About
About the ENRI project:
The proposed research project “Interplay of European, National and Regional Identities: nations between states along the new eastern borders of the European Union” is aimed at a deeper understanding of the ways in which the modern European identities and regional cultures are formed and inter-communicated in the Eastern part of the European continent.
Research on identities in Europe has established considerable knowledge about different kinds and relationships between various forms of belonging in modern European societies.
However, this body of research is often biased in various ways. First, research on contemporary identities in Europe in general and European identity in particular tends to be normative in the sense that the conceptualisation of what European identity is like is blended with wishful thinking of what Europe should be (see for example Delanty 1995, 2002). Second, there is an overemphasis on theoretical constructs and top-down perspectives as opposed to empirically informed accounts of actual practices, attitudes and perceptions. Third, descriptions and classifications take precedence over in depth analysis and explanations of the complexities of the processes involved. Fourth, empirical research and generalisations tend to focus on Western Europe with little or no discussion of East European societies. Admittedly, conventional research has delivered important insights into different aspects of identity formation in Europe. Nevertheless, it also tends to prioritise analysis in which identity formation is either considerably de-contextualised from broader social processes in contemporary European societies, or does not provide adequate understanding of how people are making sense of Europe, what it means to them to be European and ways in which European identities are interacting with other loyalties and feelings of belonging, as in regional or ethnic cultures. The latter shortfall is mainly due to the gap between research and actual practices.
In the suggested study, the top-down approach of normative concepts shall be complemented by a detailed account of bottom-up processes of identity formation. It is by drawing on actual practices we can claim to be in a position to address the importance of both macro and micro influences in a broader historical perspective. A useful vantage point to explore the complex embedded nature of European identities is looking at the restructuring of the nation-state. It could be argued that while in the beginning of the 20th century nation building and national reproduction needed the protection of the state. Conversely, the state needed the nation in order to legitimise and reproduce itself. This is no longer the case. First, the resources necessary for the reproduction of national identities, due to changes in technology and the growing significance of non-state institutions, are increasingly located outside state borders.
In addition, within an environment where there is a pluralisation of identities, both within and beyond the borders of the nation-state as well as the growing significance of cosmopolitan identities, the nation state is no longer able to offer stable, coherent and authoritative definitions of the nation (Delanty and Jones 2002). Secondly, states are increasingly legitimising themselves in a much narrower way by rearranging their broad social responsibilities that were typical for the ‘classical’ nation-state. This restructuring of the relationship between state and society is often associated with a general trend of a growing dominance of economics over politics, which is exacerbated by the impact of neo-liberal views. Some authors have argued that neo-liberal interpretations of the economy are increasingly influential in broader social restructuring leading towards the creation of a market society. In many European states this has entailed a dramatic decrease in welfare provisions while in others this has been associated with much more nuanced policies. The latter argument is well captured in what Jessop (2002) sees as the transition from a Keynesian Welfare National State towards a Schumpeterian Workfare post-national Regimes.
Thirdly, it can also be argued that we are also witnessing the destabilisation of the previously dominant position of national identities within the ‘classical’ nation-state. One possible explanation of this fact can be found in the vast literature on modernisation, reflexivity and the changing character of risk in modern society (Beck 1992). More specifically, these changes can be associated with the growing significance of non-state institutions at the sub-national, supra-national and the global levels where they have challenged the primacy of attachment to the nation. Rather than putting an end to the nation these changes have led to the development of much more complex relationships between different identities and loyalties at different levels. Thus, on the one hand we observe the emergence of identities at different levels (supra-national, sub-national and global), and on the other their complex relationships on the level of individual and group experiences and practices.
In this project we aim to galvanise these three perspectives on the dynamic relationships between identities and state restructuring:
⇒ we will explore the ways in which European, national and regional identities are constituted and negotiated through individual and group narratives and practices within an increasingly complex set of institutional arrangements. While our main focus will be on understanding identity formation and the diversities and commonalities between different European identities, we shall address these questions within the context of different historical legacies as well as the broader processes of social, political and economic restructuring in Europe.
⇒ we explore the interrelation between individual identities (increasingly complex), group identities (where there is a growing significance of cosmopolitan and European identities parallel to national and regional identities), and institutional frameworks (still dominated by the state, but with the increasing significance of non state actors). The restructuring of the relationship between identity and sovereignty and in particular the nation state, as the dominant form in which identity and sovereignty have been married for the last one hundred years, offers an appropriate point of departure for identifying the key themes, questions and concepts of the project.
The broader post-socialist space offers different contexts within which we can explore the changing relationships between identities, nations and states. These are for example:
⇒ post-communist Eastern European countries;
⇒ post-soviet countries with a historical claim on nation and state;
⇒ post-soviet nation-states that emerged within the boundaries of the Soviet republics;
⇒ post-imperial state and nation (Kumar 2003) in the case of Russia.
Thus, drawing on examples from the post-1989 changes in Eastern Europe and the countries of the former USSR, we will examine different cases of identity, nation, and state transformations. When it comes to theory-building, the aims of this project are:
⇒ first, to make inroads in conceptualising different identity regimes,
⇒ second, to re-examine the ways in which the dominant form in which identity and sovereignty blend continues to be significant, and
⇒ third, to understand the diverse set of nested and interlocking institutional, historical and cultural frameworks within which different European identities are constantly negotiated and reshaped.
References:
- Delanty, Gerard. 1995. Inventing Europe. Idea, Identity, Reality. Houndmills, Basingstoke and Hampshire: Macmillan Press Ltd.
- Delanty, Gerard. 2002. “Models of European Identity: Reconciling Universalism and Particularism.” Perspectives on European Politics and Society 3(3):345-359.
- Delanty, G. and Jones, P. (2002) European Identity Architecture, European Journal of Social Theory, 5(4).
- Jessop, B. (2002) The Future of the Capitalist State, Cambridge: Polity.
- Kumar, K. (2003) The Making of English National Identity, Cambridge University Press.
Institute for Advanced Studies IHS Vienna
The Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS) is a non-profit organisation founded in 1963 by two prominent Austrians living in exile, the sociologist Paul F. Lazarsfeld and the economist Oskar Morgenstern, with the financial help of the Ford Foundation, the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, and the City of Vienna. The IHS is now Austria’s premier postgraduate research and training institute that combines theoretical and empirical research in economics and social sciences through the interaction between theory and practice, it provides innovative value-added services to policy makers and business practitioners. The institute’s key features are interdisciplinary exchange, a truly international faculty, a commitment to quality and original scholarly output. In cooperation with the leading universities Austrian universities (the University of Vienna and the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration), it offers MA and Ph.D. courses in Sociology, Economics and Finance. The institute counts approximately 70 scientific and 20 administrative employees.
About 50 students are presently participating in the postgraduate course programs. There are Departments of Sociology, Economics and Finance, Political Sciences as well as an IT department and an excellent library (approximately 20,300 volumes with an access to major international bibliographic databases). At present one-third of the Institute's budget is accounted for by commissioned research. The remaining funding is provided by subsidies from the Federal Ministry of Education and Science, the Austrian National Bank, the City of Vienna, and other institutions.
The Institute for Advanced Studies in Vienna, Austria is be responsible for co-ordinating the whole project under the leadership of Professor Hans Georg Heinrich (Principal Investigator), who has extensive experience of international comparative academic surveys in both Eastern Europe and Western Europe. The IHS-Vienna team further includes Prof. Christian Haerpfer (Director of the IHS’ Centre for Strategic Development and Reader in Political Sciences at the University of Aberdeen, UK), who shall be acting as a Chair of project’s Advisory Board and Dr. Alexander Chvorostov (Deputy Director of the IHS Centre for Strategic Development) who shall coordinate and administer the whole project on behalf of the Coordinating institution (IHS-Vienna). The team includes also Dr. Lyudmila Lobova as a Senior Research Fellow.
Senior research follows:
Prof. Hans Georg Heinrich
Prof. H.G. Heinrich is professor emeritus of political science. He has a background in empirical research, conflict and project management in Eastern Europe and the (Ex-) Soviet Union and is currently working as lecturer for empirical methodology at the School of economics and Humanities in Lodz (Poland). He has a track record as policy advisor for international organisations and NGOs (UN, OSCE, GTZ). In the project, Prof. Heinrich shall be acting as a Principle Investigator and Leader of WP-2 (“Minority histories…”) and WP-4 (“Qualitative surveys”) as well as WP-6 (Dissemination).
Dr. Alexander Chvorostov
Alexander Chvorostov is an experienced sociologist and research manager with an extensive international teaching, research and consulting practice since early 1990s. He has been teaching various undergraduate and post-graduate courses in Sociology in a number of universities in Moscow, Prague and Vienna. Research practice embraces the fields of social transition, educational and social policies, comparative studies of EU and accession countries as well as CIS countries. Consulting experiences include services for the international organisations World Bank, UNDP and UNEP, DFID and DRC (UK), TACIS projects, Regional Environmental Centre (Budapest), as well as various governmental institutions in Russia (Federal Ministries of Nature Protection, Education, Social Security) and in Austria (Federal Ministry for Social Security, Generations and Consumer Protection, Government of Burgenland). Dr. Chvorostov has worked as an academic consultant to the George Soros Foundation (OSI-Open Society Institute), World .Bank projects, as well as coordinated a series of FP5, FP6 and INTAS projects. In the project, Dr. Chvorostov shall act as a project coordinator mainly responsible for the WP-7 (Consortium management) as well as WP-3 (Secondary data analysis).
Prof. Christian Haerpfer
Christian Haerpfer is Head of the 'Centre for Strategic Development’ at the Institute for Advanced Studies, and has been Woodrow Wilson Fellow in Washington, DC (2004/2005) in Eastern European Societies and Politics. He is also Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Vienna. Christian Haerpfer has worked as consultant regarding 'academic survey research about Central and Eastern Europe' for the EBRD (London) and the OECD (Paris). The proposed 10 quantitative-national surveys carried out here would be building on that expertise. Christian Haerpfer was (together with Richard Rose) the Principal Investigator and Co-ordinator of cross-national academic surveys in post-communist countries, he pioneered the influential New Democracies Barometer (6 waves) in 1991, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998 and 2002, the New Russia Barometer 1994 and in addition participated in the World Values Survey-Programme in 1999 with a survey on Hungary and in 2006 with a survey in Moldova.
The two former survey-programmes analyse the social, economic and political conditions during the transformation period in post-Communist Europe. They include altogether quantitative survey data on post-Communist living conditions collected from more than 50 000 face-to-face interviews conducted under the coordination of Christian Haerpfer in the period between 1991 and 2006 in post-Communist Europe. Christian W.Haerpfer was co-ordinator of the INCO-Copernicus project ‘Living Conditions, Lifestyles and Health’ in the period 2000-2003, which was analysing the national and supranational identities and the health situation in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
Dr. Luydmila Lobova
Education: Law, History, and Political Science. PhD in Political Science 1995 (Moscow), Nostrification at the Faculty of Fundamental and Integrative Sciences at the University of Vienna 1996, FWF Research Fellow, 1998-2000. Series of lectures at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna 2001. Lectures at the Institute for Eastern European History and the University of Vienna (academic year: 2001/2002) and at the Institute for Political Science an the University of Vienna (academic year: 2003-2007). Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Consequences of Wars (Ludwig Boltzmann Institut für Kriegsfolgen-Forschung), 2.9.2002 – 15.12.2004. Scientific coordinator of the project “Russia: Continuity and Change” under the auspices of the GESOK (Austrian Association for the Cooperation with East European Countries). The International Institute for Peace (IIP), Scientific coordinator of the project “The Moscow Memorandum of April 15, 1955” 15.12.2005- 30.6.2005, Austrian State Archives 12.5.2003 - 30.12.2005, since 2.1.2006 Austrian Institute for the Danube Region (IDM, Vienna). Publications on Ethnopolitische Konflikte in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS):, Außen- und Sicherheitspolitik Russlands, Austrian and international politics.
TARKI Research Institute Inc. TARKI Hungary
TÁRKI was founded in 1985 by major Hungarian social science research units to create a centre for empirical sociological research, to establish a data bank that collects the databases of national and international surveys, and to facilitate an up-to date methodological culture. In the late 1990s TÁRKI separated its wide range of activities and formed the TÁRKI Group. The Group comprises three organisations: TÁRKI Joint Research Centre (TÁRKI JRC), TÁRKI Social Research Institute Inc., and the TÁRKI Foundation.
The TÁRKI Joint Research Centre [Társadalomkutatási Informatikai Egyesülés] is a non-profit organisation owned by Hungarian academic institutions. Main activities include research and data projects as well as data archiving and dissemination. Research projects encompass the areas of sociology, social policy and economics (e.g. regular monthly omnibuses, special surveys and household panels on various topics; local government research; micro-simulation; generational accounting). The TÁRKI JRC has long been active in various international research networks and consortia (such as IFDO - International Federation of Data Organisations; CESSDA - Council of European Social Science Data Archives; ICPSR - Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research; ISSP - International Social Survey Program; ESS - European Social Survey; LIS - Luxembourg Income Study; HWF – Households, Work and Flexibility, 5th Framework Programme; CHER - Consortium of Household Panels for European Socio-economic Research, 5th Framework
Programme), and is a member of the Central European Opinion Research Group (CEORG), a Brussels-based foundation that consists of three major research institutions in the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary, and conducts comparative surveys on local as well as European social and political issues. TARKI provides the technical and infrastructure background for the implementation of the proposed project, including its administrative staff and the services of its financial department. The TARKI team comprises researchers whose respective areas of expertise complement each other effectively. The team includes three senior researchers: Endre SIK (team leader), Antal ÖRKÉNY, and Mária SZÉKELYI, who have worked together in a great variety of projects in recent years, among them:
a migration potential research in 2002-2003, which explored the structure and characteristics of the migration potential of Hungarian and Roma communities in Hungary and neighbouring countries. Research results were published in: „Menni vagy maradni” [To Go or to Stay] (ed.: Antal Örkény: Sík Kiadó, Budapest, 2003);
the IKM Project (Inter-ethnic Knowledge Management in East-Central Europe; 2002-2004), which produced an integrated database and knowledge management system suitable for storing and analysing information related to the complex inter-ethnic relations of the region. The result is an on-line, interactive system that is currently being tested and will be made widely available to academic, governmental, policy and educational communities.
Endre SIK is a project manager at TÁRKI and a professor at ELTE (Eötvös Loránd University Budapest). His main fields of research are: migration; Diaspora; xenophobia; labour market; informal economy; households’ economic behaviour; social network capital. He has been engaged in a broad range of international research activities, among them: “Diaspora-politics in Hungary, in Russia and in the Ukraine” (COLPI, Budapest 1998-2000); ”Cultural Identity of Hungarian Migrants in Austria” (1997-2001, European Cultural Foundation, Wien-Budapest); "The Social Costs of Transformation"(1994-1996, Ins. für die Wissenschaft von Menschen, Wien/Austria); "Migration Potential" (1993-5, European Community, COST, Brain Drain Project).
Antal Örkény is Professor of Sociology at the Faculty of Social Sciences and the head of the Social Psychology Department of Eötvös Loránd University Budapest. He is the chair of the ELTE-UNESCO MSD, and the director of the Minority Research Institute. His major research fields include cross-national surveys on national identity and national stereotypes, patterns of knowledge of nations about themselves and one another, popular perceptions of social justice, and inter-ethnic relations. He is an expert in cross-national comparative research methodology. Among his extensive publications, one of his books published in English is: Grappling with National Identity. How Nations See Each Other in Central Europe. Budapest, Akadémiai Kiadó, 2000 (co-authors: György Csepeli and Mária Székelyi) Member of Project’s Steering Committee)
Mária Székelyi is Professor of Sociology at the Faculty of Social Sciences of Eötvös Loránd University Budapest, and the deputy dean of the Faculty. Her major research fields are cross-national surveys on social justice, national identity and national stereotypes, inter-ethnic relations, attitudes, prejudice and discriminatory behaviour. She is an expert in research methodology. She has published four monographs until now.
University Court of the University of Aberdeen UK
The University of Aberdeen was founded in 1495 and is now one of the UK's most internationally distinguished universities, with a superb reputation going back many centuries. The 2001 Research Assessment Exercise results proved a triumph as the exceptional research achievements of ten departments received a high rating of 5, as internationally distinguished. Hence, 85% of Aberdeen's staff are working in departments that are recognised as centres of national and international excellence. The Department of Sociology achieved a ranking of 5 in the last Research Assessment Exercise, making it one of the leading Departments of Sociology in the country as well as in Scotland. It was ranked 4th out of all UK Departments in the recent Times Higher Education Review system, which takes into account teaching quality as well as research quality. Since that time it has been expanded with the appointment of several new professors and related staff. It is the home of two international journals: that of Cultural Sociology and European Societies The University of Aberdeen combine academic excellence with a culture of care, and were commended recently by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education for the quality of relationships between students and staff of the University at all levels. The team includes Prof. Claire Wallace, Dr. Florian Pichler and Dr. Ivalyo Vassiliev.
Senior research follows:
Prof. Claire Wallace,
Chair at the Sociology Department (University of Aberdeen, UK)
Claire Wallace has taught qualitative research methods in several Universities in the UK as well as in Prague (4 years) and Warsaw (2 years). She is now a visiting professor (since 2005) and former Head of Sociology Department (2001-2005) at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Vienna as well as Founder and Dean of the Sociology Department at the Central European University in Prague (1991-1995). Prof. Wallace has been responsible for developing the post-graduate training programme in Comparative Social Research. She has undertaken many international research projects for the European Commission, the World Bank, the European Parliament and other organisations. She is consultant to DG Employment and Social Affairs helping to compile the volume „The Social Situation in the European Union“.
Claire Wallace has written or edited 13 books and about one hundred articles. She has produced a well-known textbook „Introduction to Sociology: Feminist Perspectives“ with Pamela Abbott that is now in its third edition and a manual on doing qualitative research which was translated into Russian and is now used as a text for training researchers in the former Soviet countries. Prof. Wallace is the Editor of “European Societies” (published by Routledge for the European Sociological Association) and cooperates with many universities in CIS countries (Moscow State University, Higher School of Economics, Kharkiv National University, Belarusian State University, etc.) In the project, Prof. Wallace shall be a Leader of the research Theme 2 (Migration across the new EU-CIS borders) and Project Vice-Director.
Florian Pichler
Florian Pichler has obtained his PhD from the University of Aberdeen in January 2007. He sustained his MA in Sociology in 2001 from the University of Vienna, Austria. He successfully completed a 2-year postgraduate programme at the Institute for Advanced Studies, where he was research fellow in 2004/2005 before he moved on to the University of Aberdeen, together with Professor Wallace. Additionally, he holds courses at the Institute for Sociology at the University of Vienna. He teaches quantitative methods for social scientists as well as a course on cross-national/cultural survey research. His major projects focus on European, cosmopolitan and other identities (the topic of his doctoral research), social capital, and new forms of civic governance (citizenship). From 2005 to 2007, he was methodological advisor of European societies, the official journal of the European Sociological Association. In the project Dr. Florian Pichler shall contribute to the three Work packages (WP-R1.1, WP-R3.4 and WP-R3.3)
Dr. Ivo Vassiliev
Ivaylo Vassilev is currently a Research Fellow at the Sociology Department in University of Aberdeen. His PhD thesis looked at the restructuring of agriculture in Bulgaria after the changes in 1989 and was received at Lancaster University. The thesis draws on economic sociology and systems theory in examining the changing relations in ethnically mixed rural localities; the emergence, evolution and functioning of markets; institutional legacies and path-dependence; and the development of different policy and production strategies. More recently he has worked on issues of governance, strategy, work and family within the context of comparative studies across different European countries. His other interests are in the areas of nationalism, transformations in Eastern Europe, and social theory, particularly around issues of trust.
Osteuropa Institut Regensburg OSI-Regensburg Germany
The Osteuropa-Institut Munich which has been founded in 1952 is an independent research institute including an economic and a historical department, a research Centre on Ukraine and a study group on migration and integration. Research subjects of the economics department are regional developments and economic policies in Eastern Europe and the CIS as well as economic and financial links between East and West. The research centre on Ukraine investigates current economic trends and historic subjects in the Ukraine, the study group on migration and integration deals with East-West migration in the context of the Eastern enlargement of the EU. Furthermore the study group on migration and integration focuses on the integration of immigrants (particularly Aussiedler and Jewish quota refugees) from Eastern Europe in Germany and the EU and with EU migration policies.
The institute produces politically relevant economic and historical studies based on scientific analysis. In addition the institute includes a large library with an impressive collection of scientific works from and about Eastern Europe and the CIS. The well indexed library is among the largest in Europe specialised in the above mentioned fields. At the moment there are ca. 25 permanent staff members working in the institute. In addition, members of the institute’s staff cooperate with the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting in Kiev which was founded in October 1999 by top-ranking Ukrainian politicians and the German Advisory Group on Economic Reforms. The German Advisory Group on Economic Reforms with the Government of the Ukraine has been advising the country’s government, the President’s Office, the National Bank and the Verkhovna Rada since 1994 on the implementation of economic reforms.
The research results of the Osteuropa-Institut Munich are published in working papers, scientific journals and books and are regularly presented by its staff members at conferences and seminars. Furthermore the scientific work is transmitted to other countries by consulting activities of the staff members. Besides the internationally renowned journals ‘Economic Systems’ and ‘Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas’ are published here.
Senior research fellow:
- Dr. Barbara Dietz
Dr. Barbara Dietz is the head of the study group on migration and integration at the Osteuropa-Institut Munich which explores various issues related to East-West migration and to the integration of immigrants from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union in Germany and the EU countries. She has conducted extensive research on migration policies and on East-West migration movements after the political changes in Eastern Europe and the break-up of the Soviet Union.
Furthermore she is involved in studies exploring the social and economic integration of East European migrant populations in Germany. She also works as a consultant for the INTAS projects “Social and Political Trends for CIS Countries: Key-Indicators and Social Measurements of Transition” (INTAS Ref. N. 03-51-6388) and “Patterns of Migration in the New European Borderlands: An assessment of Post-Enlargement Migration Trends in NIS Border Countries” (INTAS Ref. No: 04-79-7165).
Institute of Social Research (Vilnius) ISR-Vilnius Lithuania
The Lithuania team is represented by a group of researchers from the Institute for Social Research (ISR). After the reform in 2002, the Institute for Social Research became a professional centre with key research areas in: 1. Theory and methodology of social science; 2. Social welfare; 3. Social stratification; 4. Demographic processes; and 5. Ethnic studies. The Institute is an independent public institution provided basic funding by the government and earning part of its budget through the commissioned research. Currently with over 50 employees working in five departments of the Institute, there is a number of projects running that range from statistical analysis of large data sets to qualitative research, from academic analysis of social theory to applied studies and policy analysis.
The Institute’s personnel has been involved in common research and academic initiatives jointly with the colleagues from countries of the region, including Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Russian Federation, and Belarus. The ISR publishes a journal Ethnicity Studies, which is a series of ethnicity related studies and their methodology covering research in the Baltics and Eastern Europe. The journal series includes a volume on attitudes of various ethnic groups from the new member states to the referendum regarding country’s membership in the EU ( Ethnicity Studies 2004: Perceptions of European Integration. Vilnius: Socialinių tyrimų institutas/Eugrimas, 2004. ISSN 1822-1041)
Prof. Arvydas Matulionis is a leading sociologist in Lithuania, Elected member expert of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences (1991), a director of the ISR since 2002. He is actively involved in both research and academic activities. He is a professor and supervisor of doctoral research in a range of Lithuanian universities, including Vilnius University, Kaunas Technological University, Vytautas Magnus University. Prof A. Matulionis leads the research on social stratification in the ISR, and is also involved in coordination of projects on national identities. His expertise has been acknowledged by appointing him as an independent expert of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance. In 1993-1998, Prof. A. Matulionis served as an advisor to the President of Lithuanian Republic for education, science, culture and religion.
Dr. Tadas Leončikas is a sociologist with extensive skills in data analysis, report writing, and coordination of research process. Currently he works as a senior researcher at the Centre of Ethnic Studies of the ISR; and is an expert of an NGO Human Rights Monitoring Institute. T. Leončikas is a leader of a series of research projects and author of a range publications on ethnic minorities in Lithuania. His field of work also include issues of equal opportunities with regard to ethnicity, and he is an expert on Roma issues in Lithuania. His research work includes analysis of inter-ethnic attitudes and analysis of national data for European Value Survey (1990,1999). T. Leončikas takes an active part in expertise and working groups: he stands in the Expert Group for the Department of National Minorities and Lithuanians Living Abroad under the Government of Lithuania and has co-authored a policy background document Strategy of Ethnic Policy (2003). and is a member of the editorial board of a journal Ethnicity Studies. In 2007, he published a volume on the issues of assimilation in contemporary Lithuanian society.
Dr. Vida Beresnevičiūtė is a sociologist with extensive experience in research on minority issues, management of projects, mainly in the fields of educational and civic development. Currently she works as a senior researcher at the at the Centre of Ethnic Studies of the ISR. Since 2004, she has been contributing as an expert to the reports to the EU and other international agencies regarding inequalities between ethnic groups and issues of social inclusion. She has experience in monitoring intolerance in the media. Along publications in both national and international journals, in 2005, she published a volume on the dimensions of social integration of the Lithuanian ethnic groups.
Moscow State University MSU-CSR Russia
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Belarusian State University BSU-CSR Belarus
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Articles – Good topics for articles include anything related to your company – recent changes to operations, the latest company softball game – or the industry you’re in. General business trends (think national and even international) are great article fodder, too.
Mission statements – You can tell a lot about a company by its mission statement. Don’t have one? Now might be a good time to create one and post it here. A good mission statement tells you what drives a company to do what it does.
Company policies – Are there company policies that are particularly important to your business? Perhaps your unlimited paternity/maternity leave policy has endeared you to employees across the company. This is a good place to talk about that.
Executive profiles – A company is only as strong as its executive leadership. This is a good place to show off who’s occupying the corner offices. Write a nice bio about each executive that includes what they do, how long they’ve been at it, and what got them to where they are.
East-Ukrainian Foundation for Social Research EUFSR Ukraine
This is a long form text area designed for your content that you can fill up with as many words as your heart desires. You can write articles, long mission statements, company policies, executive profiles, company awards/distinctions, office locations, shareholder reports, whitepapers, media mentions and other pieces of content that don’t fit into a shorter, more succinct space.
Articles – Good topics for articles include anything related to your company – recent changes to operations, the latest company softball game – or the industry you’re in. General business trends (think national and even international) are great article fodder, too.
Mission statements – You can tell a lot about a company by its mission statement. Don’t have one? Now might be a good time to create one and post it here. A good mission statement tells you what drives a company to do what it does.
Company policies – Are there company policies that are particularly important to your business? Perhaps your unlimited paternity/maternity leave policy has endeared you to employees across the company. This is a good place to talk about that.
Executive profiles – A company is only as strong as its executive leadership. This is a good place to show off who’s occupying the corner offices. Write a nice bio about each executive that includes what they do, how long they’ve been at it, and what got them to where they are.
University of St. Cyril and Methodius UnivCM Slovakia
The University of St.Cyril and Methodius (UCM) in Trnava consists of three faculties: Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Natural Sciences and the Faculty of Mass Media Communications (www.ucm.sk). The Faculty of Arts offers courses in Philosophy, History, Psychology, Political Sciences, Ethnology and also in Slovak, Russian, English, German Languages and Literature.
CERYS - Centre for European and Regional Youth Studies: The Centre provides following types of sociological analysis and information for professionals as well as students: 1. on European Youth Policy 2. on civil youth policy in Europe 3. establish and maintain a documentation centre for teaching manuals and projects of youth work 4. carry out sociological surveys of political participation and multiculturality of youth.
Prof.Ladislav Macháček, Ph.D.(1942). Dpt. Educational Sciences at the Faculty of Arts University of St.Cyril and Methodiu (UCM) in Trnava, Slovakia. At the present time prof. Machacek is a director of Centre for European and Regional Youth Studies at the Philosophical Faculty UCM in Trnava, Research fields: youth sociology, the state youth policy and youth work in Europa, youth movements in Slovakia, youth unemployment, the political participation and youth multiculturality.
Reasearch experiences: After 1989 was a member of research team for creation of civil society in Slovakia (1991-1993, 1994-1996, 1997-1999, 2000-2002) at the Institute for Sociology Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava. In 1995 served as coordinator of the project Phare Citizenship and Participation in Slovakia. He was head of research group Preparedness of Citizens of the Slovak Republic for European Citizenship/1997-1999/ and was head of project Youth associativism in Slovakia /2000-2002/. He was project manager of EC project Youth and European Identity (2001-2004) and EC project Political participation of Youth-Euyoupart (2003-2005) in Slovakia as well as member of team UP2YOUTH project (2006-2008)
Organisational experiences: Participation in sociological world congress in Varna (1970), Madrid (1990), Bielefeld (1994), Montreal (1998) and Brisbane (2002). He was member of board RC 34 for youth sociology ISA. In the mean time he is a president of youth section in Slovak Sociological Association and president of the Slovak Society for Educational Sciences (2002-2008). He is Editor in chief of Youth and Society (Mládež a spoločnosť), a journal for the state youth policy and youth work in Slovakia.
Members of team
- PhDr. Darina Chovaniakova, PhD student Mit Dissertation „Deutschlandbild bei slowakischen SchülerInnen. Von der Stereotypisierung zum interkulturellen Lernen.“ (Arbeitstitel), zu dem sie das Exposé vorgelegt hat, zeigt sich für die Slowakei höchstaktuell einerseits in Bezug auf die Integration der Slowakischen Republik im demokratischen Europa und andererseits in Bezuf auf die Uberwindung und den Abbau von Stereotypen und Vorurteilen gegenüber Deutschland und den Deutschen, die oft mit der Vergangenheit verbunden werden.
Oxford XXI UK
Oxford XXI is strategic think tank which generates innovative research on social, economic, cultural and related issues. A non-profit organisation, Oxford XXI13 was legally established in 2006 to coalesce the cumulative knowledge and experience of its large network of principals, academic associates and contributors. It was founded by the directors of Hart Resources Ltd (known as Hart Group, a social and economic development consultancy14) and its associates in Europe to provide a focus for cutting edge research to underpin its consultancy work.
The Music Mind Spirit Trust researches and explores the neurological, scientific and ethical basis of music in order to understand its underlying effect on cognitive, social and subjective behaviours. The Music Mind Spirit Trust15 is a charitable organisation which brings together leading scientists, philosophers, psychologists and medical and management experts. We also help promote and educate the public in the art and science of music in relation to their work, lives and experiences. The project calls for a multi-disciplinary team with a range of specific experience and expertise sets. Examples of relevant past projects requiring similar expertise in social research, analysis, dissemination of the results and policy development are as follows:
International, intergenerational music programme, Songtrees, was designed to evoke people’s deep musical memories. It is based on the concept developed by Dr Chika Robertson for the Songtrees project in the UK as a Music Mind Spirit trust project. The main objectives of the initial Songtrees project are: through sharing musical memories with their parents, grandparents and friends, children gain insight into their cultural identity and create a valuable archive for musical/medical research. Music across three generations: 3G music was designed to discover what kinds of music different people from all generations throughout the world remember and to which they associate.
This programme, originally supported by the Department for Education and Skills, enables children to address ‘citizenship’ and ‘creativity’ within both the classroom and community, establishing a model which can be implemented in the UK and other countries easily and successfully. SongTrees has gained an excellent reputation thanks to a strong partnership between the Music Mind Trust with local primary, junior and special needs schools, Arts Council England, Sidney de Haan Research Centre, county art organisations, Artists for Alzheimer’s and Hearthstone Alzheimer Care, University of the 3rd Age (U3A), Ronda School (Kenya), EnKI Foundation and the Szilvay Foundation (Finland and UK). Also involved in the project are Prof. Paul Robertson, Professor Paul Grob, Professor of Medicine and Dr. John Zeisel - gerontologist specializing in the non-pharmacologic treatment of age related dementias.
EU Accession countries - policies assessments and evaluation: Dr Lyudmila Nurse, participated in the Council of Europe evaluation of the national youth policies of Lithuania and Romania. This included the evaluation of policy effectiveness of Youth Policy, as part of the Council of Europe pre-accession policy evaluation process and hence included the issues of co-operation between NGOs and other organs, including international relations.
EU border countries - economic and social development: Lviv Regional Development, Ukraine, (DFID) The project aimed to support the Lviv Oblast authorities and partners to further develop the planning, programming, budgeting and implementation framework for regional economic development, in the specific context of the cross-border implications of Poland entering the EU. The project assisted with preparing a regional development strategy. The project, led by the University of Birmingham to provide an initial assessment of the suitability of the information base and proposed strategies for identifying strategic impacts, Lyudmila Nurse led a group of social statisticians.
Project Team
Dr Lyudmila A. Nurse, Team Leader, co-founder of Oxford XXI is a professional sociologist with more than 20 years of experience in sociological research in social institutions, generational and cohort studies, social monitoring, social analysis and evaluation in Russia and Eastern European countries. Lyudmila’s experience includes 13 years of social research relating to the countries affected by economic and social restructuring. She has extensive experience in methodology of international, national and regional comparative and longitudinal studies, social and economic monitoring. Lyudmila has extensive consultancy experience with social mitigation, social monitoring and evaluation, human resources and social policy projects in EU new member states and accession countries (Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Estonia) and countries of CIS countries (Kazakhstan, Russia, Georgia, Ukraine).
Between 1982 and 1992 Lyudmila Nurse was involved in National (All-union) longitudinal study of the secondary schools leavers “Paths of Generation” (included countries: Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, and Ukraine as a principal researcher in two regions (Kurgan and Tula) and in 1987-1990 as the Secretary-coordinator of the research project Lyudmila Nurse participated in the production of numerous international reports including:
United Nations World Youth Report, 2003 provided review to the early drafts of the report on youth employment, participated in the consultations
Lithuanian National Youth Policy Review by the International group of Experts, Council of Europe, Strasbourg, 2002, Rappourter
Romanian National Youth Policy. Evaluation report by the international Group of Experts, Council of Europe, Strasbourg, 2000, co-author
Dr Chika Robertson,
Senior Researcher. With her background as a multiple prizewinner solo violinist, Chika Robertson was awarded fellowships to work with distinguished conductors including Ozawa and Bernstein for prestigious music festivals including Aspen, Tanglewood and the Mozarteum. She studied the violin with Shapiro of the University of Southern California, where she was a Teaching Assistant, was awarded the Chamber Music Prize and received her MMus degree (magna cum laude), and with Dorothy Delay of the Juilliard School. She played in the Hollywood film studios, led the LA Music Centre Quartet, led and managed the Schoenberg Institute's USC Contemporary Music Ensemble and was the operations manager for the Los Angeles Chamber Players. Following her arrival in England, she performed regularly with numerous highly acclaimed ensembles including the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Lontano and London Sinfonietta, giving many first performances and working with esteemed composers such as Knussen, Adams and Lutoslawski.
In 1999 she was awarded a PhD in contemporary violin pedagogy and performing practice. Dr. Robertson is passionate about education and the involvement of music throughout the curriculum, working with pupils of all ages and standards to develop and explore creative approaches to teaching and performing. She is currently Director of Music at Cranleigh Preparatory School and Professor of Violin at the Junior Academy, Royal Academy of Music. She leads various orchestras as a violinist, is a popular adjudicator and a mentor for NESTA. She has initiated and directed several highly successful programmes, including 'Fiddle Fun' for teaching the violin to children from the age of 3, and 'SongTrees', an intergenerational music project that links children with their families and communities through musical memory and song, thus rediscovering and celebrating cultural heritage. She presents 'Sound Beginning' concerts to babies, toddlers and parents together with pianist Mikhail Kazakevich and Prof. Paul Robertson, with whom she is Joint Chief Executive of the newly formed Music Mind Spirit Trust. Chika Robertson plays a Paolo Antonio Testore violin, dated 1737.
Ewa Barbara OCHMAN, Senior Expert
Ewa Ochman is an Ethno-linguist and an expert in Eastern European historic memories research with a focus on Poland and ethnic communities along the Polish borders. She is currently a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow for the project: ‘The Second World War and Commemoration in Poland post-1989’ and she is also a lecturer at School of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures, University of Manchester. Ewa is a member of the British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies, the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies and was previously Associate Researcher at the European Studies Research Institute, Salford University.
Prof. Paul Robertson, Senior Adviser
For thirty four years Professor Paul Robertson performed throughout the world as leader of the internationally renowned Medici String Quartet of which he was a founder member. He is Visiting Professor of Music and medicine at the Peninsula Medical School, Visiting Professor at the Copenhagen Business School, Associate Fellow at Templeton College, Oxford and a member of the European Cultural Parliament. Paul is also a Cultural Leader in the World Economic Forum, and is in regular conversation with business, media and political leaders. His other current projects include 'Swansongs', a research collaboration with Dr John Zeisel on the relationship between musical structure and the neurophysiology of Alzheimer's syndrome, and the development of The Young Musicians' World Peace Orchestra (comprising young musicians from the Balkans). The Orchestra performed to great acclaim at the World Economic Forum's summit in Salzburg in September 2002. Paul's continuing interest in exploring the implicit meanings of music has taken many forms over the years. For nearly 30 years he has worked alongside leading scientists to explore the neurological and scientific basis of music. This work reached a wide public with his highly acclaimed Channel 4 television series 'Music and the Mind'. Along with his busy concert schedule, he is in constant international demand as a speaker and lecturer at medical, scientific and educational
conferences as well as business colloquia. He has recently Lectured at Harvard Business School, The Royal Institute, The Royal Society of Medicine and the Royal Society of Art (where he is a Fellow). He has just edited ‘The Musical Brain’ a contemporary survey of Musical Brain Mapping. Paul plays a rare Montagnana violin from Venice dated 1726.
Maria Curie-Sklodowska University Lublin Uni-Lublin Poland
UMCS is a public higher education institution, which has acted consistently since 1944 for the development anddissemination of knowledge. The research conducted in numerous fields has contributed significantly to the development of science and the results have been repeatedly used in practice. It is thanks to its over sixty-year--long efforts that Maria Curie-Skłodowska University has won recognition both at home and abroad, and has also become the workplace of superbly educated academic staff and a school for highly qualified specialists in many fields.
Faculty of Political Science The origins of the Faculty of Political Science date back to 1964. In the early 1980s the Inter-University Institute consisted of five research teams: Contemporary International Relations, Theory of Politics and Political Organisations, Contemporary Political Movements and Political Thought, Socio-Economic Policy and Studies of Poles Living Abroad. The Teams were subsequently transformed into Departments. In the late 1980s there were six of them: International Relations, Political Thought of the 19th and 20th Centuries, Political Movements and Doctrines, Political Systems, Ethnic Studies, and Sociology of Politics. In the 1990s new Departments were added: Department of Journalism, Department of Human Rights, and Department of Local Government and Policies. Currently, the Faculty of Political Science employs 75 teaching and research staff, of which 19 are habilitated doctors [postdoctoral degrees] (including seven titular full professors), 31 staff with PhD and 25 MA holders. The Faculty's academic staff cooperate with ca. 200 scientific centres both at home and abroad. The Faculty organises over a dozen scientific conferences annually. For the last several years it has held the highest Category A awarded by the Committee for Scientific Research.
Department of Ethnic Studies research areas: ethnic problems with a particular emphasis on national minorities both in international relations and in the process of political system transformation in Poland. Studies cover the following problems:
Ethnic groups in the present-day world;
Polish minorities and Polish communities abroad;
International law protection of national minorities;
Policies towards minorities in selected countries;
The legal status of national minorities;
Polish-Jewish relationships: Past and Present;
Multi-ethnic relationships.
Dr hab. Konrad Zieliński (1971) is a Professor at Maria Curie Sklodowski University (Faculty of Political Science- Department of Ethnic Studies), where he teaches modern Jewish history and culture. He also deals with migrations, ethnic relations, history and culture of Jews in Russia and USSR. He also run course on Genocide in the Twentieth Century. His current research investigates intra- and interethnic relations; identity formation; the migration of the Polish and non-Polish population in the lands of the former Russian empire and the Soviet Union, Polish-Jewish relationships. Konrad Zieliński is a member of the Polish Association of Jewish Studies and European Association for Jewish Studies.
Recent research projects (international):
2001-2004: U.K. AHRB project ‘Population Displacement, State Building and Social Identity in the Lands of the Former Russian Empire, 1918-1930’, University of Manchester (research assistant);
2006: project ‘Jews in the Baltic States’, Centre for East European Jewish Studies, Vilnius, Lithuania; within the project Konrad Zieliński investigated problem: ‘Politics of the Polish State towards the Jewish Emigrants, Repatriates and Refugees from Russia’, (research fellow):
2006 → U.K. AHRB project ‘Population Displacements, State Practice and Social Exclusion in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, 1930-1945’, University of Manchester and Nottingham University (research associate)
Research Design
Theoretical and methodological background
Theoretical and methodological backgrounds for the studies of European, national and regional identities of split nations and ethnic groups in European borderlands
Theoretical and methodological backgrounds for the studies of European, national and regional identities of split nations and ethnic groups in European borderlands
Main input is expected from the Aberdeen University team (Dr. Florian Pichler and Dr. Ivo Vassiliev, scientific supervision by led by Prof. Claire Wallace). Prof. Endre Sik and Prof. Hans G.Heinrich shall assure compliance of theoretical assumptions and empirical options of the project. Each intermediate deliverable shall be discussed by other project teams and is subject to approval by the project’s Advisory Board.
Task 1: Writing and discussion of report outline and basic frameworks of project surveys Outlines the theoretical frameworks of the study (draft, discussion, approval)
Task 2: Writing and discussion outlines basic frameworks of project surveys Outlines the empirical frameworks of the study (draft).
Task 3: Writing and discussion of the first draft report Report contains literature review and analysis of existing empirical data (draft, discussion, approval).
Task 3: Incorporation newly gathered empirical survey results Extended draft report containing new empirical data and revised theoretical and methodological components (draft, discussion, approval).
Task 4: Writing and discussion the final draft Final report based on previous drafts and outcomes of regional workshops (discussion, approval).
Contextual reviews and minority histories
Contextual reviews and minority histories (per country and studied groups) (histories, literature, data reviews)
(“Minority reports”)
The main input is expected from the coordinating team and the whole WP is lead by Prof. Heinrich and further co-editors are Prof. Sik (for EU nations) and Prof. Rotman (for NIS nations). Local experts shall be writing respective national (ethnic) parts of the report.
Task 1. Guidelines (draft, discussion, approval) (Prof. Heinrich, Sik, Rotman)
Task 2. “Minority reports” for the groups A through J (first draft, discussion, approval) (Editor: Prof. Heinrich, team leaders)
Task 3. “Minority reports” for the groups A through J (final reports, discussion) (Editor: Prof. Heinrich, team leaders)
Task 4. Summary and cross-national report (first draft, discussion, final draft) (Prof. Heinrich, Sik, Rotman)
Secondary data analysis (sociological and statistical data)
The main input is expected from local teams and the whole WP is lead by Dr. Alexander Chvorostov and Prof. Rotman. Local experts shall be doing data mining and analysis of respective national (ethnic) parts of this sub-study.
Task 1. Writing and approval of guidelines (Chvorostov, Rotman, Sik, Wallace, Haerpfer)
Task 2. Data collection and analysis (per group and cross-national data sets) (team leaders)
Task 3. Data unification, reporting, storage (Chvorostov, Rotman)
Cross-national quantitative/qualitative surveys
Cross-national quantitative surveys (values and identities survey):design, supervision, reporting.
Final decision regarding the scope of the survey shall be taken by the Steering Committee (see WP Management). A special Survey Technical Group shall be established to supervise and verify the surveys (quality assurance) (see WP Management). Consortium’s Ethical Issues Group shall review survey tools and produce an Ethical Conformity Certificate for each set of survey documents.
Task 1. Writing and approval of guidelines and agreement on geographical scope of the survey
Task 2. Development of survey tools (sampling, questionnaires, instructions, etc.)
Task 3. Supervision of field-works and quality assurance procedures (inspections and data checks)
Task 4. Data entry, processing, harmonization and storage
Task 5. Technical reporting and data description
Cross-national qualitative surveys: design, supervision, reporting
Final decision regarding the types, scopes and thematic coverage of these surveys shall be taken by the Steering Committee by the project’s month 9. It is planned that the main survey themes would include following topics: attitudes towards and relationships with “mother nations”, attitudes towards and relationships with “host nations”, issues of integration and socialization, political participation and engagement, migration intentions and experiences, notions of “Europe”, “native nation”, “native region”, issues of self-governance and political representation of ethnic minorities, state policies toward ethic minorities in general and toward particular groups, official diaspora policies and relations with neighbouring countries, media coverage of interests and needs of these groups.
Organization of each individual survey as well as ethical verification procedure are similar to the WP-4.
Qualitative surveys are:
⇒ in-depth interviews with representatives of ethnic minorities (15 to 30 interviews per group)
⇒ expert interviews (with leaders of relevant NGOs; local or regional and national governmental officials) (5 to 10 interviews per group)
⇒ teenagers essays (30 to 100 essays per group) (Prof. Rotman)
⇒ musical 3G survey and special focus group (pilot effort in two to four groups) (50 to 100 questionnaires per group and 4 to 8 focus group sessions in total) (Dr. Lydmila Nurse)
⇒ content-analysis of Internet blogs (Prof. Heinrich)
⇒ Content analysis of items in local and regional periodicals dealing with identity issues (three samples per selected group: 3 X 10 = 30 samples in total.
Field works (organisation and conduct of surveys, inclusive of quality control and technical reporting)
Two-stage data collection quality control will be organized with the purpose of ensuring the quality of
data collection. This control will give information about effectiveness of interviewing work, inform on
the discipline in following the instructions and parameters of samples, as well it will ground the choice
of experts, respondents for the in-depth interviews and recruiting of focus-groups participants.
The first stage is internal control organized by national team leaders in the countries where the field
research is conducted. The internal control will be realized by the method of second visit, it
presupposes to cover 15% of respondents. Control protocols will be presented to the Technical
Committee of the Consortium during a month after finalizing the field stage of the research. The
second stage is external control that shall be organized by the project coordinator and Steering
Committee. Independent experts are invited in order to realize this control stage. External control is
realized by the method of second visit of the respondents (7% of the massive is controlled), and also
by the method of checking the filled in research tools, rout lists and other technical documents. // In
the course of the control realization the independent experts carry out talks with interviewers and
heads of the questioning network with the aim of assessing quality of their work. Control protocols will
be presented to the project coordinator and to the Steering Committee during two months after
finalizing the fieldwork stage.
Training sessions (Spring schools) to train regional survey supervisors and interviewers
This workpackage is necessary to train and instruct regional and local the survey administrators participants from several countries and thus to secure the highest uniformity of the surveys as well as the conformity with the requirements of quality, reliability and confidentiality. There will be special training sessions dedicated to the ethical issues of sociological surveys as well to the standardization of data entry. An additional training session shall be organized upon the completion of the qualitative survey in order to harmonize the coding and data interpretation efforts that shall be implemented by different teams. Training shall be organized and conducted by ENRI-East experts who had been developing survey tools within the WP-4 and WP-5.
It is planned that training shall be organized as two instructive sessions. The first one follows the completion of the development of survey tools and precedes the actual start of the fieldworks; it is thought for the both types of surveys (quantitative and qualitative ones). The second session is organized for those involved into the organization of qualitative surveys. We call these training sessions “Spring Schools” just because they are scheduled for, tentatively, March 2009 and March/April 2010; duration of each session is 3 to 4 working days. Sets of training matters (survey manuals and related thematic readings) shall be prepared for each session and used by the fieldwork teams as main survey references.
Promotion and dissemination (web-site, printed matters, regional workshops, final conference)
The main input from the project coordinator and team leaders
Task 1. Project web-site, set-up and updates
Task 2. Project leaflet, two issues (should briefly inform about the project, its main events and achievements)
Task 3. Project news-letter, three issues (should contain more detailed information about the project, its main research themes, research results and the consortium itself)
Task 4. Four regional workshops (to discuss regional project results and possible impacts) (proposed: Carpathian Basin, Baltic region, Eastern Europe, Germany case)
Task 5. Final open conference (to present the main project outcomes and deliverables and discuss them with wider audiences of international academic and governmental experts, as well as regional and international NGO experts (suggested venue Vienna or Budapest)
Consortium coordination and management
Task 1. Setting up the project, project teams, governing bodies and signing the Consortium Agreement
Task 2. On-going administration and project management
Task 3. Works of project’s Steering Committee (meets or communicates at least twice a year)
Task 4. Works of project’s Survey Technical Group (oversees the implementation of quantitative and qualitative surveys)
Task 5. Meetings and accompanying activities of the Advisory Board (international and cross-disciplinary consultations, quality assurance of the main project deliverables in the form of internal peer-reviews of main drafts and reports).
Task 6. Annual meetings of the consortium
Task 7. Annual reporting (progress reports, financial reports, deliverables at their due times).
Methodology
The project uses standard empirical methods and will refine these tools as research progresses.
Existing and available data sources include:
• The International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) that is carried out every year using a representative sample survey for each country including those in Eastern Europe. Especially relevant would be the waves conducted in 1995 and 2003 (National identity), 1991 and 1998 (Religion), Citizenship (2004).
• The World Values Survey (WVS) and European Values Survey (EVS) which are also based upon a representative sample in each country were carried out in a number of waves enabling comparisons across time. The WWS were carried out in 1980, 1990 and 1995, the EVS – in 1999 using many of the same questions.
• The European Social Survey (ESS) was first conducted in 2003 but aims to become the best quality and most comprehensive social survey to cover the whole of Europe. Further relevant data sets will be obtained from such recognised international survey programmes, as Eurobarometer, New Democracies Barometer and Central and Eastern Europe Barometer.
New data and surveys
In addition to the secondary analysis of data available from the previously conducted sociological surveys the project will generate new unique empirical data. A series of new quantitative surveys will be designed to complement the existing data by covering specific sub-samples of ethnic minorities in Eastern Europe, to allow cross-national comparison s of values and identity issues of “bigger European nations” and their “residual groups abroad” located in other European countries. For instance, a new survey of Hungarians living in Ukraine would allow assessment of their cultural or political self-identification as compared with the outcomes of the Value Survey that has previously been done throughout Hungary. The newly designed tools for the formalised quantitative survey shall be made compatible and consistent with the standardised tools used in the earlier cross-national surveys. In order to collect group-specific data for a deeper understanding and a correct interpretation of their regional and local attitudes, beliefs, cultural and social practices, etc., the project proposes to use a set of “soft” sociological methods, such as in-depth interviews and expert interviews, a pilot musical survey, as well as computer-assisted content analysis and text mining (atlas.ti, simstat/wordstat).
Sampling: Eight to twelve ethnic groups for an in-depth investigation will be selected. Half of these groups shall be selected in the EU countries and another half in the European NIS countries. In order to account for the size factor, the sample will represent “bigger minorities” (100 thousand people and more), “small minorities” (less than 10 thousand people) and “medium-size minorities” (20 to 50 thousand). For each group, the sample shall be structured to reflect the statistically known gender, age and geographical distribution of the population of these ethnic groups in a host country.
Sociological surveys shall be conducted in the native or preferred languages of the respondents. Surveys shall be organised in cooperation with project partners from countries that are “hosting” a given ethnic minority and from countries that represent the “mother nations” of these ethnic minorities.
Altogether, we plan to undertake 7 types of surveys:
• Values/identities survey in selected ethnic groups (formalised questionnaire) (10 groups X 800 respondents = 8,000 respondents in total) (sample size may vary depending on the size of a selected target group).
• In-depth interviews with representatives of ethnic minorities (semi-structured interviews) (10 groups X 30 interviews = 300 interviews in total).
• Expert interviews with NGOs, local, regional and national officials (semi-structured interviews) (10 groups X 15 interviews = 150 interviews in total).
• Content analysis of items in local and regional periodicals dealing with identity issues (three samples per selected group: 3 X 10 = 30 samples in total).
• Essays written by teenagers of senior school age, e.g. 15-17 years old (10 groups X 100 essays = 1,000 essays in total) (followed by content-analysis).
• Musical survey, pilot (4 groups X 100 respondents = 400 respondents in total) (experimental and innovative pilot effort).
• Musical focus groups, pilot (4 groups X 2 sessions = 8 sessions) (experimental and innovative pilot effort).
These instruments shall be designed as empirical “cross-cutting tools” to provide empirical data for each of the four project cross-cutting themes.