Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Social mobility – Europe, Eastern'

The focus of interest in this thesis is the social and personal trajectories of men and women who were born in the Soviet Union in the 1970-1980s and then, after growing up in post-Soviet Russia in the 1990s in an atmosphere of change and uncertainty, decided to exploit the opportunities to go abroad to study and work that started opening up in the early and mid-1990s. The thesis analyses these moves as the individual strategies of either escaping or waiting on the career insecurities in Russia, or consciously enhancing one's social standing and professional and educational capital. It traces their social and professional trajectories, showing that, apart from developing the desired expertise and gaining experience, these Russians went through intensive changes in their self-identifications and senses of belonging, including the acquisition of new habits of mobility, international social networks and cosmopolitan dispositions. This thesis argues that, while their Soviet-Russian cultural past and their belonging to a particular social group of 'Soviet intelligentsia' was still important to them, they continuously acquired new social, cultural and cosmopolitan forms of capital that influenced their coming back to Russia as different persons from their contemporaries who had stayed in the country. They brought with them new dispositions and new social practices resulting from their active comparisons of their lives in Russia and Britain, and in many respects they actively maintained their differences in creating clubs for returnees. While able to integrate successfully into the emerging Russian middle classes, they still expressed the cultural and intellectual heritage of the past Soviet intelligentsia, now reborn in the guise of Westernizing attitudes and practices, different degrees of cosmopolitan patriotism, intellectual pursuits, a quest for education and self-development, interest in world travel, an ethical concern for sustainability, opposition to excessive consumerism in Russia and conspicuous practices of status performance. The materials for this research were mainly gathered through the use of semi-structured in-depth interviews, one third of them longitudinal, with informants talking to the researcher several times during the course of fieldwork between 2007 and 2012. Some additional participant observation has been conducted in informal Russian circles in the UK and among returnees from Britain in Russia. This research consists of an ethnography with elements of a biographical approach. This has made the researcher attentive to the inclusion of a certain event within a person's whole biography, aimed at putting the period researched within the context of the past and future lives of the informant. The participants of this research were aged between 22 and 40 and belonged to a transition cohort generation (Miller 2000), as they had all passed their childhoods in the Soviet Union, their adolescence and teenage years coinciding with the period of dissolution of the USSR, with the transitional break up of one system and the formation of another, while their young adulthood developed in post-Soviet Russia. They were mainly single when they initiated their move to Britain, and had various professional profiles within the broadly defined groups of 'highly skilled' and 'highly educated', the latter term being preferred in this research. The dissertation includes an introduction, four ethnographic chapters, a conclusion and one appendix. The introduction presents the historical and research context, the methodology and the design of the study. The first chapter traces the professional and educational trajectories of participants, while the second chapter focuses on informants' spatial mobility and habits of extensive travel acquired during the move to Britain. The third chapter deals with the negotiation of informants' belonging to a particular cultural and social past, which is associated both with Russian-Soviet culture and with their social status as the children of Soviet-era intelligentsia. The fourth chapter argues that, while belonging to Soviet intelligentsia families was still important for informants' self-identifications in Britain, new social, cultural and cosmopolitan forms of capital were acquired during this period, resulting in new cosmopolitan dispositions, ethics and moral values, and new practices socially remitted (Levitt 2001) from Britain. The conclusion places this ethnography within the state-of-the-art research on the mobilities of Russians to the UK.

The purpose of this study was to examine the adjustment of older children and adolescents adopted from Eastern Europe and the impact of their preadoption history and family’s functioning on their adjustment. This is a follow-up study of families first surveyed in 2005 with an addition of new families. One hundred and forty-five families reporting on 194 adopted children (9 to 19 years; 104 girls) participated in this study at Time 2. The project was conducted as an internet-based survey. Parents and adopted children reported on children’s emotional, behavioral and social problems (CBCL and YSR), as well as family environment (FACES-III and PEQ). Children also reported on their attachment to parents (IPPA) and their preoccupation with adoption (ADQ). Results revealed that children adopted as infants or toddlers (18 months and younger) evidenced lower problem behaviors and higher competence scores than children adopted at later ages. History of preadoption abuse and/or neglect also played a role. Children without such history scored better on all problem and competency scales than their peers with reported history of either abuse or neglect. Relationships with the adoptive parents and family environment also contributed to better adjustment in this sample of adopted children. Children from more cohesive families displayed lower levels of internalizing and externalizing problems. Additionally, less conflict between adolescents and their parents was associated with lower levels of these problems. Adolescents with higher attachment levels to their parents self-reported lower internalizing and externalizing problems. Adolescents’ interest in their adoptions is a healthy thing; however, excessive preoccupation was associated with higher levels of internalizing behaviors, such as anxiety and depression. Preoccupation with adoption was not related to externalizing behaviors, as reported by children. This study replicates findings of previous studies of intercountry adoption of children from Eastern Europe. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Thesis advisor: Peter Skerry
The post-communist political shift to liberal democracies in Eastern Europe has given new hope to Romani communities scattered across the region. However, plagued by a history entangled with episodes of slavery, persecution, and extermination, many Roma remain wary about this transition, lacking faith that it truly extends beyond a nominal domain. This paper first offers a critical exploration into unpacking Roma culture – specifically their material disadvantage and discrimination – from both an abstract and realist perspective. By properly understanding the relationship between their experience with poverty and desires for cultural autonomy, forming a rational, multi-level plan to intervene becomes more accessible. Ultimately, this leads to a series of policy interventions, particularly in the realm of primary and secondary education. Looking closely at this one area of the Roma experience with non-Roma institutions could provide key insights into their interaction with other overlapping exchanges, help to break down the centuries-old legacy of distrust and antagonism between the two sides, and promote a healthier environment for cooperation
Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2016
Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: Scholar of the College
Discipline: International Studies

Yikhus--the salient feature of the Jewish aristocracy--may be defined as a type of prestige deriving from the achievements of one's forbears and living family members in the scholarly, mystical, or, to a lesser degree, economic realms. Unlike land acquisition, by which the non-Jewish aristocracy preserved itself, yikhus was intimately linked with achievement in the above realms, requiring a continual infusion of new talent from each generation of a particular family.
A question which has yet to be resolved is the extent to which the founders of Hasidism, a mystical revivalist movement that swept Eastern European Jewish communities from the second half of the eighteenth century until the Holocaust, challenged prevailing notions of yikhus. The question relates to the identities of Hasidism's leaders--the Zaddikim--themselves. If, as the older historiography claims, the Zaddikim emerged from outside the elite stratum, and therefore lacked yikhus, they might be expected to challenge a notion which would threaten their perceived right to lead. If, on the other hand, the Zaddikim were really the same scions of noble Jewish families who had always led the communities, they would probably uphold the value of yikhus. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

This thesis analyses the Eastern enlargement of the EU in comparison with the past four enlargement rounds, as a result of which it proves that Central and Eastern enlargement (CEE) is a unique experience for the EU. After the fourth enlargement, the EU turned its face to the CEECs, which witnessed unexpected events of a historic nature, with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. This date symbolises a great change for the CEECs, such as the end of communism, transition to open market economy, democratisation and stability. A special focus is given to the inclusion of the CEECs into the EU necessitating to make adjustments both in the EU and in the CEECs. The specifity of the fifth enlargement derives from all the changes and challenges that it poses to the applicant countries and the Union but also to its neighbours. It concludes that the factors of uniqueness of the Eastern enlargement will strengthen the probability of the inclusion of the future applicants in the Eastern part of the continent. This enlargement is a positive development for the old and the new member states, it is one of the most important &lsquo
political necessities&rsquo
and &lsquo
historical opportunities&rsquo
that the EU is facing since its establishment, because it will not only ensure the unification, stabilisation, security, economic growth and general well-being of the continent but also because it has opened the way of membership to the future possible applicants in the Eastern part of the continent.

This study examines the factors that have contributed to the success of some Central and Eastern European countries to improve their health care sector in the post communist period, while leaving others to its demise. While most literature has been focused on the political and economic transition of Eastern Europe, very little research has been done about the welfare aspects of the transition process, especially the health care sector. While the focus on political consequences and main macroeconomic reforms has shed light on many important processes, the lack of research of health care issues has lead to consequences on our ability to understand its impact on the future of the new democracies and their sustainability. This model looks at the impact of international (World Bank) and domestic institutions, corruption and public support and how they affect the ability of some countries to improve and reform their health care sector in the post-transition period.

This thesis examines institutional change in higher education, through case studies of aspects of two broadly similar institutions in Poland and Romania. It finds that, during the 1990s, international programmes supported institutional change in these cases to a significant extent, although probably not with the results that the funding organisations anticipated. The case studies suggest that such programmes have been most effective in supporting change when they have encouraged relatively small-scale, academically-led initiatives, in contrast to national-level, externally-driven programmes. It is proposed that this difference in effectiveness in promoting sustainable organisational change relates to the extent to which international programmes have assisted in the formation of social capital within the institutions. Organisational social capital is formed through intense, local engagement in the activity concerned, leading to individual and institutional learning. Social capital created in one context may then be available to support other aspects of organisational development. Social capital theory thus provides insights into the process of organisational change, particularly in the complex structural and procedural circumstances of higher education. This thesis examines why social capital is an important, if often overlooked, factor in understanding change in these settings, particularly in Eastern Europe, where political arrangements before 1989 were not generally conducive to social capital formation. The particular organisational arrangements of the universities there are also important factors in understanding institutional change. A theoretical account of social capital formation and organisational change in higher education is offered, with proposals as to how this may be relevant to structural and operational matters in higher education institutions in transitional countries more widely. The thesis draws conclusions about how international projects in higher education might be designed so as to create social capital more effectively, and thereby to support sustainable institutional change.

Life expectancy in countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CCEE) is substantially shorter than in Western Europe, and similar divide exists in self-rated health. The project described in this thesis was set up to study the effects of socio-economic factors (such as material deprivation, education and inequalities) and psychosocial factors (perceived control, psychosocial work environment) on self-rated health (a predictor of mortality in prospective studies). Cross-sectional surveys were conducted in seven CCEE: Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary. Data were collected by interviews in randomly selected national samples in all seven countries (total 7,599 subjects), and by questionnaires in random community samples in 4 countries (total 6,642 subjects). The data included socio-economic and psychosocial factors, self-rated health (SRH) and behavioural risk factors. Overall, 17% of men and 23% of women rated their health as worse than average. In the national samples, perceived control, material deprivation and education were strongly related to poor SRH. In the pooled data, adjusted odds ratio (OR) of poor health for 1 standard deviation (SD) increase in perceived control was 0.59 (95% Cl 0.54-0.63). The OR for 1 SD increase in the material deprivation score was 1.35 (95% Cl 1.26-1.46). The ORs for vocational, secondary and university education, compared with primary education, were 0.75,0.58 and 0.53, respectively. We also examined the ecological effects of income inequality; the OR for the most versus the least unequal populations (using the Gini coefficient of income inequality) was 1.88 (95% Cl 1.55-2.28). In multivariate analyses, however, the effect of inequality was eliminated by adjustment for material deprivation and perceived control. In the community samples, the results were similar. Among psychosocial factors at work, the effort-reward imbalance appeared to be the strongest predictor of self-rated health; work variety was also a predictor of self-rated health. Job strain was not associated with SRH. Our results suggest that (a) the prevalence of poor SRH in CCEE is high, and (b) socioeconomic and psychosocial factors are strongly related to self-rated health in these populations. The gradients were present in all populations, and were of the same direction and similar magnitude as in the West. Prospective studies are needed to address the problems of temporality and reporting bias, which are the major problems of these results.

The persistence of socioeconomic outcomes across generations acts as a barrier to a society's ability to exploit its resources efficiently. In order to derive policy measures which aim at accelerating intergenerational mobility, we review the existent body of research on the causes, effects and the measurement of intergenerational mobility. We also present recent empirical works which study intergenerational mobility in Europe, around the Globe, and its relevance for economic growth. We recommend four policy measures to reduce the negative impacts of intergenerational persistence in economic outcomes: universal and high-quality child care and pre-school programs; later school tracking and increased access to vocational training to reduce skill mismatch and facilitate technological development; integration programs for migrants; and simultaneous investment in schooling and later social security programs.
Series: WWWforEurope

This thesis proposes a theoretical model to explain the variation in female labour force participation (FLFP) across post-socialist Eastern Europe. The model is then tested empirically on 13 post-socialist Eastern European countries during the period 1997- 2008 using a combination of quantitative and qualitative data analysis. Embedded in insights from economics and comparative political economy literature, my theoretical model moves beyond linear causal relationships and suggests how different components of post-socialist economic restructuring in Eastern Europe have affected one another and have translated into specific FLFP outcomes. The model specifies the following three components: industrial upgrading, educational expansion and growth of knowledge intensive services and theorises their relationship to each other and to FLFP as the dependent variable. The model suggests that those countries that embarked on the trajectory of economic development driven by re-industrialisation and industrial upgrading created a vicious cycle for FLFP. This took place because industrial upgrading that was driven by foreign direct investment led to the defeminisation of manufacturing. Such a trajectory of economic restructuring also shaped these countries’ education policies and impeded the development of knowledge intensive services, which would have been more conducive to female employment. The virtuous cycle of FLFP, on the other hand, occurred in those Eastern European countries that turned to reforming their educational sector towards general skills and expansion of tertiary education, with the aim of transforming themselves into knowledge economies. Such a transformation required an active social investment state and growth of knowledge-intensive public and private sector employment, which provided greater employment opportunities for women. This development path created a positive causal loop for FLFP.

The aim of my research is to study internal geographical mobility and its association with social mobility in a comparative perspective for selected countries in Europe, namely Italy, UK and Germany using longitudinal data. The first part of my thesis focuses on the selection process that takes place in the movements of the population. What are the characteristics of individuals who move? How are they different from the non-movers in terms of education, social origin, civil status? The second part will analyze how geographic mobility affects labour market outcomes. Are individuals who move more likely to have an upward occupational mobility? Since geographic mobility affects men and women differently, a dedicated section will focus on gender differences in these trajectories. To test the research hypothesis I use random-effect and fixed-effect probability models with panel data. The results show differences between the countries in term of selection processes and social mobility. The empirical results also confirm that women gain less from migration in terms of occupational outcomes compared to men.

This thesis explores EU borders and bordering in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) in the context of the 2004 EU enlargement, the 2007 extension of the Schengen zone and the 2004 Eastern Dimension of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) that, in 2009, was upgraded to the Eastern Partnership (EaP). The thesis links borders with identities and governing orders to argue that while the EU has successfully included, inter alia, Czechs and Poles, it has excluded Ukrainians sufficiently to impact negatively on their lives and on the achievement of EU goals in the neighbourhood. The de-bordering and re-bordering inherent to enlargement, Schengen, ENP and EaP have (partially) displaced CEE borders from traditional locations at state frontiers. Bordering activities still take place within the supposedly borderless Schengen zone as well as at external frontiers with neighbouring states, but the EU has also exported border practices onto the territories of its neighbours. These processes prompted the questions addressed in this thesis: where, how, why and with what effects the EU makes its borders in CEE. An analytical framework – the ‘Borderscape’ – is developed to explore the complex manifestations of post-frontier bordering and to understand its socio-political, spatial and temporal underpinnings, and the consequences that EU bordering has for identities and subjectivities, order and governance in CEE. The borderscape encompasses border features, bordering discourses and bordering practices, which are constituted by EU and national governmental actors, border security and law enforcement agencies, by civil society actors and the people who move and dwell in the region. The borderscape is tailored to the regional particularities of CEE, with specific reference to processes of post-communist transition, EU accession and the EU’s engagement with its neighbours, specifically Ukraine. The findings of the research are based on extensive, interpretive fieldwork conducted in the Czech Republic, Poland and Ukraine. The thesis shows the various sites, forms and functions of contemporary EU bordering that comprise a diverse yet connected border archipelago stretching from the Schengen interior into the Eastern neighbourhood. The EU’s bordering discourses are shown to be plural and often contradictory: notions of freedom, security and justice and the desire to benefit from sharing these with Central and Eastern Europeans are juxtaposed with narratives of fear, suspicion and narrow-minded self-interest. The EU’s Europeanised bordering practices, including Risk Analysis and the protection of both borders and migrants, have enhanced mobility for EU-Europeans (such as Czechs and Poles) who now share in the highly desirable form of order that it has created. However, the EU has also restricted mobility for Ukrainians, who are still seen as ‘Eastern-Europeans’. The borderscape betrays the EU’s internal crises of identity and confidence, which has had psycho-social exclusionary effects on Ukrainians and contributed to the politico-strategic crisis in the Eastern Neighbourhood. However this analysis also points to ways that the EU can address these issues.

This thesis examines the political process of health care reform between 1989 and 1998 in the most advanced sizable political economy in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) – the Czech Republic. Its aim is to explain the political process bringing about post-Communist health policy change and stimulate new debates on welfare state transformation in CEE. The thesis challenges the conventional view that post-Communist health care reform in CEE was designed and implemented to improve the health status of the people, as desired by the people themselves. I suggest that this is a dangerous over-rationalisation, and argue that post-Communist health care reform in the Czech Republic was the by-product of haphazard democratic political struggle between emerging elites for power and economic resources. The thesis employs the analytical narrative method to describe and analyse the actors, institutions, ideas and history behind the health policy change. The analysis is informed by welfare state theory, elite theory, interest group politics theory, the assumptions of methodological individualism and rational choice theory, and Schumpeter’s doctrine of democracy. Its focus is on the interests of health policy actors and how they interacted within an unhinged, but fast-consolidating, institutional framework. The results demonstrate that, while historical legacies and liberal ideas featured prominently in the rhetoric accompanying health policy change, in Realpolitik, these were merely the disposable, instrumental devices of opportunistic, self-interested elites. The resultant explanation of health policy change stresses the primacy of agency over structure and formulates four important mechanisms of health policy change: opportunism, tinkering, enterprise, and elitism. In conclusion, the relevance of major welfare state theories to the given case is assessed and implications for welfare state research in CEE are drawn.

Increasingly, scholars have highlighted that migration is no longer a one-way movement between a country of origin and a destination because migrants move through and settle in several locations in their life trajectories. In this study, I aim to examine the multiple migration experiences, social networks and transnational lives of Bangladeshi first generation migrants who acquired Italian citizenship and this study therefore refers to them ‘Italian Bangladeshis’. This study is carried out by following a multi-sited qualitative research approach, consisting of in-depth interviews and participant observation. The main material for this article is based on fifty in-depth interviews with Bangladeshi first-generation migrants in Italy and the UK. Chapter Two provides, on the one hand, a brief description of Bangladesh as a migrant-sending country and, on the other hand, a presentation about Italy as an immigrant-receiving country. It has shown that in the case of Bangladeshi migration, even though the choice of the UK is traditionally the top destination for long-term Bangladeshi migrants, Italy has recently emerged as one of their major destinations on this continent. In particular, Bangladeshi migrants started to arrive in this Southern European country from the late 1980s, but rapid growth started from the early 1990s. Chapter Three is devoted to making a theoretical understanding of the concept of ‘multiple migrations’. This chapter conceptualizes the term multiple migrations by highlighting several terminologies that existing studies adopted in their analysis of multi sage migration trajectories. It also reviews a number of studies that underline a combination of economic, social and cultural factors for this inter-EU mobility. Chapter Four theorises social networks and transnationalism in order to provide a better understanding of how these two concepts are related to the concept of ‘multiple migrations’. This chapter underlines the fact that even though the social networks and transnational ties have an important role in shaping first international migrations, existing empirical research appears not to have largely addressed the ways in which social networks and transnational ties may influence multiple migrations. Chapter Five is the first empirical chapter of this dissertation that examines the motivation behind emigration, socio-demographic and economic profiles and the region of origin of Italian Bangladeshis who participated in this study. In Chapter Six, concerning the first research question – the previous destination and motivation for multiple migratory trajectories before arriving in Italy and within Italy - this research has shown that, before arriving in Italy, Bangladeshi first-generation migrants who participated in this study worked for several years in at least two different European, Southeast Asian or Middle Eastern countries. However, some migrants came directly to Italy, but they also stayed for a certain period of time – from a couple of months to years - in several countries as transit migrants. This study finds that the in most cases multiple migrations of the research participants before arriving in Italy were not part of their pre-migration plan. Instead, their multi-stage migrations were motivated by the experiences they encountered in several societies of destination. In most cases, after arriving in Italy, Bangladeshis in this study moved first to the capital city of Rome. After two regularization scheme in 1990 and 1996, when the number of documented Bangladeshis in Rome became larger, they later started internal migration to other Italian cities. In Chapter Seven, with regard to the second research question in this research - the intention of leaving Italy - findings have shed light on the fact that Italian Bangladeshis want more control over their children by instilling Bengali cultural traditions and inherited religion into their second-generation. In relation to this issue, many of them think that their children are growing up in a kind of Italian cultural environment and day by day their children leaving behind their home culture and Islamic norms. As regards the third research question of this study – the selection of the UK as an onward migration destination – the findings of this research revealed the centrality of the colonial legacy from the cultural and economic perspective. Since the UK is hosting the biggest Bangladeshi diaspora, there is more space created in terms of maintaining and enjoying both Bengali culture and more freedom in practising the religion. The findings of this study also indicate that the political climate of the UK is more welcoming to immigrants and more multicultural compared to their country of EU citizenship, i.e. Italy. With reference to the fourth research question on the motivation to remain in Italy, this study indicates that some of Bangladeshis considered Italy as their last destination. As they were already established in Italy socially and economically, they were afraid that if they made an onward relocation to a new destination it would be a ‘new beginning of migration’. Chapter eight uncovers how important the composition of social networks and transnational ties are for facilitating the multiple migration trajectories. With reference to the fifth research question - the role of social networks and transnational ties in facilitating multiple migrations - this research shows the importance of strong ties (transnational kinship networks) in the selection of first migration destination of the research participants. Most of them had someone from their immediate family and relatives in the preferred country of destination with whom they were connected. However, In the case of their subsequent migration from the first destination to other destinations, the role of weak ties was important compared to strong ties with close kin. Bangladeshis who arrived in Italy from several countries mostly had networks either with someone from their local district in Bangladesh or with their earlier fellow migrants who moved to Italy before them. The study findings also indicated the importance of weak ties in facilitating their onward migrations to the UK compared to their strong ties. In particular, their relocation to the UK is mainly influenced by the transnational ties with their Italian Bangladeshi fellow migrants who moved from Italy to the UK. In the Chapter nine, the empirical findings related to the research question six – in what ways do Italian Bangladeshis maintain their transnational connection across multiple destinations – this study suggests that Bangladeshi earlier migrants who have Italian citizenship create their own ‘transnational social field’ by their social, economic, political, religious, and cultural practices across borders through direct and indirect relations. Even though these Italian Bangladeshis lived with family (with their wife and children) for many years outside of their home country and now hold Italian citizenship, but they maintain various transnational contacts with their extended family members, friends and relatives back home’ in Bangladesh and in other countries. Their transnational activities express both ‘ways of being” and ‘ways of belonging’.

Since the beginning of the 1990s important changes took place, such as the collapse of Communism and the dissolution of Yugoslavia. Consequently, the European Union (EU) has faced a new agenda in SouthEastern Europe. The EU policies towards this region were not very well coordinated in the first half of the 1990s. From the second half of the 1990s onwards, the EU has become more focused in its policies towards South Eastern Europe. Since 1999, the Stabilisation and Association Process is the new institutional framework of the EU towards this region. The main purpose of the Stabilisation and Association Process is to promote peace, prosperity and stability in this region.

This study aims to explore the EU relations with South Eastern Europe with a single case study of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the implementation of the Stabilisation and Association Process. The main research questions are: What are the main aims and dynamics of the EU’s relations with South Eastern Europe? What are the main problems concerning the implementation of the Stabilisation and Association Process in the case of Bosnia? How do the norms, values and culture of Bosnia affect the implementation of the Stabilisation and Association Process?

The focus of this study is on democratization as an open- ended process. Thus, it is relevant to apply democratization theories, with a focus on the Transition Approach as a theoretical framework. Democratization theories aim to explain how authoritarian regimes change into liberal democratic ones. The transition approach makes a clear distinction between democratic transition and democratic consolidation phases, and identifies the necessary conditions for the success of each phase. New Institutionalism is another theoretical orientation that will be applied to this study. New Institutionalism is used in this study to discuss the concepts of institutional change and democratic governance, and to further study both the formal and informal institutions in Bosnia and how they limit the implementation of the Stabilisation and Association Process.

This study comes up with the conclusion that South Eastern Europe remains one of the priority regions for the EU. The dynamics of EU-South Eastern Europe relations is based on a number of different factors, such as political and economic considerations, concerns about peace, prosperity, and stability at the doorstep of the EU. The implementation of EU policies in this region is related to the debate on the future of the EU as well. The conclusions about Bosnia and Herzegovina point out that the country has moved forward a considerable amount after the 1992-95 Bosnian War. Democracy is beginning to emerge in the country. However, the implementation of the Stabilisation and Association Process is constrained by the complex formal institutional structure as laid out in the Dayton Peace Agreement. Moreover, the informal institutions in Bosnia limit the implementation. For instance, the path-dependent authoritarian legacy of former Yugoslavia, exclusive ethnic nationalism, and distrust among the major ethnic groups in Bosnia are obstacles in front of the effective implementation of the Stabilisation and Association Process. The level of international community involvement in the country is still very intensive. Bosnia has not become a self-sustainable democratic state yet. Strengthening the civil society in Bosnia and Herzegovina and promoting an inclusive civic identity that will lead to the enhancement of democratic values in the country can be recommended as solutions for the current problems of the country.

This thesis investigates the phenomenon of memoir competitions in communist-era Poland, focusing on contributions to them by Poles of rural origins inhabiting the lands – known as the Recovered Territories – acquired by the postwar Polish state from Germany in 1945. I explore the history of the memoir method in postwar Poland, the processes involved in producing published volumes of competition memoirs – including editing and censorship, and the use of these sources in communist-era and post-1989 sociological, historiographical and interdisciplinary studies. I focus on existing research both on the Recovered Territories, particularly Polish settlement of those lands and the development of new communities there, and also on postwar peasants’ lives, particularly where theories of social advance are applied. In this respect, this investigation adds to existing literature in social history on early postwar Poland. My study also contributes to work in censorship studies by considering Polish censors’ approach to quite exceptional sources. Because in many cases original competition entries are available, it is possible to establish where editors, publishers and censors have intervened, something that is rarely possible with standard works of literature or academic scholarship produced under communism. I consider what strategies different scholars used in presenting published sources and circumventing restrictions imposed. Subaltern studies approaches to speaking and its critique of nation-centred historiography are, meanwhile, applied in investigating the intersection of peasant autobiographies, academic research, scholars and Party-state institutions and their discourses, as I consider how the published communist-era compilations of competition entries framed peasant writing, experience, culture and consciousness, and how these frames potentially conflicted with the authors’ own interpretations of their experiences and social reality. This investigation also contributes to memory studies, a discipline whose approach to communist and totalitarian states is particularly problematic as many studies assume significant restrictions were imposed not only on publication but also on autobiographical memory expressed in usually unrecorded private and local spheres. I explore whether memory studies’ typical approach, based in notions of competing claims might also apply to Poland under state socialism. Bakhtin’s theories of dialogism prove useful in exploring the history of memory under communism, rather than the memory of it – as is commonplace today in oral history-based studies, for example. It is in respect of censorship studies and memory studies that this thesis makes its most substantial original contributions to research. My research draws on substantial archival research conducted in Poland, where I explored censorship archives in Warsaw and Poznań, Party and ministerial archives, and the Polish Academy of Science archive, since numerous memoir sociologists and rural sociologists were based there. I also used archives housing original competition entries, the main locations being: The Institute of Western Affairs in Poznań (Instytut Zachodni – IZ), the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Science (Instytut Historyczny PAN – IH PAN) and the Museum of the History of the Polish Peasant Movement (MHRPL in Piaseczno, near Tczew). I consider published volumes alongside original sources where possible, although substantial losses have occurred to the store of popular autobiography. Chapter 1 outlines the background of Polish memoir sociology and the main methods and theories used in this investigation, ranging from subaltern studies through Bakhtin to autobiography studies. Chapter 2 focuses on memory studies, including the field’s approach to communist and postcommunist countries, before outlining aspects of censorship studies relevant to this investigation. I end Chapter 2 on a case study of the memoir compilation Miesiąc mojego życia [A Month in my Life – MMŻ; (1964)] and its treatment by censors. Chapter 3 explores recent English- and Polish-language historiography on the Recovered Territories, concentrating on, firstly, how historians have used the memoir resources in considering the early postwar years, and, secondly, how peasants are represented within the recent wave of works exploring Polish communism through nationalism and popular legitimation. I end on a case study of one particular memoir by a female settler to the new Polish lands, highlighting the value of the competition entries as thick descriptions. Chapter 4 investigates the mainstream communist-era memoir movement where the leading analytical concept for approaching peasants and social change was ‘social advance’, developed from Józef Chałasiński’s prewar sociology. I explore how the nine-volume series Młode pokolenie wsi Polski Ludowej [The Young Generation of Rural People’s Poland – MPWPL; (1964-1980)] and other memoir-based studies approached peasants and the Recovered Territories, which were often framed as a site of quicker and more intensive social advance and urbanisation. I also explore the autobiographies of Poles who lost their homelands in the prewar eastern borderlands in the context of today’s assumptions that ‘repatriants’, as the eastern Poles were known under communism, were largely absent from communist-era publications. 4 Chapter 5 considers the academic sociology of the Western Territories, developed at IZ, and how materials from its 1956/57 memoir competition on settlers were used alongside fieldwork. I explore the sociological frameworks developed for analysing migration, settlement and community development, noting that some studies from the 1960s can today be considered forerunners of migration studies and memory studies. Chapter 6 specifically considers the publication Pamiętniki osadników Ziem Odzyskanych [Memoirs of Recovered Territories Settlers – POZO; (1963)], investigating original entries alongside published materials to explore editors’ and academics’ role in censorship, while also investigating how the volume was received in the press. Chapter 7 explores the production of the four-volume series Wieś polska 1939-1948 [Rural Poland 1939-1948; (1967-1971)] by historian-editors Krystyna Kersten and Tomasz Szarota, who treated these previously-unpublished texts written in 1948 explicitly as historical sources, thus contrasting with previously dominant sociological approaches while also posing specific problems for censors as the editors employed a unique method of summaries in an attempt to make the entire set of some 1700 texts available to readers. Exploring different approaches to memoir publication, I aim to illustrate the diversity of the published sphere in People’s Poland, while demonstrating the heterogeneity of ordinary Poles’ memories submitted to different competitions between 1948 and 1970. While the value of the archived sources should be quite evident, exploration of censorship and editing processes should demonstrate the value of compilations and indeed communist-era scholarship, which is often overlooked today. By avoiding totalitarian schools of historiography and memory studies, I aim to demonstrate that competition memoirs illustrated ordinary Poles’ agency within historical and social processes, while also stressing their agency over their memories and autobiographical narratives which at the same time were, as in any society, cultural and social constructs.

In the end of the 1980s and in the beginning of the 1990s Europe and the world witnessed the collapse of the Soviet Union. In the mid-1990s the member states of the European Union decided to enlarge the Union towards the Eastern Europe. Thus European integration entered into an unprecedented phase. Integration of the Eastern Europeans with the Western Europe contributed to the debates on the notions of European identity and the idea of Europe. Adherence of the East Europeans to the ideals of the Western European civilization brought up some questions about the changing identities and shifting boundaries of Europe. Various theories deal with the problems of identity in general and European identity in particular. However to a great extent they are limited within a rigid description of self-other relationship. They do not intend to investigate the real motives or purposes behind these transformations of the prevailing identities and shifting of the boundaries of Europe. So, it will be argued that, in order to understand construction/reconstruction process of the new European identity, one should also take into consideration the more dynamic effects on changing European identity and shifting borders of Europe.

The thesis addresses the puzzle of the differential integration of former communist states in the Euro-Atlantic community of nations between 1989 and 2000. Notwithstanding the predominant universalist-rationalist assumption that the adoption of an institutional-administrative blueprint for reform could lead to convergence between East and West, countries such as Poland, Bulgaria and Russia did not converge similarly (or at all) on the West European normative model and framework of international relations. To account for this divergence, the thesis examines the impact of the culturally-historically informed, Polish, Bulgarian and Russian identities and conceptions of 'Europe' (as opposed to the formal-institutional transition from one system to another) on the process of foreign policy transformation. The doctoral research employs Constructivism, Social Psychological insights and an interpretivist methodology, drawing on 75 elite interviews. The main argument states that differential Europeanisation can be understood on the basis of differentiated levels of inclusion and establishment of relations of mutual recognition and belongingness - substantiated by a differentiated extent of ideational affinity (i.e., normative compatibility), which are (re)enacted in the interactive, mutually constitutive process of identification between Self and Other (i.e., between Poland, Bulgaria and Russia and (Western) Europe). Three propositions of 'thick', 'ambivalent' and 'thin' Europeanisation are derived from the argument (whereby the comparative benchmark of Europeanisation is an ideal-typical model of European-ness). Key contributions focus on the development of a refined Constructivist theory and a systematic empirical comparison of Polish, Bulgarian and Russian foreign policy identities. Also, the study's conclusions reinvigorate and reconfirm the importance of the continuity (rather than just constant flux) of culturally-historically shaped patterns of group self-understandings and sub-regional identifications as well as Constructivism's greater plausibility in accounting for the research puzzle than (Neoclassical) Realism through the stipulation of a mutually constitutive relationship between international and domestic factors and between ideational and interest-based considerations.

The life expectancy development during the past 150 years has been remarkable in many parts of the world. These developments, however, have been very different across countries. In Europe, the diverse historical and political changes lead to clusters of regions that followed different mortality developments. The aim of this study was to examine how countries that entered the European Union in 2004 and 2007 differ in terms of mortality from continuous members of the EU and from Eastern European countries that have never joined the EU. Moreover, I studied a possible convergence in mortality indicators between these groups of countries. The data used to explore mortality conditions in those groups of countries was derived from two sources: The Human Mortality Database and European Health for All Database. Descriptive statistics and calculations of average yearly pace of change for groups of countries have been applied for each mortality indicator. Furthermore, regression models have been conducted to estimate the impact of belonging to a country group on mortality indicators, adjusted for some macro-level indicators of economic progress and health expenditure. The results verified previous research implying the importance of period factors which can affect mortality in the short term. For all mortality indicators, accelerated improvements between 1995 and 1999 have been found in countries who became EU members in 2004. Moreover, life expectancy convergence was observed for life expectancy at birth but not for the older ages which could imply that the positive progress affected older ages to smaller degree. My findings confirm the importance of social environment and imply that the process of joining the EU possibly could reduce social stress and affect mortality conditions positively.

The aim of the study is to map out and analyse the integration of political parties from Central and Eastern Europe into the main European party families. The prospect of eastern enlargement of the EU implicated opportunities and above all challenges for the West European party families. The challenges consisted of integrating new parties with a different historical legacy. The study focuses on mainly how the European party families handled these challenges and what motives that have driven them in this engagement. At a more general level the thesis sketches two alternatives interpretations of the process: Western neo-colonialism and contribution to democratisation. The method used for the study is comparative case-study method and the main sources that have been utilised are party documents and in-depth interviews. The study is delimited to the three main European party families: the Christian democrats, the social democrats and the liberals. The countries of interest in Central and Eastern Europe are those postcommunist countries that became EU-members in 2004 and 2007: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. The time-frame is limited to the first party contacts in 1989 to the final inclusion of the new parties in 2000-2006. The results suggest that the European parties have responded with ambitious means to the challenge of integrating new parties from a postcommunist context. They have set up new coordinating bodies and organised educational programmes for the applicant parties, mainly directed to young politicians. The Christian democrats and the social democrats have also used parallel organisations as buffer-zones, which provided certain flexibility. As for motives, the Christian democrats stand out as the party family with the clearest power-oriented motives. At the other end, the liberals stand out as the party family that is most steered by ideology and identity. The social democrats went through a change with ideological considerations dominating the early phase and became increasingly poweroriented as the EU enlargement drew closer. When it comes to the two alternative interpretations of this process, the main conclusion is that they are intertwined and more or less impossible to separate from each other.

Background: In this dissertation I examine the political economy of the post-socialist mortality crisis as experienced in deindustrialising towns in Hungary. I develop and apply a relational political economy of health framework, putting emphasis on the economic institutions of post-socialist dependent capitalism in Hungary, as embedded in the semi-periphery of the global economy, their gendered implications and their cultural construction. Methods: I follow a mixed-method strategy combining quantitative and qualitative analyses. I rely on a novel dataset comprising data on settlement, enterprise, and individual levels. 260 companies and 52 towns were analysed in two waves. I group towns into severely and moderately deindustrialised categories (1989-1995); as well as into dominant state, domestic private and foreign ownership dominated categories (1995-2004). Population surveys in these towns collected data on the vital status and other characteristics of survey respondents' relatives. I assess the relationship between deindustrialisation, dominant ownership and the mortality of individuals by random intercept multilevel discrete-time survival modelling. I also investigate the health implications of the lived experience of economic transformation in four towns with diverging privatisation and deindustrialisation histories through a qualitative thematic analysis of 82 in-depth semi-structured interviews. Findings: Severe deindustrialisation is associated with a significantly larger odds of mortality for men between 1989 and 1995 (OR=1.12; 95%CI=1.00-1.26; p=0.042). On the other hand, prolonged state ownership is related to a significantly lower odds of dying among women, compared to towns dominated by domestic private ownership (OR=0.74; 95%CI=0.62-0.90; p=0.002) or towns dominated by foreign investment (OR=0.79; 95%CI=0.65-0.96; p=0.019) between 1995 and 2004. The multi-sited semi-structured qualitative interviews revealed that companies are central institutions in the cognitive maps of workers and that the fates of these companies affected the health of workers in multiple ways, whereas state involvement was perceived as a cushioning mechanism. Interpretation: Severe deindustrialisation was a crucial factor behind the post-socialist mortality crisis for men, whilst prolonged state ownership was associated with the protection of life chances for women. The indirect economic benefits of foreign investment do not translate automatically into better health. Rapid economic transformations threaten health; they should be avoided where possible, but if this is not possible, strong safety nets should be in place.

Student mobility policies have become a high priority of the European Union since they are expected to result in private and social returns. However, at the same time these policies risk leading to unwanted geographical consequences, particularly brain drain from lagging to core regions, as formerly mobile students may not return on completion of their studies. Accordingly, this thesis focuses on both the private returns to student mobility and the determinants of return migration. It is important to note that, currently, the literature about the mobility of students is scarce and provides mixed evidence regarding both these issues. We contribute to the current academic debate in this field by doing a case study on the Master and Back programme, which was implemented since 2005 by the Italian lagging region of Sardinia. The programme is co-financed by the European Social Fund and consists of providing talented Sardinian students with generous scholarships to pursue Master's and Doctoral degrees in the world's best universities. Concerning the private returns to migration, we evaluate the impact of this scheme on the odds of employment and net monthly income of the recipients. Moreover, we assess whether the scheme has been able to improve their job matching. To perform this analysis we access unique administrative data on the recipients and a suitable control group, complemented by a purpose-designed web survey. In addition, we enquire into the determinants of return migration and the underlying decision-making process by using a mixed-methods approach, which is particularly well-suited for very complex phenomena like the one at hand.

The thesis reviews the engagement of news media in the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe in 1989, most vividly represented by the opening of the Berlin Wall. It uses field observations of the author as a jouralist of the time, extensive interviews with other news correspondents, a review of historical writing on the period, and an exhaustive review of the coverage given by six major news outlets. The work sees the change in Europe being driven by mass social movements, but also examines conventional, institutional politics at work, and describes the engagement of news media in the historical situation as it unfolds. It determines that the daily coverage by leading Western news media judged in terms of accuracy and perspective was successful, validated by later evaluations. It is informed by theoretical writing on mass social movements and on journalistic news values. It concludes by suggesting that the approach followed, a review of history from the perspective of news media of the day, could be applied to many other situations.

This thesis questions a series of assumptions concerning the nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century modernization of European spaces. Current scholarship tends to concur with essayistic texts and images by contemporary intellectuals that technological and organizational developments increased the freedom of movement of those living in western-European societies, while at the same time alienating them from each other and from their environment. I assess this claim with the help of Dutch travel egodocuments such as travel diaries and letters. After a prosopographical investigation of all available northern-Netherlandish travel egodocuments created between 1500 and 1915, a selection of these documents is examined in greater detail. In these documents, travellers regarded the possession of identity documents, a correct appearance, and a fitting social identity along with their personal contacts, physical capabilities, and the weather as the most important factors influencing whether they managed to gain access to places. A discussion of these factors demonstrates that no linear increase, nor a decrease, occurred in the spatial power felt by travellers. The exclusion many travellers continued to experience was often overdetermined. The largest groups affected by this were women and less educated families. Yet travellers could also play out different access factors against each other. By paying attention to how practices matched hopes and expectations, it is possible to discover how gravely social inequities were really felt by travellers. Perhaps surprisingly, all social groups desired to visit the same types of places. Their main difference concerned the atmosphere of the places where the different groups felt at home. To a large degree this matched travellers' unequal opportunities. Therefore, although opportunities remained strongly unequal throughout the period, this was not always experienced as a problem. Also, in cases where it was, many travellers knew strategies to work around the obstacles created for them.

Departing from the idea of a slippery ideological surface over which the term &ldquo
Europe&rdquo
is conceptualized, which is continuously susceptible to shifts and redefinitions, this thesis is devoted to the attempt to outline the differences between the two ways of the conceptualization of &ldquo
Europe&rdquo
in Central Eastern Europe in two specific periods and political contexts. The first period mentioned is the early 1980s, or pre-1989 period, punctuated with the Central European intellectuals&rsquo
(the so-called dissidents&rsquo
) discourse on the &ldquo
European&rdquo
affiliation of the region-especially in cultural terms. The transformation literature is also mentioned in order to pose the counter-factual arguments of this intellectual strand. The second period mentioned is the late 1990s and early 2000s, where the idea of &ldquo
Europe&rdquo
is identified with the EU and the EU accession. In this respect, Poland and Hungary are chosen as the sample countries for the scrutiny of the second period. Euro-discourses of the political parties and the concept of &ldquo
party-based Euroscepticism&rdquo
are scrutinised. The Polish and Hungarian media and the public opinion are also investigated to understand how and with what references &ldquo
Europe&rdquo
is conceptualised in late 1990s and early 2000s in the political space of Central Eastern Europe. Thus, in this study, the basic claim is that the intense debates and the literature on the &ldquo
Europeanness&rdquo
of Central Europe and on the transition that these countries have to realize in order to be &ldquo
European&rdquo
do not have a substantial basis in the conceptualization of &ldquo
Europe&rdquo
in the current political spaces of Poland and Hungary.

Résumé de la thèse d’Alexandre Janiak intitulée « Essais sur la mobilité géographique, sectorielle et intra-sectorielle en périodes de changement structurel »

Le changement structurel est un processus nécessaire qui améliore considérablement les conditions de vie dans nos sociétés. Il peut découler par exemple de l'introduction de nouvelles avancées technologiques qui permettent d'augmenter à long terme la productivité agrégée dans nos économies. En retour, la hausse de la productivité a un impact sur notre consommation de tous les jours. Elle nous permet notamment de vivre dans un plus grand confort. Les individus peuvent alors s'épanouir dans leur ensemble. Il est évident que le changement structurel peut prendre d'autres formes que celle du changement technologique, mais il est souvent issu d'une transformation des forces qui influencent les marchés et en général aboutit à long terme à une amélioration du bien-être global.

Mais le changement structurel est aussi un processus douloureux. Il peut durer plusieurs décennies et, durant cette période, nous sommes beaucoup à devoir en supporter les coûts. Comme nous allons l'illustrer dans ce chapitre introductif, le changement structurel a pour conséquence une modification du rapport aux facteurs de production, ce qui alors mène à modifier l'ensemble des prix relatifs qui caractérisent une économie. En particulier, la modification des prix est due à une transformation des demandes relatives de facteurs. Ces derniers se révèlent alors inutiles à l'exécution de certaines tâches ou sont fortement demandés dans d'autres points de l'économie.

Souvent, le changement structurel entraîne alors un processus de réallocation. Des pans entiers de travailleurs doivent par conséquent se réallouer à d'autres tâches. Les lois du marché les incitent ainsi à devoir s'adapter à un nouveau contexte, mais elles le font pour un futur meilleur.

Cette thèse s'intéresse à cette problématique. Elle suppose que tout processus de changement structurel implique un mouvement de réallocation des facteurs de production, notamment des travailleurs puisqu'il s'agit d'une thèse en économie du travail, mais qu'un tel processus engendre souvent des coûts non négligeables. Elle se veut surtout positive, mais la nature des questions qu'elle pose mène naturellement à un débat normatif. Par exemple, elle cherche des réponses aux interrogations suivantes: comment s'ajuste une économie au changement structurel? Quelle est la nature des coûts associés au changement? Ces coûts peuvent-ils en excéder les gains? Le processus de réallocation en vaut-il vraiment la peine? Les gains issus d'un tel processus sont-ils distribués de manière égale?

La thèse est composée de quatre chapitres qui chacun considère l’impact d’un changement structurel particulier.

Le premier chapitre s’intéresse à l’impact de l’ouverture internationale aux échanges sur le niveau de l’emploi. Il s’appuie sur des travaux récents en économie internationale qui ont montré que la libéralisation du commerce mène à l’expansion des firmes les plus productives et à la destruction des entreprises dont la productivité est moins élevée. La raison de cette dichotomie est la présence d’un coût à l’entrée sur le marché des exports qui a été documentée par de nombreuses études. Certaines entreprises se développent suite à la libéralisation car elles ont accès à de nouveaux marchés et d’autres meurent car elles ne peuvent pas faire face aux entreprises les plus productives. Puisque le commerce crée à la fois des emplois et en détruit d’autres, ce chapitre a pour but de déterminer l’effet net de ce processus de réallocation sur le niveau agrégé de l’emploi.

Dans cette perspective, il présente un modèle avec firmes hétérogènes où pour exporter une entreprise doit payer un coût fixe, ce qui implique que seules les entreprises les plus productives peuvent entrer sur le marché international. Le modèle génère le processus de réallocation que l’ouverture au commerce international suppose. En effet, comme les entreprises les plus productives veulent exporter, elles vont donc embaucher plus de travailleurs, mais comme elles sont également capables de fixer des prix moins élevés et que les biens sont substituables, les entreprises les moins productives vont donc faire faillite. L’effet net sur l’emploi est négatif car les exportateurs ont à la marge moins d’incitants à embaucher des travailleurs du au comportement de concurrence monopolistique.

Le chapitre analyse également d’un point de vue empirique l’effet d’une ouverture au commerce au niveau sectoriel sur les flux d’emplois. Les résultats empiriques confirment ceux du modèle, c’est-à-dire qu’une hausse de l’ouverture au commerce génère plus de destructions que de créations d’emplois au niveau d’un secteur.

Le second chapitre considère un modèle similaire à celui du premier chapitre, mais se focalise plutôt sur l’effet du commerce en termes de bien-être. Il montre notamment que l’impact dépend en fait de la courbe de demande de travail agrégée. Si la courbe est croissante, l’effet est positif, alors qu’il est négatif si elle est décroissante.

Le troisième chapitre essaie de comprendre quels sont les déterminants de la mobilité géographique. Le but est notamment d’étudier le niveau du chômage en Europe. En effet, la littérature a souvent affirmé que la faible mobilité géographique du travail est un facteur de chômage lorsque les travailleurs sans emploi préfèrent rester dans leur région d’origine plutôt que d’aller prospecter dans les régions les plus dynamiques. Il semble donc rationnel pour ces individus de créer des liens sociaux locaux si ils anticipent qu’ils ne déménageront pas vers une autre région. De même, une fois le capital social local accumulé, les incitants à la mobilité sont réduits.

Le troisième chapitre illustre donc un modèle caractérisé par diverses complémentarités qui mènent à des équilibres multiples (un équilibre avec beaucoup de capital social local, peu de mobilité et un chômage élevé et un autre avec des caractéristiques opposées). Le modèle montre également que le capital social local est systématiquement négatif pour la mobilité et peut être négatif pour l’emploi, mais d’autres types de capital social peuvent en fait faire augmenter le niveau de l’emploi.

Dans ce troisième chapitre, une illustration empirique qui se base sur plusieurs mesures montre que le capital social est un facteur dominant d’immobilité. C’est aussi un facteur de chômage lorsque le capital social est clairement local, alors que d’autres types de capital social s’avèrent avoir un effet positif sur le taux d’emploi. Cette partie empirique illustre également la causalité inverse où des individus qui vivent dans une région qui ne correspond pas à leur région de naissance accumulent moins de capital social local, ce qui donne de la crédibilité à une théorie d’équilibres multiples.

Finalement, en observant que les individus dans le Sud de l’Europe semblent accumuler plus de capital social local, alors que dans le Nord de l’Europe on tend à investir dans des types plus généraux de capital social, nous suggérons qu’une partie du problème de chômage en Europe peut mieux se comprendre grâce au concept de capital social local.

Enfin, le quatrième chapitre s’intéresse à l’effet de la croissance économique sur la qualité des emplois. En particulier, il analyse le fait qu’un individu puisse avoir un emploi qui corresponde ou non à ses qualifications, ce qui, dans le contexte de ce chapitre, détermine s’il s’agit de bons ou mauvais emplois.

Ce chapitre se base sur deux mécanismes qui ont été largement abordés par la littérature. Le premier est le concept de « destruction créatrice » qui dit que la croissance détruit de nouveaux emplois car elle les rend obsolètes. Le second est le processus de « capitalisation » qui nous dit que la croissance va créer de nombreux emplois car les entreprises anticipent des profits plus élevés dans le futur.

Alors que des études récentes, suggèrent que la destruction créatrice ne permet pas d’expliquer le lien entre croissance et chômage, ce chapitre montre qu’un tel concept permet de mieux comprendre la relation entre croissance et qualité des emplois.

Avec des données issues du panel européen, nous illustrons que la corrélation entre croissance et qualité des emplois est positive. Nous présentons une série de trois modèles qui diffèrent de la manière suivante :(i) le fait de pouvoir chercher un emploi ou non alors qu’on en a déjà un, (ii) le fait pour une entreprise de pouvoir acquérir des équipements modernes. Les résultats suggèrent que pour expliquer l’effet de la croissance sur la qualité des emplois, la meilleure stratégie est une combinaison entre les effets dits de destruction créatrice et de capitalisation. Alors que le premier effet influence le taux de destruction des mauvais emplois, le second a un impact sur la mobilité du travail des mauvais vers les bons emplois.

Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

The main aim of this thesis is to analyze EU-Western Balkans relations with regard to the prospective EU membership of the Western Balkans, and to make an analysis of the EU&rsquo
s Western Balkans enlargement strategy and the scope of membership conditionality imposed on the Western Balkans from post Dayton period (1995) to present (2006). This thesis examines how the EU membership conditionality worked in the Western Balkans&rsquo
preparatory stages for pre-accession, and to what extent it is different from the CEE enlargement process. Lastly, considering the discussions on rediscovered absorption capacity and the commitment of EU for further eastward enlargements after the CEE enlargement of 2004, it is looked into whether there has been a shift in EU&rsquo
s Western Balkans strategy. This thesis argues that the dominant factor determining the dynamics of the EU-Western Balkans relations are preferences, priorities and internal dynamics of the EU. The comparison between the CEE&rsquo
s and Western Balkans&rsquo
EU integration process reveals that EU tailored a long term and flexible enlargement strategy with increasing conditionality within SAP framework for the Western Balkans. Hence as long as the EU does not feel a sense of urgency straining the stability and EU integration of the region, a motivation for presenting an immediate enlargement platform will not emerge. In this sense, after the CEE enlargement, EU rediscovered its absorption capacity as a main membership condition and further differentiated the regional countries in terms of their own merits in fulfilling EU&rsquo
s conditionality and standards.

Det övergripande syftet med denna avhandling är att undersöka förhållandet mellan migration, reflexivitet och social klass. I fokus för den empiriska analysen står högt kvalificerade estniska emigranter. Reflexivitet har hittills inte varit ett viktigt begrepp i migrationsstudier. Även om vissa studier använt ordet reflexivitet, har det i huvudsak fungerat som bakgrundsbegrepp. Det finns en påtaglig brist på empiriskt orienterade studier av reflexivitet i migrationsstudier. Avhandlingen består av fyra artiklar med något olika inriktning. Den första undersöker det empiriska fallet i sin helhet utifrån en survey-undersökning om estniska migranter. Den andra artikeln diskuterar den brittiske sociologen Margaret Archers sätt att analysera migration och argumenterar i hennes efterföljd för ett socialpsykologiskt synsätt på de skiftande motiven att migrera. Den tredje artikeln utmanar tanken på att migranters återvändande i huvudsak kan förstås som saknad efter sociala relationer och känslor av hemlängtan. I den fjärde artikeln föreslås ett sätt för livsstilsorienterade migrationsstudier att hantera frågan om reflexivitet. Här positioneras livsstilsmigranter teoretiskt till andra typer av migranter och hur variationer ilivsstilsmigration kan analyseras. Trots inbördes variation har samtliga artiklar en gemensam nämnare.
This thesis focuses on issues around reflexivity and highly skilled migration. Reflexivity has been an underused concept in migration studies and incurporating it has been long overdue. By reflexivity this thesis understands the capacity of an actor to evaluate his or her position in relation to social structures, to take action in managing those structures and, finally, to critically revise both the position and action taken. There are multiple reasons as to why incorporating reflexivity is a useful endeavor to migration studies. On one hand, using reflexive types in order to understand different migration motivations offers an alternative to otherwise mainly class based explanations behind migration objectives. Migration research has long relied on the idea that migration motivations can be coupled with societal and class background. Similarly, return migration has been described almost unanimously as a result of a homing desire. Both positions, as claimed in this thesis, are oversimplifications. On the other hand, I argue that, reflexivity helps to analyze the importance of class or even society on migration in 21th century. This is why I suggest to analyze all three in concurrence – migration, reflexivity and class. In the following pages I analyze how reflexivity can be operationalized for studying migration. So far, reflexivity has been either used as background concept – mobility studies or for explaining particular kind of migration – lifestyle migration. I argue, that with careful operationalization reflexivity could be useful tool for explaining wide-variety of migrations – family, labour, lifestyle etc. Three articles in this thesis focus on providing such operationalizations, analyzing the relationship between migration motivations and reflexivity. Finally, the first article in this thesis analyzes the background of my particular group of migrants – Estonian highly skilled migrants and positions them in relation to other groups in Estonian society. Moreover, the article also underlines that self-development and lifestyle, if you will, is an important motivation for Eastern European migrants as well.

Esta tesis pretende formalizar una geografía psicosocial y trata del papel de la psique y del espacio en la individuación y la relación con el otro, mediante el estudio del habitar en Cadaqués. Éste es un municipio turístico y semi-rural de la Costa Brava española, localizado en el seno de la región catalana del Empordà y en la costa mediterránea sur-europea. Participando de la diversidad de la inmigración en dicha localidad, los no-nacionales extra/europeos, a menudo reducidos al estatuto de trabajadores extranjeros de temporada y precarios, moran también en el pueblo, algunos de ellos desde bastante tiempo. En este espacio compartido, atravesado y rico en vidas complejas, la convivencia con el otro tiene lugar bajo varias compartimentaciones, vinculadas a posiciones sociales diferenciadas y al marketing de una pretendida autenticidad autóctona. Una lectura trans-escalar de las evoluciones espaciales y un enfoque biográfico sobre las experiencias humanas posibilitan una apreciación de las transformaciones contemporáneas del pueblo de Cadaqués, en el marco de la mundialización, y de las formas de co-habitar que resultan de ellas. Todo ello nos muestra un lugar constituido por el entramado secular de múltiples movimientos materiales e ideales. Además, Cadaqués también está constituido por las brechas que son negociadas entre los habitantes según lógicas comunitarias animadas por intereses variables, a pesar de desdichas y de aspiraciones existenciales comunes. El análisis de datos de esta tesis se fundamenta sobre una investigación cualitativa realizada en el contexto de un trabajo de campo etnográfico que ha incluido entrevistas a una amplia variedad de residentes, así como la recopilación de datos estadísticos, documentales (incluyendo prensa local) y cartográficos. Todo ello muestra un día a día animado por una pluralidad de universos. Los catalizadores geo-históricos de la notoriedad y la adhesión a procesos de globalización del pueblo de Cadaqués, así como los retos actuales de la copresencia heredada, se ven destacados por las migraciones ínter/nacionales. Este estudio de caso extendido interroga por consiguiente de forma distanciada, situada y ordinarizada, una participación de los inmigrantes en la localidad, a menudo considerada desde el medio urbano bajo los ángulos del etnicismo y del integracionismo metodológicos. Frente al aumento del racismo, el corto-plazo político y una democracidad cuestionable en cuanto a los derechos de vivir y de desplazarse en Europa y en Occidente, esta tesis sugiere la necesidad de un pensamiento prospectivo y utópico renovado, basado en una sociabilidad respetuosa y promotora de la alteridad y en una ciudadanía que permita tanto el anclaje como la movilidad.
Cette thèse, qui vise la formalisation d’une géographie psycho-sociale, aborde le rôle de la psyché et de l’espace dans l’individuation et le rapport à l’autre, à travers l’habiter à Cadaqués, commune semi-rurale touristique de la Costa Brava espagnole, située au sein de la région catalane de l’Empordà, sur la côte méditerranéenne sud-européenne. Participant de la diversité immigrée locale, des non-nationaux extra/européens, souvent réduits au statut de travailleurs étrangers saisonniers et précaires, habitent aussi ce village, pour certains depuis longtemps. Dans cet espace partagé, traversé et riche de lignes de vies complexes, le vivre-ensemble avec autrui connaît pour autant divers compartimentages, liés à des positions sociales différenciées, et au marketing d’une prétendue authenticité autochtone. Une lecture trans-scalaire des évolutions spatiales et une approche biographique des expériences humaines permettent alors d’apprécier les transformations contemporaines du village dans la mondialisation, et les formes du co-habiter qui en résultent. Elles donnent à voir un lieu constitué de l’enchevêtrement séculaire de multiples mouvements matériels et idéels. Mais aussi des écarts, qui sont négociés entre les hommes selon des logiques communautaires mues par des intérêts variés, malgré des infortunes et des aspirations existentielles communes. L’analyse, qui s’appuie sur une enquête qualitative mobilisant un terrain ethnographique avec différents résidents interviewés, des données statistiques, de la presse locale, et l’outil cartographique, montre ainsi un quotidien animé par une pluralité d’univers. Les ferments géo-historiques d’une notoriété et d’une globalité villageoises et les enjeux actuels d’une coprésence héritée, sont mis en exergue par les migrations inter/nationales. Cette étude de cas étendue interroge donc de manière distanciée, située et ordinarisée, une participation des migrants à la localité plus souvent saisie en milieu urbain sous les angles de l’ethnicisme et de l’intégrationnisme méthodologiques. Face à une augmentation du racisme, un court-termisme politique, et une démocraticité discutable des droits à habiter et à se mouvoir en Europe et en Occident, cette thèse suggère la nécessité d’une pensée prospective et utopique renouvelée, sur une socialité respectueuse et promotrice d’altérité, et sur une citoyenneté associant ancrage et mobilité.
This thesis, which seeks to formalize a psycho-social geographical situation, reviews the role of the psyche and of space in individuation and the relationship with the other by studying everyday life in Cadaqués, a semi-rural tourist village on Spain’s Costa Brava, situated in the heart of the Catalan region of Empordà on the South-Mediterranean coast. This village has a diverse local population, given the presence of European and non-European immigrants who are often reduced to the status of foreign seasonal and temporary workers, often long-term. In this shared community, with a wide variety of rich and complex lives, co-habitation with outsiders leads to the emergence of several subgroups based on hierarchical social position and promotion of a so-called native authenticity. A transcalar interpretation of spatial changes and a biographical approach on human experience permits an assessment of contemporary transformations in this village as part of the global world and of different forms of co-habitation that emanate from this situation. It describes a space constituted by a secular interaction of a wide range of material and idealistic changes, while at the same time, exposing the variations negotiated between individuals along community lines and influenced by various interests, despite their shared existential misfortunes and aspirations. This analysis, which is based on a qualitative survey of an ethnographic terrain, interviews with different categories of residents, statistical data, press articles, and mapping, reveals daily life functioning within a plurality of universes. Geohistorical catalysts of notoriety and adherence to globalization processes of the village of Cadaqués, as well as issues arising from a co-habitation between native population and visitors, are both highlighted by inter/national migrations. This extended case study takes a distanced, situated and ordinarized approach to questioning the participation of migrants in their village, a participation that is more often analysed in an urban environment from the perspective of methodological ethnicism and inclusiveness. With the rise in racism, political short-term vision and disputes over conformity to democratic principles, specifically the right to live and move around Europe and the West, this thesis demonstrates the importance of initiating a renewed prospective and utopic approach to a respectful sociality that is capable of promoting otherness and a citizenship that permits both rooting and mobility.

Réinscrivant le processus d'intégration européenne dans une Histoire de la Guerre froide et post-Guerre froide et plus généralement dans une histoire européenne plus longue que le seul XXe siècle, cette thèse explore l'histoire des relations de la Commission européenne avec la périphérie sud-orientale du continent. La longue période chronologique étudiée permets de mettre en exergue les " forces profondes " qui se tiennent derrières les actions de l'exécutif de la CEE/UE dans une région critique pour l'Europe. Pour se faire, nous nous sommes basés sur les archives de la Commission européenne, du Conseil, du Département d'État américain, des Ministères des affaires étrangères français et britannique, de la bibliothèque de Cluj-Napoca en Roumanie et d'entretiens.Divisée en quatre parties, chacune se centrant sur une période chronologique, ce travail analyse l'action de la Commission face aux changements qui ont bouleversé l'Europe du Sud-est entre 1960 et 2010. L'adaptation constante de la politique de la Commission, de la " doctrine de l'Association " à la Synergie de la Mer Noire, nous ont amené à développer l'idée d'une Süd-ost politik qui se met en place dès le début des années 1960. Cependant, contrairement à l'Ostpolitik de Bonn, il ne s'agit pas pour Bruxelles d'aller vers les États communistes du Sud-est européen ou l'Union soviétique, mais plutôt de lutter contre leur influence. La Süd-Ost politik communautaire est clairement anticommuniste et antirusse.La Communauté fait barrage à Moscou en étendant le modèle de la démocratie libérale capitaliste dans la zone autour des Détroits. La situation stratégique d'Athènes, d'Ankara et plus tard de Tbilissi ou Kiev n'est pas oubliée par Bruxelles. Ainsi, la Commission s'inscrit dans une plus longue histoire, son action fait écho à la lutte entre Paris, Londres et Saint-Pétersbourg pour le contrôle des Détroits, aux tentatives des États de la région de copier les modèles nationaux d'Europe de l'Ouest et à la politique orientale des Puissances occidentales après 1918.Cependant, la Commission doit ménager des État membres qui lui rappellent sans cesse que ces actions doivent rester limitées aux traités. L'Avis sur la Grèce en 1976 marque le point culminant de ce débat entre Conseil et Commission. Parallèlement, au cours des années 1970, Bruxelles veille à ne pas laisser émerger dans sa périphérie des organisations qui pourraient la concurrencer. Il en sera ainsi de la Conférence pour la coopération et la sécurité en Europe et de son volet méditerranéen mais aussi de la Coopération Balkanique.Si la chute de l'Union soviétique fait naitre des hésitations sur la conduite à suivre vis-à-vis de l'Europe du Sud-est et sa nouvelle extension vers le Caucase et dans les anciennes républiques soviétiques. Bien vite la Commission revient à sa politique d'extension du modèle européen. Cependant, le centre des préoccupations communautaire n'est plus la Grèce ou la Turquie. Avec l'effondrement de l'Empire soviétique, le champ d'action de la Communauté -devenue Union- s'est élargi à l'ensemble de la Région Mer Noire.Pourtant, la non résolution du problème de Chypre, l'instabilité financière de la Grèce, les crises politiques turques, le maintien hors de Schengen de la Roumanie et de la Bulgarie sont des exemples des difficultés rencontrées par la Communauté dans la région.La guerre en Géorgie et l'annexion de la Crimée par la Russie à la suite de la révolution à Kiev illustrent que le processus " doux " d'inoculation des valeurs du Traité de Rome ne va pas de soi du moment que celui-ci rencontre une opposition " dure ". Nous achevons notre réflexion en nous posant la question de la capacité de l'Union et de la Commission à absorber à terme l'ensemble de la Mer Noire ce qui mettrait la Mésopotamie et l'Asie centrale en contact direct avec le processus d'intégration européenne.Il s'agit maintenant de savoir si la Mer Noire deviendra un " lac Européen".

La igualdad de oportunidades para la movilidad social se erige como uno de los objetivos centrales en todas las sociedades y democracias modernas que buscan garantizar la cohesión social. Son varios los países de América Latina y la OCDE que se encuentran preocupados por la rigidez de sus estructuras de movilidad, esto es, por la forma y grado en que las ventajas y desventajas se transmiten entre generaciones afectando a las más jóvenes, en especial a los individuos comprendidos entre 30 y 45 años de edad. Esta tesis busca contribuir al conocimiento de las dinámicas estructurales e institucionales que permiten explicar el comportamiento de la movilidad social y educativa en una selección de países de Europa (España, Suecia, Reino Unido y Alemania) y en una muestra de países latinoamericanos (Chile, México y Uruguay). El interés por conocer la fuerza y el modo en que los orígenes y trasfondos familiares (family backgrounds) se hallan relacionados con los logros alcanzados por las generaciones jóvenes constituye el pilar de esta investigación. El método que se aplica es esencialmente comparativo y fundamentado en el análisis de tasas de movilidad social y niveles de fluidez social a partir de modelos log-lineales entre países. Así se podrá identificar patrones de movilidad intergeneracional absoluta y relativa tanto social como educativa, constatar las relaciones estadísticamente significativas entre orígenes (O) y destinos (D) de clase social y educativos, y explicar sus similitudes y diferencias desde un enfoque comparativo de los regímenes socio-institucionales del bienestar considerados como unidades de análisis. Mi objetivo es, no solo generar nueva evidencia empírica, sino sobre todo contrastar cómo se relaciona la movilidad y fluidez social y educativa intergeneracional con los diferentes regímenes de bienestar latinoamericanos (Chile, México y Uruguay) en contraste con los regímenes de bienestar europeos (Suecia, Reino Unido, Alemania y España). Conserva especial interés analizar las transformaciones y cambios que experimentan las pautas y tendencias de movilidad social y educativa de las generaciones jóvenes en un escenario en que los efectos de los procesos de globalización de las sociedades modernas afectan los cursos de vida y las estructuras de oportunidades de las generaciones jóvenes. Para ello es necesaria tanto la perspectiva comparada que relaciona la generación joven con generaciones antecesoras, como la internacional que pone en relación sociedades con regímenes de bienestar y tiempos de industrialización diferenciales. En el mundo globalizado actual la dimensión de lo “generacional” (generación), y con especial atención en los análisis de la movilidad social y educativa intergeneracional, cobra particular relevancia e interés, esto es, en contextos en que los niveles de ingreso y protección laboral de la generación de trabajadores que se encuentran en su última etapa laboral, se ven deteriorados por la cada vez más acelerada obsolescencia de sus destrezas y habilidades para competir con las generaciones más jóvenes, y eventualmente mejor calificadas, de trabajadores llamadas a ocupar los “nuevos” puestos laborales. No obstante, las generaciones jóvenes se enfrentan a nuevos riesgos como la crisis económica, los desgastes del Estado nación benefactor y las recientes transformaciones de los regímenes de bienestar. El análisis de la movilidad social y educativa global, particular, inter-cohortes y transnacional posibilita un mejor conocimiento del escenario estructural de oportunidades que afrontan las generaciones jóvenes.
This thesis seeks to consolidate the knowledge of the structural and institutional dynamics that explain the behavior of social and educational mobility in a selection of European (Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom and Germany) and Latin American countries (Chile, Mexico and Uruguay). The interest in knowing the strength and the way in which the origins and the familiar backgrounds are related to the achievements reached by the young generations constitute the base of this research. The method applied is essentially comparative and based on the analysis of the social mobility rates and the levels of social fluidity from the log-linear models between countries. Thus, it is possible to identify patterns of absolute and relative intergenerational mobility, both social and educational, to verify the statistically significant relationships between origins (O) and destinations (D) of social class and educational attainment, and to explain their similarities and differences from a comparative approach of socio-institutional welfare regimes as units of analysis. The goal is not only to generate new empirical evidence, but also to contrast and verify how intergenerational social and educational mobility and fluidity are related to the different Latin American welfare regimes in contrast to European ones. It is of particular interest to analyze the transformations and changes experienced by the patterns and trends of social and educational mobility of the young generations in a scenario where effects of the processes of globalization of modern societies affect the courses of life and the structures of opportunities of these generations. To carry out this is necessary both, the comparative perspective that relates the young generation to former ones and the international perspective that links societies with welfare regimes and times of differential industrialization. In the globalized world, the real dimension of the "generational", and with special attention in the analysis of social and educational intergenerational mobility, is of particular relevance and interest, that is, in contexts in which the income and labor protection levels of the generation of workers who are in their last stage of work, are deteriorated by the increasingly accelerated obsolescence of their skills and abilities in order to compete with the younger generations of workers, eventually better qualified and called to occupy the “new” job positions.

La crise financière a démystifié le système capitaliste aux yeux de larges segments de la population d’Europe de l'Est, exacerbant le décalage entre les attentes suscitées par le processus de démocratisation et la situation, souvent difficile, d’un nombre important de citoyens. Dans ce contexte, l'indignation que certains d’entre eux expriment s'est dirigée contre la classe politique, donnant naissance à de nouvelles formes de mobilisation. Cette thèse analyse ces mobilisations dans un cadre comparatif incluant des réseaux militants en Hongrie et en Roumanie, sur la période 2008 - 2014. Quelles sont les caractéristiques des récentes vagues de protestations ? Ces protestations s’inscrivent-elles dans la continuité de répertoires d’action plus anciens ? Si la Roumanie et la Hongrie sont « en transition », quelles sont les mutations qui affectent les conditions de mobilisation ? Comment expliquer les différences de dynamiques que l’on observe dans les deux pays ? Pour répondre à ces questions, nous avons essayé de bâtir des passerelles entre deux champs de recherche, celui de la transition démocratique et celui des mouvements sociaux. En Roumanie comme en Hongrie, la prise en compte des transformations systémiques induites par la transition semble en effet essentielle à la compréhension des phénomènes de mobilisation récents. L'analyse détaillée des processus d'accumulation de capital social relationnel et cognitif qui en résulte - à l’origine de l’émergence de nouvelles générations d’activistes – constitue l’apport principal de notre travail. La démarche diachronique que nous avons adoptée nous a par ailleurs permis d’identifier et de caractériser les influences qu’un réseau militant peut avoir sur un autre et l’impact d’une protestation sur la suivante. Soucieux de produire des informations précises et circonstanciées sur l’environnement politique, économique et culturel dans lequel naissent les mobilisations étudiées, nous avons interrogé, à partir d’un sondage en ligne, des spécialistes de la société civile, des médias et de la vie politique des deux pays. Parallèlement, nous avons réalisé 26 entretiens approfondis avec des activistes en Hongrie et en Roumanie pour parvenir à définir les processus de mobilisation des ressources, les canaux de mobilisation utilisées, les caractéristiques des réseaux et des organisations en présence, mais aussi l’identité des activistes et, subséquemment, leur perception du contexte d’action dans lequel ils s’inscrivent. En prenant en compte l’ensemble de ces éléments, nous avons pu montrer comment l'accumulation d’expériences de mobilisations nourrissait les mouvements suivants, plus nombreux et plus visibles au fil du temps. Dans cette dynamique, les réseaux sociaux en ligne jouent un rôle essentiel. La socialisation politique sur Facebook a notamment contribué au développement d’une identité commune et à la transformation de l'indignation personnelle en engagement collectif. La multiplication des interactions sociales, une certaine similitude de goûts et de visions du monde, ainsi qu’un effort de réseautage ont permis à l'activisme en ligne de se transformer en activisme de rue. La nature et l’intensité de cet engagement diffèrent selon les deux pays. En Roumanie, « un militantisme récréationnel » puisant ses racines dans la simultanéité de la consommation culturelle et de l'implication civique est observable. A l’inverse, en Hongrie l’enthousiasme civique semble s’essouffler. Confrontés à un pouvoir politique stable, soutenu par la majorité de la population et capable de s'opposer fermement aux initiatives de la société civile, les mouvements de contestation hongrois n’ont pas réussi à déstabiliser le pouvoir en place. Cet exemple montre qu’une culture de protestation relativement vivace ne débouche pas automatiquement sur un fort niveau de mobilisation citoyenne. Par contraste, le cas de la Roumanie
In Eastern Europe the financial crisis of 2008 highlighted the gap between expectations concerning the new configuration of liberal and capitalist states on the one hand, and the social realities on the other. Waves of contention followed, which were provoked especially by austerity measures implemented by the respective governments. These were in their majority directed against the post-communist elites, which were held responsible for the perceived slow progress regarding economic performance and the democratization process in the years before. With the purpose of analyzing new forms of collective action and protests that appeared following this crisis, this dissertation is dedicated to study, in a comparative manner, activist networks in Hungary and Romania between 2008 and 2014.The following questions are in the center of the study: Are those recent waves of mobilization different from forms of protests prior to the crisis or can we observe a continuation of repertoires of contention? If Romania and Hungary are considered to be countries still located in the transition process, without having reached the “goal” of consolidated democracies, are the conditions and forms of collective action also undergoing profound transformations? If so, how can we explain the different dynamics in those two countries?Given the fact, that the analysis of social movements is becoming a multicentric subfield of social sciences, the present study draws on a diversity of analytical angles, not only stemming from approaches to investigate social movements and regime change, but also including additional theoretical avenues, in order to answer these main questions. Taking into account the transformation background of Romania and Hungary seems the appropriate perspective to understand recent mobilizations. For this purpose, this study analyzes processes of the accumulation of cognitive and relational social capital, shaping a new generation of activists. By doing so, the emphasis could be put on observing the effects of protests on subsequent mobilizations and the spillover/ interaction between activist networks over time. In a first step, I gathered comparable data on the political, economic and social environment, in which these networks arose, by carrying out expert on-line surveys in both countries. For a better understanding of mechanisms of resource mobilization, mobilization channels, network characteristics and organizational features, I conducted 26 in-depth interviews with activists from both countries. As a result, I was able to highlight the significance of protest-specific experiences for future mobilizations. Online social networks appear to play a key role in this dynamic in contemporary social movements, mainly through their capacity of generating a collective identity and transforming personal indignation into collective action. The nature and the intensity of this dynamic vary in the two countries. While I observed a growth of, what I called “recreational activism” in Romania, resulting from the concomitance of patterns of cultural consumption and civic involvement, a certain protest fatigue can be attested for the first years after the crisis in Hungary. Confronted with stable political configurations and a government that is widely supported by the electorate, movements contesting the power of Fidesz were not able to destabilize existing power structures in Hungary. Hence, this study shows that a longstanding culture of protest and of civic engagement does not necessarily lead, in different circumstances, to high levels of political activism of challengers to political power. Furthermore, the Romanian case suggests that rather the absence of such a culture, combined with a lack of precedent and experiences for both, engaged citizens and authorities can open spaces for renegotiating rules and provoke (lasting) political and cultural changes

This thesis analyses the content, tone, form and authorship of the national newspaper gossip column 1918-1939, as a new means through which the qualities of the popular press in this period can be more closely defined. Often dismissed as an example of the sensational, Americanization of early twentieth-century popular culture, the celebrity gossip column has been loosely grouped with the friendly, informal language and bolder formatting of the ‘New Journalism’ of the late nineteenth century and the development of the dramatic ‘human-interest’ stories of ‘everyday life’ in the interwar period (LeMahieu, 1988; Wiener, 1988). Through a comparative study of six newspapers including the Daily Express, Daily Mail and News of the World, I analyse the changing representation of the celebrity subject, and, originally, the shifting character and persona of the gossip columnist. Whereas some historians have analysed the content of newspapers without considering the questions of the newspaper’s production, I analyse newspaper employment records, gossip columnists’ memoirs and their unpublished letters and diaries to define the specific economic, social and cultural circumstances which, I argue, influenced their public portrayal. Also, in examining the unpublished correspondence between editors, proprietors and columnists and the burgeoning print culture of journalistic training manuals and professional memoirs, I provide a history of the press’s professionalization in this period. The national popular press has often been used as a historical source to define national character and national identity in the interwar period (Bland, 2008; Kohn, 1992). By scrutinizing the content and production of the gossip column and particularly the class, behaviour, interactions and subject matter of the columnist, I argue that the gossip column presented a version of ‘Britishness’ that was not so inward-looking and domesticated as so many accounts of interwar Britain suggest.

This thesis aims to examine the Fellowship of St Alban and St Sergius, an ecumenical body that promotes relations between various Christian denominations. Despite being founded on the grounds to promote relations and dialogue between the Anglicans and the Orthodox, it has widened this scope, introducing new churches in its life, conferences, publications and history. In the first and second chapters of this thesis the first eighty five years (1927-2012) of its history are explored, identifying the Society’s strengths and weaknesses in achieving its objectives, whilst studying its theological approaches to the reunion work, understanding that this body has been a progressive fellowship, theologically and ecclesiastically. The third chapter investigates the life and the theological, philosophical and historical views of Nicolas Zernov, who had as a life goal to foster relations between the churches, whilst also promoting Orthodox and Russian topics to a Western audience. The final chapter examines two themes by two important members of the Fellowship, Metropolitan Kallistos of Diokleia’s ideas on deaconesses and women priests and former Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams’ views on icons. These two topics are interesting and current for the continuation of the relations between the Orthodox Church and the Anglican Communion, trying to further understand each other in order to eventually achieve what many in the Fellowship profess and what the Bible promotes, ‘that they all may be one’ (John 17:21). The conclusion of the thesis assesses the work of the Fellowship, whilst also looking into the post 2012 objectives and achievements of the Fellowship and the future goals of the Society. Therefore, this paper is a quest for truth, a quest for theology and a quest for unity.

Through close textual analysis of 20^th century Czech anthropological texts from the Revivalist and Socialist periods and contemporary social research conducted after the Velvet Revolution, I demonstrate certain prominent discourses of identity developed in early Bohemian anthropology and their continuities in present day popular discourses. In each period, identity is deeply intertwined with teleological theories of history with Czech populations at the apex of cultural evolutionary development. In the Revivalist period this apex was believed to be the democratic nation state, transitioning to a Marxist nation state in the Socialist period, and in the contemporary period is conceived of as a neoliberal nation state. A major function of anthropology in the Revivalist and Socialist periods was to legitimate either period’s respective teleological theory and Czech possession of relevant values as 'objective' and 'natural' fact, a general mode of discourse which continued in the contemporary period in numerous editorials in the 1990s on the advantages of capitalism. The contemporary manifestation has particularly noteworthy consequences for the Roma minority, which I argue has provided Czech discourses with an ethnic category 'anti-thetical' to their own identity, providing a 'repository' for negative Czech self-stereotypes emerging from collaboration in the Socialist period.

This thesis examines daily life in the city of Prague during the First World War and in its immediate aftermath. Its aim is twofold: to explore the impact of the war on urban space and to analyse the relationship of Prague’s inhabitants to the Austro-Hungarian and then Czechoslovak state. To this end, both the mobilization for the war effort and the crisis of legitimacy experienced by the state are investigated. The two elements are connected: it is precisely because of the great sacrifices made by Praguers during the conflict that the Empire lost the trust of its citizens. Food shortages also constitute a major feature of the war experience and the inappropriate management of supply by the state played a large role in its final collapse. The study goes beyond Czechoslovak independence on 28 October 1918 to fully grasp the continuities between the two polities and the consequences of the war on this transitional period. Beyond the official national revolution, the revolutionary spirit in Prague around the time of regime change reveals the interplay between national and social motives, making it part of a broader European revolutionary movement at the time.

This thesis develops a theory of international social closure to examine (i) the politics of membership in status groups – or, clubs – in international society and (ii) the persistence of clubs in international society. This thesis offers new concepts to improve the English School’s understanding of international society, its expansion, and its reproduction. In so doing it also addresses limitations and gaps in the IR status literature and the global governance and diplomacy literatures concerned with clubs and networks. This thesis analyses strategies of exclusion, entry, and incorporation used by actors to deny, attempt, or grant inclusion into clubs as well as the institutional contexts underpinning those clubs. Specifically, this research undertakes a study of instances of exclusion, entry, and incorporation in the context of three clubs: the Family of Civilised Nations, the Great Powers club, and G-summitry. In the first two cases, this research relies primarily on secondary sources while in the case of G-summitry it presents original empirical research gathered through archival research, interviews, and ethnographic participant observation. This thesis presents four main conclusions about the operation of closure: (i) the logics of different closure games are defined by overarching normative institutions of international society; (ii) despite a collectivist closure rule, closure in international society is predominantly individualistic; (iii) actors seeking entry tend to employ deferential entry strategies that reproduce a stratified status quo order; and (iv) incorporation promotes stratification along both functional and cultural lines. This thesis also draws three specific conclusions that run counter to much current scholarship: (i) contemporary international society is neither more open nor less hierarchical than nineteenth century international society; (ii) hierarchy is reproduced to a large degree by entry and incorporation strategies rather than exclusion strategies; and (iii) closure does not run along a ‘west versus the rest’ fault line.

Die vorliegende Dissertation möchte einen Beitrag zur Entwicklung eines Instrumentariums leisten, das Schlussfolgerungen hinsichtlich sich angleichender ökonomischer und sozialstruktureller Entwicklungen von Städten im Rahmen europäisierter Gesellschaften erlaubt. Anhand soziologischer und regionalökonomischer Theorien werden relevante Dimensionen abgeleitet, um ökonomische und soziale Strukturen von Städten im Städtesystem globalisierter und europäisierter Gesellschaften vergleichen bzw. bei wiederholter Analyse auf die Chancen einer EU-intendierten Konvergenz der europäischen Städte schließen zu können. Am Beispiel der Städte Ostmitteleuropas (Tschechiens, der Slowakei, Polens, Ungarns und Sloweniens) wird daran anschließend geprüft, inwieweit mit den bisher verfügbaren Daten der europäischen Statistik – insbesondere der Urban-Audit-Datenbank – eine empirische Überprüfung der theoretisch abgeleiteten Referenzdimensionen gelingt und welche Positionen die Städte in einem ostmitteleuropäischen Städtesystem einnehmen. Ein weiterer Fokus liegt auf den Wechselwirkungen, die sich am Beispiel der Analyse der ostmitteleuropäischen Städte zwischen ihren ökonomischen Positionierungen und ihren Sozialstrukturen zeigen.

This research thesis focuses on the recent emergence of the “African-Italian” category of self- identification among young people in Italy with African origin. It explores how and to what extent the notion of Africanness is made and unmade, contested, reinterpreted and hyphenated in everyday practices, interactions and social representations. A common tendency shown by Italian-born youth with different African backgrounds is the increasing reference to Africa and African identity in cultural, social and entrepreneurial initiatives. This reveals their search for a new sense of their shared African heritage and at the same time a growing desire for public exposure and recognition of their Africanness. Moreover, the multiple intersections of notions of Africanness, Blackness and Italianness in daily social interactions and in the local “politics of naming” shows that young people of African descent associate their “being African” with positioning themselves to local public debates about racism and in relation to transnational Blackness. Therefore, “being African” is not only an issue at the cultural and political levels, but it also represents a category of difference or belonging, which is an important matter for people in different relational contexts. Indeed, African-Italian youth politics of self-definition is situated at different spatial levels: the level of circulation of categories across the Black Atlantic, the European level of an increasing awareness of Afro-Europeanness, the national level of specific colonial histories and racial formations, and the local level of everyday interaction. This PhD research aims at contributing to the emerging field of Afro-European studies in two ways. On the one hand it explores a specific South-European socio-historical context, Italy, on the other hand it proposes to approach Africanness and Blackness as categories of practices (Brubaker 2012). Firstly, the Italian specific colonial history together with the postcolonial African trajectories of migration and local integration consolidate the concept of alterity based on the colour of the skin as well as the “tribal clichés” on Africa and Africans. Both the social and historical elements have affected the evolution of the Italian-African diaspora, the racialization processes and the strategies to resist to racism. Secondly, this research intends to consider Africanness as an “identity of relation” (Glissant 1990) and a process of self-design (De Witte 2014). According to Palmié, in this research Africa and Africanness are not considered as analytical categories or ontological givens, but as “problems to be empirically investigated in regard to both the historical forces and discursive formations that lastingly 'Africanized' the continent and its inhabitants” (Palmié 2007). Therefore, understanding whether an element is authentically African becomes less important than explore, through social practices, interactions and socials representation, when and where the social actor claims his/ her Africanness or not (Chivallon 2004). This research seeks to answer the following set of questions drawing on empirical data collected through ethnographic observations and narrative interviews. Who can be identified as an African? What does it entail to be a person with African origin in Italy and in Europe? When and to what extent does “being African” become (or cease to be) important? When does this dimension prevail over other levels of affiliations, i.e. national or ethnic, local or transnational? When is it contested? How does the notion of Africanness intersect with the notion of Blackness? During the three-year project, the researcher collected 51 narrative gender-balanced interviews with young adults aged 20-35 with different national origins – i.e.⅓ from West Africa, ⅓ from East Africa, ⅓ from Central and South Africa- who were born or have lived in Italy for at least ten years. These interviewees are young professionals, entrepreneurs, artists, social activists or university students. They can be considered as young people with great aspirations, involved in a process of social mobility and who improve their skills and knowledge through education or self-entrepreneurship. In addition, the author has ethnographically observed relevant events dedicated to the whole African diaspora – i.e. beauty pageants, association meetings, trainings and other events – as well as family contexts and online conversations. This methodology allowed to observe the elaboration of Africanness at different cultural and social levels. In the first part (ch.3) the research explored how Africanness emerges in social interactions within the Italian context, focusing on how this dimension appears as a category of alterity or as one of the aspects of the actors’ multiple identity, which is socially redefined and strategically used in daily life by the interviewees of this research. As a reaction to racism, young African-Italians appropriate the power to define what is African for themselves. This phenomenon challenges the “invention of Africa” (Mudimbe 1988), a notion relating Africanness to a paradigm of alterity. The transnational and diasporic levels of interactions carry a remarkable significance for social actors, allowing them to realize the instability of notions such as Blackness and Whiteness, as well as the process of “re-branding” Africa (De Witte 2014) occurring at the global level. In the second part the research explored some corporeal practices: male circumcision (ch.4), haircare (ch.5), use of African textiles and accessories (ch.6). On the one hand, the Black body is the intersection of the social and historical experiences of youth in Africa and in the diaspora. On the other hand, the analysis of corporeal practices shows how social actors position themselves in relation to traditional habits and consolidated aesthetic styles. The making of Africanness is here explored as a process of self-design. The individual experience and definition of Africanness are embedded in the continuous tensions between intergenerational transmission, individual appropriation, performance and creativity. The exploration of practices that involve these dimensions of social and individual life - i.e. male circumcision, haircare, use of African textiles and accessories – elucidates how the meaning of “being African” changes within evolving biographies. It becomes therefore important for self-understanding but also in the processes of self-promotion. In the last chapter (ch.7) this contribution underlined the interconnections between professional aspirations and the elaboration of Africanness. To face the lack of equal opportunities, African-Italian young people can capitalize the “African part” of their social networks or cultural backgrounds, allowing for new economic spaces and consumer niches. Contested or celebrated, the appropriation of Africanness arises as an act “of self-making” and “of self-promotion” that reduces racial categories and discrimination practices to be regarded only as one of the aspects of social life. The research showed that African-Italian young people express their subjectivities in relation both to racial paradigms and to what is considered “the African heritage”. They therefore underline the versatility of their “being African”, which appears a social construction not to be strictly related to the skin, but to a reserve of symbols, aesthetic styles and cosmopolitan competences usable, also strategically, in different life stages and relational contexts.
Questa ricerca prende avvio dalla crescente diffusione del termine “afroitaliano” come categoria di auto-rappresentazione tra i giovani di origine africana in Italia ed esplora come la nozione di africanità venga costruita o decostruita, reinterpretata o “usata con il trattino” nelle pratiche di vita quotidiana, nelle interazioni e nelle rappresentazioni sociali. Il crescente riferimento all’ Africa e all’identità africana in iniziative di stampo culturale, sociale e imprenditoriale mostra infatti che i giovani nati e cresciuti in Italia, con diversi background africani, ricercano un patrimonio culturale africano condiviso (De Witte & Meyer 2012) e desiderano esibirlo pubblicamente, lottando per un suo riconoscimento all’interno del panorama culturale nazionale. Le molteplici intersezioni delle categorie di africanità, blackness e italianità nei contesti di vita quotidiana e nelle “politics of naming” locali mettono in luce che i giovani afrodiscendenti si appropriano del loro “essere africani” posizionandosi rispetto a più livelli storici e socio-culturali: quello del Black Atlantic e della blackness transnazionale, quello europeo dove vi è una crescente consapevolezza dell’afro-europeità, quello nazionale delle specifiche storie coloniali e formazioni razziali, infine quello locale delle interazioni della vita quotidiana. Questa ricerca intende contribuire all’emergente campo di studi sull’Afro-Europa in due modi: analizzando la costruzione sociale dell’africanità in uno specifico contesto sud-europeo, quello italiano, e proponendo di considerare l’africanità come categorie di pratiche (Brubaker 2012) rilevante in vari contesti relazionali. All’interno dello spazio culturale europeo, il contesto italiano presenta delle specificità dovute alla sua storia coloniale e alle traiettorie dell’immigrazione postcoloniale. Il lascito coloniale ha contribuito al consolidamento di rappresentazioni dell’alterità basate sul dispositivo del colore e su “cliché tribali” sugli africani, ma non ha determinato le mappe delle migrazioni, che non hanno seguito le rotte del colonialismo ma perlopiù progetti economici. In tale cornice storica e socio- culturale, l’africanità viene qui intesa come un’identità relazionale (Glissant 1990) che emerge in vari contesti sociali e nei processi di self-design (De Witte 2014). L’ Africa e l’africanità non possono essere considerate categorie analitiche, tantomeno ontologiche: sono nozioni che esistono solamente nelle produzioni discorsive e nelle politiche egemoniche che hanno “africanizzato” il continente e le persone che lo abitano (Palmié 2007). Perciò, osservare quando e dove gli attori sociali reclamano e si appropriano – anche creativamente - della propria africanità è più importante del tentativo di comprendere se un elemento, o un soggetto, è “autenticamente” africano (Chivallon 2004). Questa ricerca si basa sia basa sul materiale empirico raccolto attraverso osservazioni etnografiche e 51 interviste narrative. Le interviste sono state condotte con giovani adulti di diverse origini africane (⅓ dall’Africa Occidentale, ⅓ dall’Africa Orientale, ⅓ dall’Africa centrale o meridionale), tra i 20 e i 35 anni, nati o residenti da almeno dieci anni in diverse regioni italiane. Nella scelta del campione è stato mantenuto un equilibrio di genere e tutti gli intervistati sono giovani professionisti, artisti, imprenditori o studenti universitari. Sono persone che, nonostante le umili origini o la scarsità di pari opportunità, cercano di attivare un processo di mobilità sociale facendo leva su molteplici competenze e sull’auto-imprenditorialità. Le osservazioni etnografiche sono state svolte in occasione di alcune feste familiari ed eventi rivolti all’intera diaspora africana (concorsi di bellezza, incontri di associazioni, festival, attività formative e convegni), ponendo la dovuta attenzione anche alle conversazioni online precedenti o successive agli eventi. Questo approccio al campo ha consentito di osservare la costruzione dell’africanità a diversi livelli sociali e culturali. Nella prima parte (cap.3) la ricerca esplora come questa dimensione emerge nelle interazioni sociali in contesto italiano, come categoria di alterità etero-attribuita o come una delle molteplici identità che gli attori sociali creativamente ridefiniscono o utilizzano nei vari contesti della vita quotidiana. I giovani afrodiscendenti reagiscono infatti ai processi di razzializzazione anche riprendendosi il potere di definire cosa è, o non è, africano, e in che termini, rompendo anche con l’“idea di Africa” (Mudimbe 1988, 1994) come paradigma di alterità. Il livello transnazionale e diasporico diventa importante per gli attori sociali perché permette loro di sperimentare l’instabilità delle categorie razziali di blackness e whiteness, ma anche di partecipare, declinandolo localmente, al processo di re-branding dell’Africa che rende le produzioni culturali ed artistiche “afro” sempre più “cool” (De Witte 2014). La seconda parte è dedicata alle pratiche del corpo (cap.4,5,6). Il “corpo nero” si trova infatti all’intersezione delle esperienze storiche e sociali delle popolazioni dell’Africa e della sua diaspora. Tuttavia, l’analisi dei processi di trasmissione e incorporazione di tecniche e norme estetiche ci permette di osservare i molteplici significati che i corpi assumono, al di là dell’esperienza della loro razzializzazione. I soggettivi percorsi di riscoperta e riappropriazione dell’africanità si inseriscono perciò nella continua tensione che lega trasmissione generazionale, creatività individuale e performance nello spazio pubblico. Nel corso dei capitoli sono state analizzate pratiche del corpo che toccano tutte queste dimensioni della vita sociale: la circoncisione maschile, le tecniche di cura dei capelli e l’uso di tessuti e accessori “africani”. Questo percorso ha permesso di analizzare come il significato dell’“essere africano” e dell’essere “nero” cambi nel corso delle biografie individuali e venga continuamente negoziato nelle interazioni sociali e nei processi di trasmissione. Nell’ultimo capitolo, viene sottolineata la stretta interconnessione tra riappropriazione dell’africanità, aspirazioni e percorsi professionali, mostrando anche come il “lato africano” delle reti sociali e del personale bagaglio culturale possa essere capitalizzato e tradursi in nicchie di consumo e mercato. Ridefinita, contestata o celebrata, il recupero della propria africanità rientra perciò un processo di stilizzazione e promozione del sé, nello spazio pubblico come nelle politiche culturali ed economiche locali e globali. In conclusione, la ricerca mette in evidenza come i giovani afrodiscendenti, ritrovando l’orgoglio nel “dirsi africano”, negoziano il significato sociale della nerezza e della “tradizione africana”. L’ “essere africano/a” appare una dimensione non esclusivamente collegata al colore della pelle, nemmeno ad una presunta autenticità, ma a repertori simbolici ed estetici e a competenze – spesso cosmopolite - continuamente ridefinite e riscostruite.