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People of the Mountain |
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Seminars and Colloquia |
Ivan VejvodaKapka Kassabova |
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Series: Seminars and Colloquia
For millennia, the people of the Mesta Valley have lived in an intimate relationship with their environment. Kapka Kassabova's enquiry is into the nature of this relationship as it survives today, after a succession of mass traumas in the 20th century have made their mark. They include political persecution during Communism, economic upheaval in the wake of the collapse of the planned economy, environmental degradation during and after Communism, migration, endemic state corruption, climate change, and a generational shift from a traditional, agricultural way of life towards a globalised, digitalised, uprooted way of life. His focus is on the Pomak (indigenous Muslim) and mixed villages here. An interesting phenomenon can be observed: permanent emigration is rare. These communities are held together by invisible factors that cannot be accounted for by pure economics.
The villages of the Mesta Valley are remarkable for several things: their exceptionally rich biosphere where some of Europe’s cleanest foods, animals, and medicinal herbs thrive; their rich tradition of cultural syncretism; their existential endurance in the face of trauma, and the fact that they export the greatest amount of cheap seasonal labour to Western Europe – the fruit pickers, planters, and builders on whom the wealthier European economies depend.
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Series: Seminars and Colloquia
For millennia, the people of the Mesta Valley have lived in an intimate relationship with their environment. Kapka Kassabova's enquiry is into the nature of this relationship as it survives today, after a succession of mass traumas in the 20th century have made their mark. They include political persecution during Communism, economic upheaval in the wake of the collapse of the planned economy, environmental degradation during and after Communism, migration, endemic state corruption, climate change, and a generational shift from a traditional, agricultural way of life towards a globalised, digitalised, uprooted way of life. His focus is on the Pomak (indigenous Muslim) and mixed villages here. An interesting phenomenon can be observed: permanent emigration is rare. These communities are held together by invisible factors that cannot be accounted for by pure economics.
The villages of the Mesta Valley are remarkable for several things: their exceptionally rich biosphere where some of Europe’s cleanest foods, animals, and medicinal herbs thrive; their rich tradition of cultural syncretism; their existential endurance in the face of trauma, and the fact that they export the greatest amount of cheap seasonal labour to Western Europe – the fruit pickers, planters, and builders on whom the wealthier European economies depend.
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Learning From the Prespa Agreement |
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Seminars and Colloquia |
Ioannis ArmakolasIvan Vejvoda |
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Series: Seminars and Colloquia
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Series: Seminars and Colloquia
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US Elections 2020 |
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Panels and Discussions |
Ivan VejvodaSteven Erlanger, Eva Nowotny, Raimund Löw |
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Speakers: Ivan VejvodaSteven Erlanger, Eva Nowotny, Raimund Löw
Series: Panels and Discussions
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Speakers: Ivan VejvodaSteven Erlanger, Eva Nowotny, Raimund Löw
Series: Panels and Discussions
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US Elections 2020 |
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Panels and Discussions |
Ivan Vejvoda |
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Series: Panels and Discussions
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Series: Panels and Discussions
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Who is Telling Us What? Why? And How? |
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Seminars and Colloquia |
Alison SmaleIvan Vejvoda |
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Series: Seminars and Colloquia
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Series: Seminars and Colloquia
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Eroding Trust |
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Seminars and Colloquia |
Ivan VejvodaSrdjan Cvijic |
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Series: Seminars and Colloquia
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Series: Seminars and Colloquia
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The EU Periphery and Revisionist Powers |
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Seminars and Colloquia |
Dimitar BechevIvan Vejvoda |
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Series: Seminars and Colloquia
Starting with the annexation of Crimea in the spring of 2014, scholars and analysts have been debating the standoff between the West and competitors such as Russia, Erdogan’s Turkey, and lately China on Europe’s periphery. “The return of geopolitics” has become a standard phrase to describe the new moment in the international politics of Eastern and Southeast Europe. A contrast is drawn with the 2000s, the highmark of the European Union’s “transformative power” and NATO’s eastward expansion. But the top-down view highlighting the preferences and actions of big players, including core EU member states like Germany and France, Russia, Turkey etc. overlooks the critical role played by peripheral countries and their elites. Rather than being the object of great powers’ decisions, they manipulate rivalries in pursuit of political advantage. Though the domestic arena provides entry points for external actors’ influence it also empowers incumbent elites in the target countries. The talk drew on examples from Southeast Europe (the Western Balkans, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece) but drew parallels to the post-Soviet space.
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Series: Seminars and Colloquia
Starting with the annexation of Crimea in the spring of 2014, scholars and analysts have been debating the standoff between the West and competitors such as Russia, Erdogan’s Turkey, and lately China on Europe’s periphery. “The return of geopolitics” has become a standard phrase to describe the new moment in the international politics of Eastern and Southeast Europe. A contrast is drawn with the 2000s, the highmark of the European Union’s “transformative power” and NATO’s eastward expansion. But the top-down view highlighting the preferences and actions of big players, including core EU member states like Germany and France, Russia, Turkey etc. overlooks the critical role played by peripheral countries and their elites. Rather than being the object of great powers’ decisions, they manipulate rivalries in pursuit of political advantage. Though the domestic arena provides entry points for external actors’ influence it also empowers incumbent elites in the target countries. The talk drew on examples from Southeast Europe (the Western Balkans, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece) but drew parallels to the post-Soviet space.
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Europe’s Futures Symposium 2020 |
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Seminars and Colloquia |
Alida VracicBernd MarinGrigorij MesežnikovIsabelle IoannidesIvan VejvodaLeszek JazdzewskiNiccolo MilaneseNicole KoenigPéter Krekó |
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Series: Seminars and Colloquia
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Series: Seminars and Colloquia
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Junior Visiting Fellows‘ Conference |
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Conferences and Workshops |
Alicja RybkowskaAyşe ÇağlarBiray KolluogluGavin SmithIvan VejvodaMariya IvanchevaMatyáš KřížkovskýStanislas RichardVolha BiziukovaYulia AbibokAdele BlazquezVlasta Kordová |
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Series: Conferences and Workshops
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Series: Conferences and Workshops
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Liberalism in Crisis: Between Totalitarian Responses and Progressive Dreams |
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Panels and Discussions |
Adam RamsayIvan KrastevIvan VejvodaShalini RanderiaVenelin GanevJacques Rupnik, Ana Blazeva, Katerina Kolozova |
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Series: Panels and Discussions
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Series: Panels and Discussions
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