europe grew out of the Cold War and denotes a specific
political and cultural reality. For a decade, this reality has existed only as a
common historical heritage of a number of states, which are developing along
many different tracks. The difference between these states might be more
important than their common recent past. Thus, it might be misleading to use
this term for contemporary conditions. With Maria Todorova's words:
"Isn't Central Europe dead?"[67]
If that is so: what about Eastern Europe?
Social science in Sweden, dealing with research on countries traditionally
referred to under the label Eastern Europe, is carried out at university
departments and at specific research institutes, among them some institutes with
an obligation to do research of relevance for the needs of the country, i.e.
they are financed by the government. The Department of East European Studies,
Uppsala University, is the only institution in Sweden, which is designed to
study the region from a social science perspective. There are three professors
with chairs in East European history, law and economics, respectively. The other
departments where research on Eastern Europe is carried out, are the usual
discipline based departments, such as political science, sociology, economics.
The same is the case with the special institutes financed by the government,
such as the Defence Research Establishment (Swedish: FOA) and The Swedish
Institute of International Affairs (Swedish: UPI).
Centers for European studies are created with the aims of promoting studies
on Europe, sometimes including East and Central Europe. For instance Centrum för
Europaforskning, CFE (Center for Research on Europe) at Lund University and
Center for European Research (CERGU) at Göteborg University. These centers are
pooling resources from both the social sciences and the humanities, such as
history and languages.
Generally, research is organized in projects, and in many cases, a research
project involves scholars from different departments, at the same university or
at different universities. Thus, if a project is based in a department, let us
say in Uppsala, the participating researchers may come from other departments,
both in Uppsala and from other parts of the country. Moreover, the projects may
involve departments belonging to different faculties, such as a department of
History and/ or a department of Slavic languages. Consequently, to name the host
department of a research project does not necessarily mean that all research in
the project is done at only this department.
In the following, some tendencies in Swedish social science research on
Eastern Europe are highlighted. The presentation is based on hastily compiled
information and not on a systematic and thorough investigation of all that is
done in the field at the various universities and university colleges in Sweden.
Swedish Social science research on Eastern Europe is focussing on the
following themes:
Security problems and war
Russia and especially Northwestern Russia from a security perspective,
including problems of national interest and national identification, is a theme
which occupies researchers at several social science departments in
Sweden, among them the Department of East European Studies, Uppsala University,
the departments of Political Science at the universities in Uppsala, Stockholm
and Lund, and the Department of Cultural Geography, Umeå University, the
Defence Research Establishment (FOA) and the Swedish Institute of International
Affairs in Stockholm (UPI). - There is also a researchers' network
"Northwest Russia and the Nordic Area" on the Internet.
A programme on crisis management in a national and international
perspective is initiated by the Swedish Agency for Civil Emergency Planning (ÖCB)
and is financing research on crises in Russia and Eastern Europe at various
university departments, FOA and UPI.
From a security perspective, including political, economic and social
developments as well as questions of the bases of identity formation and
perceptions of threat, the Baltic states are dealt with at the Department
of East European Studies, the Department of Political Science and the Department
of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University. These departments form an
integrated research and educational center in the heart of Uppsala, Gamla Torget.
This center at Gamla Torget consists of the departments of East European
Studies, Political Science, Peace and Conflict Research, Center for Multiethnic
Research, the Swedish Institute for North American Studies (SINAS), and the
Department of Law: division International Law. Research on the Baltic states
from a security perspective is also conducted at Södertörn University College
as well as at the above mentioned institutes UPI and FOA.
Further research topics are:
* Ethnopolitical conflict in the Caucasus (Departments of East
European Studies and Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University)
* The Stability Pact on South-eastern Europe (Department of East
European Studies, Uppsala University)
* Genocide in the Balkans (Uppsala Programme for Holocaust and
Genocide Studies, Center for Multiethnic Research, Uppsala University).
Transition: economic consequences
* Economic developments during transition and the development of
privatisation and a market economy in Russia (Department of East European
Studies, Uppsala University)
* Economic developments during transition and the development of
privatisation and a market economy in Eastern Europe (Economists at
Stockholm University, in some cases in cooperation with researchers in the
respective East European countries)
* Comparisons between underdeveloped countries and "emerging
economies" (Economists at Stockholm University). Transition: social
and political consequences * Transition - its social consequences,
democracy and the development of civil society in Central and Eastern Europe and
the Baltic states (departments at Gamla Torget, Uppsala University, at the
Department of Social and Economic Geography, Uppsala University and the
Department of Human Geography, Stockholm University, the Department of Political
Science, Lund University, and at some regional university colleges)
* Transition and the problems of democracy in Russia (project with
researchers from the Departments of East European Studies, Political Science and
the Department of History at Uppsala University.
* Social problems in Russia (doctoral students at the Department of
Sociology, Göteborg University and the Department of Social Anthropology,
Stockholm University.
* The public health situation in Russia and the Baltic states 1960-95
(Department of Sociology, Stockholm University, see the journal Sociologisk
Forskning No 1/2000)
Eastern Europe and Europe
* Northern Europe: the Baltic Sea community (Department of East
European Studies, Uppsala University and the Department of History, Lund
University
* Regional Developments in Europe and the role of history in creating
models for the future, especially concerning Eastern Europe (Department of
East European Studies, Uppsala University)
* Europe as a community of intellectuals and the role of science and
cultural endeavours in shaping the state as a project in the 17th century
(Department of East European Studies, Uppsala University)
* Criminal activity across boundaries (Department of Criminology,
Stockholm University)
Other research activities
Some of the research projects at the Forum for Central Asian Studies,
Stockholm University are dealing with former Soviet Central Asia. At many social
science departments at the various universities in Sweden there are individual
doctoral studies on Russia, the Baltic states and Central Europe from social,
political, economic, social geographical, sociolinguistic perspectives, and from
many other disciplines.
[66] Box 514, S-751 20 Uppsala, Tel.:
+46(0)184711693, e-mail: kerstin.nystrom@east.uu.se,
Internet: http://www.east.uu.se
[67] Maria Todorova: "Isn't Central
Europe Dead? A Reply To Iver Neumann" in Central Europe: Core Or
Periphery? (Ed. Christopher Lord), Copenhagen Business School Press 2000,
pp. 219-231.
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