Crises and Resistance in Central and Eastern Europe

The 'Debatte: Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe' is organizing a conference on 22-23 November in Warsaw to mark the event of the 25th anniversary of the end of Communism in Central-Eastern Europe and the 10th anniversary of the enlargement of the European Union into the region.

These anniversaries are significant landmarks in the history of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the continent as a whole. However, even more importantly, they occur during a time of intense economic and political difficulties in Europe. The economic crisis has brought a prolonged economic downturn that has worsened the living standards of its populations and brought political uncertainty and instability. The crisis has hit CEE particularly hard, shaking the neo-liberal economic model that has dominated over the past quarter of a century, and sparking a wave of instability as well as resistance that has spread throughout the region. The most notable events have taken place in Ukraine from November 2013 onwards but we have also seen significant unrest in countries like Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia and Bosnia-Herzegovina among others. On the other hand, in some countries such as Poland and the Baltic States neo-liberal commentators have claimed that a relatively strong economic recovery has taken place which shows the strength of the region’s economic model.

The conference was planned in this context and the organizers invite anyone interested in participating to submit a paper or a proposal for a session. Among the areas that will be discussed at the conference are:

• Economic crisis and alternatives
• The role of social movements in the region
• Gender and feminism
• Historical politics
• Migration, multi-culturalism and the struggle against racism and the far-right
• The nature of left parties in the region
• Ecology and the environment
• Welfare and poverty
• Education
• Health
• Ten years of European Union membership
• The balance sheet of the transition from Communism
• Culture
• The geo-political context of Central and Eastern Europe.

The languages of the conference will be English and Polish and translation will be arranged between these two languages. Abstracts and papers should be submitted in one of these two languages.

If you would like to propose a panel or offer a paper for a workshop then please contact debatteconference@yahoo.co.uk as soon as possible.

Proposals for panels and abstracts (300 words maximum) of proposed papers must be received by 1 July 2014.

Further information about the conference can be found on the Debatte web-site.

Call for papers (Download)