Newsletter - Social Science in Eastern Europe 2000-2
United Kingdom
Continuity and Change in United Kingdom Transition Research
The social sciences in the United Kingdom (UK) dealing with Eastern Europe
have in general successfully met the intellectual challenges of the nineties.
The gestalt switch required when a major paradigm, however defined,
underpinning research activity, loosely understood, is replaced has been
achieved. In other words, there is life after sovietology! Suffice to say that
the as yet incomplete replacement paradigm currently concerned with transition
or transformation[92] research is being
produced out of a melting pot of ideas and data that have been generated in the
words of one eminent authority through the
"collaboration between specialists on authoritarian regimes who never
had the opportunity to conduct serious survey research and political scientists
experienced in survey techniques but ignorant of the cultures and languages of
the countries which have become candidates for inclusion in wider comparative
studies."[93]
The last ten years of transition social science research in the UK,
confined in this case to political science and sociology and related
disciplines, can be summarised for the purposes of this all too brief overview
by examining the role of
* Co-ordinated research programmes
* Dedicated research centres
* Research issues
* Human capital
Research Programmes
Serendipity placed a key comparative, interdisciplinary research programme,
namely the Economic and Social Research Council's (ESRC) East-West Programme in
the right place at the right time. Originally conceived on the cusp of the
collapse of communism in 1989/1990 out of an interest in the processes of
decentralisation evident at the time, it provided the first vehicle for the
tentative collaboration mentioned above. Subsequent triangulation as it came to
be called, bringing together language, area and social science disciplinary
specialists reconfigured east European studies. More importantly it did not
assume that research into the post communist transformation would be
self-terminating but that the changes underway, however liminal, would
nonetheless require sustained long-term research endeavour. As a recent
conference amply demonstrated the legacy of state socialism will remain a
fruitful area of research for the foreseeable future.[94]
The East -West Programme comprised of 20 projects selected out of over 300
initial applicants. It sought to understand the processes at work at the level
of the enterprise, farm and household including changes in property regimes,
management and labour relations. It dealt with social issues such as
homelessness, the family and law, youth and most importantly political parties,
elites, local democracy, social movements and changing political attitudes.[95] It is generally accepted that no other study
was in a position to capture this particular moment in time of systemic collapse
and thus provide not only valuable insights into the early stages of transition
but also lay the foundations for subsequent research.
The programme was constrained however by the intellectual agenda of scholars
at the time, more so than by the perceived needs and priorities of the
programme's initiators. This was not commissioned research and therefore gaps
were inevitable although the proven saliency of the 20 projects vindicated the
conviction of the programme director that intellectual pre-occupation was to be
the touchstone for the research agenda in these fluid times rather than any
attempt to second-guess possible transition scenarios.
One achievement of the programme was to provide key groups of scholars with
launch pads for subsequent more embedded research activity in the area. It also
provided the resources and the venues for the establishment of research networks
with eastern European colleagues. David Lane[96]
at Cambridge and John Scott working with Polish colleagues oversaw the first
research into the milestone Contract Parliament elected in 1989 while at the
same time initiating a line of research into economic and political elites in
the Gorbachev and Yeltsin eras. Geoff Evans and Stephen Whitefield, newly in
tandem, brought the intellectual powerhouse of Nuffield College into what is one
of the most fruitful and stimulating series of attitudinal research projects
dealing with political, economic and more recently social processes in the New
Independent States (NIS) as well as Central and East European(CEE) countries.[97] Simon Clarke at Warwick was able to begin to
build his highly effective research teams in Russia thereby tracking the
processes of enterprise restructuring and more recently household adaptation
strategies.[98] Nigel Swain provided impressive
insights into the rural transition in Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary and
continues to research the area. More established researchers such as Waller,
Lewis, Wightman and Lomax working with Pridham [99]
were able not only to carry out research on the complex process of party
formation but generated a vast array of publications for the broader academic
community. The East-West comparison became more relevant in projects such as Ken
Roberts[100] work on young people in Poland, an
extension of his UK and German research whereas Bartlett and Hoggett examined
the growth of small firms. Richard Rose used the programme funding to extend the
scope of what was to become a prodigiously large-scale comparative study of life
in post communist societies to stand alongside his New Democracies Barometer
located at Strathclyde[101]. Excellent
ethnographic studies such as those by Nick Manning and Katy and Chris Pickvance
at the University of Kent working with their east European colleagues[102] on environmental and housing movements and
Thirkell, Scase and Vickerstaff also at Canterbury on case studies dealing with
labour relations in 5 countries[103]
contributed to what was judged eventually to be a successful programme despite
having to deal with a range of uncertainties not least in the former Yugoslavia.
The East West Programme also benefited from parallel projects commissioned at
the same time not least of which was the Social Justice project whose UK
partner, Gordon Marshall of Nuffield College, provided what was a missing
dimension.
Primarily however the programme was able to channel the creative tension,
which existed between the challenge of uncertainty and the need to apply the
conceptual apparatus drawn from other spheres of research.
The ESRC's commitment to area based research was further in evidence by what
can be seen as a follow-up undertaking namely the "One Europe or
Several" Programme[104] launched in
January 1998. Here the research agenda took on board some issues which had only
been signalled in the earlier project outcomes, namely EU enlargement, security
concerns and cross border crime (P. Rawlinson). The effect of exclusion from the
NATO and EU inclusionary processes, not even considered in the early nineties
projects, rightly came to be seen as a core issue. Judy Batt with her team based
at CREES[105] are looking at most of the
"in-out" permutations in a project with a strong cross-border
dimension dealing with the concept of "fuzzy-statehood". Once again
the cumulative research capital gleaned from pre-1989 research involvement made
these scholars eminently suited to studying the fate of the excluded where
stalled transition is producing hybrid processes only comprehensible in the
context of the pre-existing communist systems. This project as with that
associated with one of her co-workers at that time, Saul Estrin[106] from the London Business School (LBS) who is now working
on the economic impact of European Union (EU) and European Monetary Union (EMU)
exclusion, also demonstrates the value of the continuity of research provided by
such programmes. In between the two programmes, Batt and her colleagues had
earlier completed a follow-on project on new post Soviet states.
Stephen White's team from Glasgow with Margot Light at the London School of
Economics (LSE) are also looking more closely at the "outsiders" such
as Russia, Belarus, Moldova and the Ukraine with a series of elite interviews,
focus group studies and broader surveys in order to assess the policy impact of
enlargement at the elite level. In another ambitious project, the combination of
Essex University political scientists (Frances Millard and Sarah Birch) and the
School of Slavonic and East European Studies (Kieran Williams) brings the
electoral process in some eight of these countries under specialist scrutiny in
an examination of how electoral regulations effect political systems.
Finally, regional and local governance, which had been the object of research
in the East-West Programme under Hanson, Gibson and Campbell, is once again
under scrutiny. James Hughes at LSE this time is looking at the relevance of
geography to successful democratisation through the transfer of traditions and
best practise across borders.
Of course, other ESRC programmes continued to invite and support east
European oriented research where it fitted their research theme. Thus under the
Transnational Communities programme Stewart and Mandel are engaged on research
into citizenship and belonging, a study of the Hungarian diasporas in Slovakia,
Romania and Serbia and the Kazakh and Russian Jewish communities in Germany.
Steven Webber at CREES is working within the ESRC Youth Citizenship and Social
Change Programme on perceptions of security and citizenship, a qualitative study
addressing attitudes to varieties of militarism in Russia, Germany and the UK.
All of these projects have to acknowledge the additional factor of "globalisation"
in the transition trajectories.
Outside of formal programmes, interesting new networks have emerged
especially among younger scholars working on the Ukraine (Birch, Wilson-SSEES[107], Kuzio, Wolczuk-CREES). In part, this is a
reflection of conscious recruitment policies in the area and in part is
attributable to the growing importance of Ukrainian studies and the intellectual
dynamism of these younger researchers.
It needs to be emphasised how central these programmes have been in
developing genuinely collaborative ties with eastern European colleagues without
whose efforts some of the high quality survey and participative research would
not have been possible.
Research Centres
Inevitably, perhaps the tectonic shifts in the field of east European studies
have thrown up new centres of excellence whilst allowing others to consolidate
or coalesce. The European Research Institute at Birmingham University created
out of the amalgamation of CREES and the Institute of German Studies with the
School of Social Sciences and supported by an initial [sterling]4.8 million from
the Joint Infrastructure Fund is a prime example of the realignment of research
organisation following the redrawing of the geopolitical map. Under its auspices
not only do some of its "One Europe" projects find an enlarged home
but leading area scholars such as Hilary Pilkington can continue their research
in youth studies and spin off projects such as that on local elites in Russia,
Poland and Lithuania can find logistical support.
For its part the Strathclyde Centre for the Study of Public Policy has
generated a series of reports produced out of the large-scale comparative
databases and the tireless research activity of Richard Rose and his co-workers.
Building on a wide network of social scientists in eastern Europe, Rose has
compiled reports, which are particularly attractive to policy makers given their
accessibility and broad sweep. Recent research into social capital and poverty
studies is providing an important sociological dimension to a field
understandably perhaps dominated in its first post 1989 years by economics and
political science. Stephen White and W L Miller[108]
complete the picture of research into political values and voting which along
with the proximate Glasgow University Institute of Central and East European
Studies combine to make Glasgow a focal point for political science transition
research in the new millennium.
Warwick's Centre for Comparative Labour Studies is the home to Russian
Research Programme and is now a premier centre for the sociological study of
employment restructuring, household survival strategies and associated projects
on contemporary Russia. Its 800 research papers many available on the web are
the outcome of the several funding grants received from the ESRC, Department for
International Development (DFID) and Leverhulme. They are of enormous value to
academics as well as students writing dissertations and projects and retain
considerable intellectual mileage.
Traditional centres such as SSEES newly merged into University College London
can only benefit from the access to colleagues working in social anthropology
and geography and the School of Public Policy. Indeed the newly established
Centre for the Study of Democracy and Society with its lead figure Michael
Stewart and bringing in colleagues from Cambridge such as Frances Pine is
indicative of institutions finding new forms co-operation. SSEES is well served
by a whole cohort of younger scholars such as Alena Ledeneva[109] Vesna Popovski, Gerlachus Duijzingsand[110] working alongside established figures such as George
Schopflin, Kieran Williams and Peter Duncan. Thus, the social sciences at SSEES
are producing their own brand of interdisciplinary innovation, combining the
best of EU enlargement research with east European studies.
Another interesting response to the need to marry outstanding disciplinary
departments to the requirements of area studies in a time of tumultuous change
was provided by Essex University home to Millard[111],
Birch, Williamson and Walker as well as Peter Frank and Emil Kirchner. The Pan
European Institute built around the new HEFCE[112]
appointments to the area (see below) combined the previous activities of Russian
and European Studies and drew upon the tradition of comparative studies, which
had stretched across the social sciences and humanities since the university's
foundation, to bring together social scientists in teaching and research.
Other universities in the UK such as Salford (Polish Studies), Keele (South
East Europe Unit), Leeds with its research centre LUCRECES, Sussex and the
European Institute with an East central Europe in Transition research group,
Nottingham, Bradford (The Baltic Research Unit) and Durham (The Ustinov Centre)
and Wolverhampton (Russian and East European Research centre) all maintain
active research activities in selected fields which has been recognised and
enhanced in some cases by the allocation of new HEFCE lectureships.
Centres of excellence like St Antony's College Oxford home to outstanding
scholars such as Archie Brown and Alex Pravda retain their intellectual gravitas
and remain venues for the exchange of ideas, However it is difficult not to
notice that a process of research led consolidation of eastern European social
sciences is underway, driven by empirically oriented projects. Thus, the ESRC
funded centre for Research into Elections and Social Trends (CREST) lodged
partly at the Department of Sociology at Oxford provides access to east European
election data through the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems. Similarly, the
network based around the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) maintains
important links to scholars dealing with comparative social science issues.
It would be remiss to overlook the role of the Royal Institute of
International Affairs, Chatham House who have generated much useful research
over the years. Roy Allison heads the highly productive Russia and Eurasia
programme whereas Heather Grabbe associated with the European programme under
Julie Smith has been a major force in publication and conference activity on the
subject of the politics of eastward enlargement of the EU and NATO.
Perhaps more than was at first anticipated, the extended transition is
throwing up theoretical challenges which demand close collaboration at all
levels and at all stages between researchers here and in eastern Europe. There
is a special need to recognise the intellectual input that the sociological and
political science communities in countries such as Poland, Hungary and Russia
are providing in pushing forward the boundaries of understanding in their own
and neighbouring countries. The best of east European indigenous research output
needs to have a larger platform in the UK and a greater voice, with more active
mediation by area based social scientists whose responsibility it is to be more
inclusive in setting the mutual research agenda.
Research Issues
Given the new found access to a whole range of additional democracies it was
inevitable that the first stages of transition research appeared to be dominated
by studies of elections, elites and to a lesser extent electorates. The analysis
of new political classes emanating out of dissident or nomenclature backgrounds
called for research into political identity formation amongst both leaders as
well as led. Electoral and party systems, presidential vs. parliamentary
regimes, constitutions and courts were all grist to the mill of the newly
enabled political science community in the UK.
Sociology followed up and provided an understanding of interest groups, civil
society, and indeed class formation and its impact on voting behaviour. In due
course party competition and the embedding of political parties required a more
complex level of analysis and in-depth ethnographic studies by area specialists
have come back into favour.[113] Elsewhere
the continuing role of clientilism and corruption in political life (W L Miller
and A B Grodeland) has drawn attention to other post authoritarian transitions
and a renewed interest in the "Italian Road".
However, it is second-generation democratisation questions, which are now
being addressed. Why have the political classes seen so little new recruitment?
Will the wonderful varieties of political parties encountered in eastern Europe
begin to take on the pattern of western parties and is it possible that they are
simply following the general direction of dis-organised political behaviour in
the west? Is the search for the replication of a left-right divide pointless?
The imitative revolutions of eastern Europe are at once catching up on being
pre-modern, modern and post modern where markets exist for political ideologies
as much as for consumer goods.
The sociological agenda which was originally shaped around the "winners
vs. losers" question has gradually evolved into an examination of household
survival strategies with all the reservations that researchers such as Simon
Clarke and Nick Manning hold for that term, implying as it does co-ordinated
decision-making rather than being the contingent outcome of independent
opportunities seized. Richard Rose who focused on household portfolios of
different economies and was eventually led into the study of
"capitals" and assets followed a similar tack. This approach of
necessity involved the continuing study of the informal sector, self-help,
multiple jobs and the generation of typologies of individual responses to the
market. Poverty studies and later the patterning of social exclusion through
long-term unemployment imported many of the concepts of economic sociology into
transition research. The sociology of time, of the body and of leisure have
quickly come on to the research agenda.
The final and most ambitious part of this research direction has come with
the Evans and Whitefield project into class formation in Russia and ECE
countries and especially how this is reflected in voting preferences and
political partisanship. Their ambitious attempts to operationalise Goldthorpe `s
class schema within the context of post communist Russia involve making
connections between economic strategies and structuring of assets at their
disposal.[114]The making of the middle class
as the anchor of market led reforms and foundation for a liberal civil society
is equally resonant throughout such research and stands at the interface of
politics, economics and sociology.
Another part of the sociological agenda follows on from the civil society
debate and concerns the emergence and reaction to "otherness". This
has provided scope for research into youth cultures, sexuality, the Roma,
migration, borders, and the return of "forced migrants" to Russia.
Mars and Webber have studied Jewish identity in post communist Hungary and
Poland whereas elsewhere discourse analysis has been deployed to understand
identity formation in German and Polish cross-border families.
A quick snapshot of the range of research funded by the ESRC provides
reassurance that most social science concerns continue to be addressed by
individual scholars outside of the large centres and programmes. The rich
tapestry of ESRC funded research projects points to the vibrant research
imagination of the UK scholarly community. A prime example is Peg Watson who
maintains her eminent research into mortality and morbidity most recently
through a study of Polish Nowa Huta steel workers and especially the factors
determining the "survivors" from an earlier study. Caedon Staddon's
project on the local environmental governance in Poland and Bulgaria deals with
resource dependent communities in this case forestry. Individual country
specialists such as David Turnock from Leicester continues his research on the
human and social geography of Romania. Chris Corrin in the field of women's'
movements, gender and politics, Frances Pine looking at various aspects of the
lives of peasant women in Poland and Mary Buckley on women in Russia are just a
few of the examples of gender oriented research. Rosemary Crompton brought
Russia and the Czech Republic into a larger comparative project occupational
segregation and the social construction of occupations. Finally, Chris Hann
continues his finely crafted social anthropological studies of minority
communities, post socialist nationalism and most recently the fate of the Greek
Catholics of central Europe.
Edwin Bacon is also examining religion this time in Russia and at the level
of high politics whereas Neil Melvin at Leeds continues his established
interests working on post-soviet local elites in Novosibirsk and Pavlodar as
well as looking at the Russian diasporas in the Ukraine and Estonia.[115]
Finally to" Death in Russia", both historically experienced at the
collective level and individual responses, trauma and mourning are all part of
an intriguing project being undertaken by Catherine Merridale at Bristol.
Human resources
The above resume does not reflect the full depth and breadth of research
activity much of it geared towards consultancy, both public and private sector,
briefing activities and report writing. The HEFCE Review of Former Soviet and
east European Studies published in October 1995 identified a serious shortfall
in provision for study of the area especially amongst the non-Russian
specialists.[116] It recognised that a
generational exchange was in train with many more mature scholars retiring from
active research. In order to manage this process and make up some of the
shortfall 33 new posts were allocated to 13 Higher Education Institutions in the
UK chiefly in the politics and international relations of the eastern European
non-Russian countries. Since the process was based upon peer review and
competitive bidding, some disciplines such as sociology continue to be
under-represented.
The remit for these new appointments included providing expertise to business
and the world of diplomacy, something that in fact was difficult to avoid. The
major recipients of the new posts were SSEES, the Universities of Essex,
Birmingham, Nottingham, Leeds and the School of Oriental and African Studies.
The single largest country beneficiary in terms of new appointments was the
Ukraine although recognition was given to other under-resourced areas of study
such as South Eastern Europe and the Baltic States.
Excluding economists, who have not been the subject of this admittedly rather
personal overview, there appear to be in the region of 200 social scientists,
chiefly political scientists, and including 35 plus self declared sociologists
in the UK working on eastern Europe. That number is unlikely to grow in the
coming years although this does not imply that the research activity of this
group will stabilise. In all likelihood east European studies will continue to
be incorporated into mainstream comparative research and this will only serve to
increase the demand for scholars who are not only familiar with the area but who
are also able and willing to address broader issues.
With all these resource limitations in mind, it is difficult not to conclude
that the social and political sciences in the UK are dynamic with a cohort of
younger scholars waiting in the wings.[117]
[91] E-mail: geoge.kolankiewicz@btinternet.com/;
Kolankiewicz@ssees.ac.uk.
[92] Richard Sakwa Postcommunism.
Open University Press 1999 pp. 97-113 Sakwa has produced some of the more
analytic monographs on the post Soviet space especially his Russian Politics
and Society. Routledge 1996.
[93] Archie Brown "The Study of
Totalitarianism and Authoritarianism" in Jack Hayward, Brian Barry and
Archie Brown (eds) The British Study of Politics in the Twentieth Century.
Oxford University Press 1999 p. 388. This provides a wide ranging summary of
political science and related research endeavour with a good bibliography.
[94] The Legacy of State Socialism and the
Future of the Transformation. 30 March-1 April 2000. Kings College Cambridge.
David Lane and others.
[95] Further information on the East West
Programme can be obtained from its former director at G.Kolankiewicz@ssees.ac.uk.
[96] Lane D Ross C From Communism to
Capitalism: Ruling Elites From Gorbachev to Yeltsin. New York St Martin's
Press 1998. J Wasilewski and W Wesolowski (eds) Poczatki Parlamentarnej Elity.
IFiS PAN Warsaw 1992. The Polish team continues to produce research into
subsequent parliaments.
[97] G Evans and S Whitefield
"Identifying the Basis of Party Competition in Eastern Europe." British
Journal of Political Science. No 23 , 1993 This was the first of a series of
highly regarded publications.
[98] S Clarke (ed) The Russian Enterprise
in Transition: Case Studies. Cheltenham Edward Elgar 1996
[99] G Wightman (ed) Party Formation in
East Central Europe. Aldershot Edward Elgar 1995 "Parties, Trade Unions
and Society in East-Central Europe". The Journal of Communist Studies.
Special Issue. Vol 9 No 4 December 1993
[100] B Jung and K Roberts (eds) Postkommunistyczne
Pokolenie. KiW 1995 published in English as Poland's First Post
Communist Generation. Youth and Citizenship in Present Day Poland. Avebury
1995
[101] For research produced around the time
of the East West programme see R Rose W Mishler C Haerpfer Democracy and Its
Alternatives. Understanding Post Communist Societies. Polity Press 1998.
[102] Katy Lang-Pickvance, Nick Manning and
Chris Pickvance (eds) Environmental and Housing Movements. Grassroots
Experience in Hungary, Russia and Estonia. Avebury 1997
[103] J Thirkell, Richard Scase and Sarah
Vickerstaff (eds) Labour Relations and Political Change in Eastern Europe. A
Comparative Perspective. UCL Press 1995
[104] http://www.one-europe.ac.uk
[105] Centre of Russian and East European
Studies, Univ. of Birmingham, http://www.bham.ac.uk/crees/
[106] S Estrin (ed) Privatization in
Central and Eastern Europe. Longman 1994
[107] School of Slavonic and East European
Studies, University College London.
[108] William L Miller et al Values and
Political Change in Post Communist Europe. Macmillan 1998.
[109] Alena Ledeneva Russia's Economy
of favours: Blat, Networking and Informal Exchanges. Cambridge
Russian, Soviet and Post Soviet Studies. 1998.
[110] Working for the Netherlands State
Institute on the fall of Srebrenica.
[111] Frances Millard Polish Politics
and Society Routledge London 2000.
[112] Higher Education Funding Council for
England.
[113] The work of younger scholars such as
Alex Szczerbiak (Poland) Sarah Birch and Katarzyna Wolczuk (the Ukraine) Edwin
Bacon (Russia) comes to mind.
[114] G Evans (ed) The End of Class
Politics/ Class Voting in Comparative Context. Oxford University Press 1999.
[115] The British Association for Slavonic
and East European Studies Directory of Members 2000 used alongside the ESRC
REGARD database of research grants and resources provides a good overview,
albeit selective, of the UK research community.
[116] Review of Former Soviet and East
European Studies. Higher Education Funding Council for England. October 1995 p.
33.
[117] See the most recent issues of Slovo
published at SSEES for articles based on presentations by younger
researchers largely from the UK.
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