Squaring the Circle: The Relationship between Civil Society and Social Capital in Central and Eastern Europe

Click here for my posts in English!

Date: June 13-16, 2008

Site: Kaunas, Lithuania

Organiser: Vytautas Magnus University

Topics: Now that much of post-Communist Europe is part of the EU, should we expect to see some changes in terms of how civil society works? Should we expect civil society to be transformed from the one supporting its members to assisting institutional change? Should we also aspire new forms of social capital to slowly emerge that are less determined by structural constraints of the political regime, but rather by individual choice? Do these circumstances in the EU-15 differ from the ‘new outsiders’ with respect to potential developments in social capital and civil society?

This conference will address this new relationship between civil society and social capital in post-enlargement Central and Eastern Europe. The conference discussion will run along three analytical axes:


1. Path Dependency – Rational Choice approaches
2. Utilitarian – Idealistic explanations
3. domestic – international factors The conference organizers call for papers concerning civil society and social capital in Central and Eastern Europe that fit along at least one axis.

Language: English

Fee: Selected papers will have their travel, accommodation and subsistence supported by the CINEFOGO Network of Excellence.

Deadline: Please send name, contact information, title and 150 words abstract to the conference organizers by Monday, March 10, 2008. Contact: Timofei Agarin E-mail: t.agarin@abdn. ac.uk