24 September 2015, 11:00-13:00
Heinrich Böll Foundation
Żurawia 45, Warsaw
Increased urban and environmental activism in Central and Eastern Europe could indicate the emergence of a new wave of grassroots social movements. The city movements in Poland, Hungary and Czech Republic, the anti-corruption protest in Bulgaria as well the “Rosia Montana” green movement in Romania suggest new mobilization patterns and new forms of social participation that are locally-centered and more community-oriented. If Solidarność was the "civil rights movement" of Eastern Europe during transition to democracy and western integration, then what forms of current collective action will prevail in the nearest future? Sava argues that new forms of social participation seem to be culturally motivated and community-oriented rather than reflecting class struggle. The case of “Save Bucharest” is analyzed as a laboratory where new styles, social meanings and cultural critiques are informally exercised and eventually institutionalized.
Please confirm your participation at pl-info@pl.boell.org.
Ionel N Sava is a senior lecturer at the University of Bucharest, Romania where he teaches sociology and international relations. He completed his PhD in 1999 and was a Fulbright Fellow at the University of California in Los Angeles in 2001
The event is held as part of the project "
The Politics of Protest. Understanding political protest in Central Europe" organized by the Warsaw office of Heinrich Böll Foundation in partnership with Collegium Civitas university. The Project under the academic supervision of Mateusz Fałkowski PhD. from the Collegium Civitas examines recent protests in six Central European countries. Between March and October 2015 six expert seminar discussions will examine protests taking place recently in following countries: Bosnia, Bulgaria, Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania. Invited country experts will discuss the background, causes and forms of current mobilizations. The case studies of marches, riots and demonstrations (mostly of 2014) will help us to develop common analytical framework for understanding political protest in CEE countries. Each seminar will be documented in a short "country paper" which will serve as a basis of a short book summarizing our findings and proposing analytical framework.
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
