Events / Program: Europe’s Futures

	Title	Date	Type	Speakers
	People of the Mountain	Wed, 28.10.2020	Seminars and Colloquia	Ivan Vejvoda Kapka Kassabova	People of the Mountain Wed, 28.10.2020 Speakers: Ivan Vejvoda Kapka Kassabova 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. Read more
People of the Mountain Wed, 28.10.2020 Speakers: Ivan Vejvoda Kapka Kassabova 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. Read more
	Learning From the Prespa Agreement	Wed, 21.10.2020	Seminars and Colloquia	Ioannis Armakolas Ivan Vejvoda	Learning From the Prespa Agreement Wed, 21.10.2020 Speakers: Ioannis Armakolas Ivan Vejvoda Series: Seminars and Colloquia The Macedonia name dispute, one of the very first disputes of the post-Cold War era in Southeast Europe, was finally settled in June 2018 with the signing of the Prespa Agreement. The deal between Greece and North Macedonia was hailed as historic and an important breakthrough for the entire region’s integration to Western institutions. However, because the name dispute was broadly seen internationally as an incomprehensible spat, without fully grasping the high emotional load and the significant political stakes in both countries, not enough attention has been paid to the complex process leading to the settling of the dispute and to the challenges of a demanding implementation process. Read more
Learning From the Prespa Agreement Wed, 21.10.2020 Speakers: Ioannis Armakolas Ivan Vejvoda Series: Seminars and Colloquia The Macedonia name dispute, one of the very first disputes of the post-Cold War era in Southeast Europe, was finally settled in June 2018 with the signing of the Prespa Agreement. The deal between Greece and North Macedonia was hailed as historic and an important breakthrough for the entire region’s integration to Western institutions. However, because the name dispute was broadly seen internationally as an incomprehensible spat, without fully grasping the high emotional load and the significant political stakes in both countries, not enough attention has been paid to the complex process leading to the settling of the dispute and to the challenges of a demanding implementation process. Read more
	Who is Telling Us What? Why? And How?	Wed, 14.10.2020	Seminars and Colloquia	Alison Smale Ivan Vejvoda	Who is Telling Us What? Why? And How? Wed, 14.10.2020 Speakers: Alison Smale Ivan Vejvoda Series: Seminars and Colloquia With technological change so rapid, and global concerns rivaling the traditionally local focus of most human beings, media assume an ever more important role in our societies. That is particularly true in central and eastern Europe, where journalists and their audience mostly have had a mere three decades to establish and mold independent media that suit or reflect their societies. Just in the weeks since Alison Smale was writing to Ivan on her chosen subject, developments in the former Soviet space – in this case, Belarus, and its Baltic and Polish neighbors, and Russia and Germany over Alexei Navalny – have shown their power to surprise most outside observers, and thus to influence the world. Who is telling this tale, and how? Read more
Who is Telling Us What? Why? And How? Wed, 14.10.2020 Speakers: Alison Smale Ivan Vejvoda Series: Seminars and Colloquia With technological change so rapid, and global concerns rivaling the traditionally local focus of most human beings, media assume an ever more important role in our societies. That is particularly true in central and eastern Europe, where journalists and their audience mostly have had a mere three decades to establish and mold independent media that suit or reflect their societies. Just in the weeks since Alison Smale was writing to Ivan on her chosen subject, developments in the former Soviet space – in this case, Belarus, and its Baltic and Polish neighbors, and Russia and Germany over Alexei Navalny – have shown their power to surprise most outside observers, and thus to influence the world. Who is telling this tale, and how? Read more
	Eroding Trust	Wed, 07.10.2020	Seminars and Colloquia	Ivan Vejvoda Srdjan Cvijic	Eroding Trust Wed, 07.10.2020 Speakers: Ivan Vejvoda Srdjan Cvijic Series: Seminars and Colloquia Freedom came to Serbia in 2000, with a decade-long delay with respect to the rest of the post-Communist Europe. Ever since, the country has been on a wobbly transition towards an established democracy and EU membership. More than Serbia’s inability to settle firmly on a Westward geopolitical course and its uneasy relationship with its neighbors, it is the lack of trust between the citizens and their government internally that stood in the way of the construction of a lasting democracy. Was there a political conspiracy to murder of Zoran Djindjic, the first democratically elected Prime Minister since WW2? Did a criminal network steal more than three thousand babies from mid-1950s to 2000, and gave them to illegal adoption? Is sustainable democratisation compatible with the unreformed security service and their monopoly on secrets? Is the mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic by the current regime historically unique, or can it be set in the broader historical perspective of state capture and disregard of the independent institutions in Serbia and Yugoslavia? The answer to these questions concerning Serbia can serve as an allegory for all of the post-Communist world’s untold stories that combined, offer an explanation to its shaky democratization in the last three decades. Populists and their outlandish conspiracy theories did not come from thin air. It is the lack of transparency and accountability of the mainstream governments that created reservoirs of disgruntled citizens thus transforming them in an easy prey for the enemies of democracy. Read more
Eroding Trust Wed, 07.10.2020 Speakers: Ivan Vejvoda Srdjan Cvijic Series: Seminars and Colloquia Freedom came to Serbia in 2000, with a decade-long delay with respect to the rest of the post-Communist Europe. Ever since, the country has been on a wobbly transition towards an established democracy and EU membership. More than Serbia’s inability to settle firmly on a Westward geopolitical course and its uneasy relationship with its neighbors, it is the lack of trust between the citizens and their government internally that stood in the way of the construction of a lasting democracy. Was there a political conspiracy to murder of Zoran Djindjic, the first democratically elected Prime Minister since WW2? Did a criminal network steal more than three thousand babies from mid-1950s to 2000, and gave them to illegal adoption? Is sustainable democratisation compatible with the unreformed security service and their monopoly on secrets? Is the mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic by the current regime historically unique, or can it be set in the broader historical perspective of state capture and disregard of the independent institutions in Serbia and Yugoslavia? The answer to these questions concerning Serbia can serve as an allegory for all of the post-Communist world’s untold stories that combined, offer an explanation to its shaky democratization in the last three decades. Populists and their outlandish conspiracy theories did not come from thin air. It is the lack of transparency and accountability of the mainstream governments that created reservoirs of disgruntled citizens thus transforming them in an easy prey for the enemies of democracy. Read more
	The EU Periphery and Revisionist Powers	Wed, 23.09.2020	Seminars and Colloquia	Dimitar Bechev Ivan Vejvoda	The EU Periphery and Revisionist Powers Wed, 23.09.2020 Speakers: Dimitar Bechev Ivan Vejvoda 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. Read more
The EU Periphery and Revisionist Powers Wed, 23.09.2020 Speakers: Dimitar Bechev Ivan Vejvoda 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. Read more
	Europe’s Futures Symposium 2020	Mon, 29.06.2020	Seminars and Colloquia	Alida Vracic Bernd Marin Grigorij Mesežnikov Isabelle Ioannides Ivan Vejvoda Leszek Jazdzewski Niccolo Milanese Nicole Koenig Péter Krekó	Europe’s Futures Symposium 2020 Mon, 29.06.2020 Speakers: Alida Vracic Bernd Marin Grigorij Mesežnikov Isabelle Ioannides Ivan Vejvoda Leszek Jazdzewski Niccolo Milanese Nicole Koenig Péter Krekó Series: Seminars and Colloquia Eight Europe’s Futures Fellows of the 2019/20 cohort led by IWM Permanent Fellow Ivan Vejvoda encapsulated the work done over the year in which the pandemic force opened new futures for Europe. Read more
Europe’s Futures Symposium 2020 Mon, 29.06.2020 Speakers: Alida Vracic Bernd Marin Grigorij Mesežnikov Isabelle Ioannides Ivan Vejvoda Leszek Jazdzewski Niccolo Milanese Nicole Koenig Péter Krekó Series: Seminars and Colloquia Eight Europe’s Futures Fellows of the 2019/20 cohort led by IWM Permanent Fellow Ivan Vejvoda encapsulated the work done over the year in which the pandemic force opened new futures for Europe. Read more
	Leben im – und Wege aus dem – „Corona-Camp“	Mon, 11.05.2020	Seminars and Colloquia	Bernd Marin Ludger HagedornAugust Ruhs	Leben im – und Wege aus dem – „Corona-Camp“ Mon, 11.05.2020 Speakers: Bernd Marin Ludger HagedornAugust Ruhs Series: Seminars and Colloquia Der renommierte österreichische Sozialwissenschaftler Bernd Marin hat in zwei Interviews (beide in voller Länge nachzulesen im Corona Blog des IWM) das Leben im „Corona-Camp” (6. April; eine vielbeachtete Kurzfassung erschien am 12. April in der Ostersonntagsausgabe des KURIER) sowie Post-Quarantimes: Wege aus dem „Corona-Camp“ (29. April) kritisch reflektiert. Im Rahmen des virtuellen IWM-Kolloquiums stellte sich Bernd Marin öffentlich den Fragen zu seinen beiden Interviews (hier eine mögliche Auswahl) und diskutierte mit dem bekannten Psychiater August Ruhs. Read more
Leben im – und Wege aus dem – „Corona-Camp“ Mon, 11.05.2020 Speakers: Bernd Marin Ludger HagedornAugust Ruhs Series: Seminars and Colloquia Der renommierte österreichische Sozialwissenschaftler Bernd Marin hat in zwei Interviews (beide in voller Länge nachzulesen im Corona Blog des IWM) das Leben im „Corona-Camp” (6. April; eine vielbeachtete Kurzfassung erschien am 12. April in der Ostersonntagsausgabe des KURIER) sowie Post-Quarantimes: Wege aus dem „Corona-Camp“ (29. April) kritisch reflektiert. Im Rahmen des virtuellen IWM-Kolloquiums stellte sich Bernd Marin öffentlich den Fragen zu seinen beiden Interviews (hier eine mögliche Auswahl) und diskutierte mit dem bekannten Psychiater August Ruhs. Read more
	Liberalism in Crisis: Between Totalitarian Responses and Progressive Dreams	Tue, 25.02.2020	Panels and Discussions	Adam Ramsay Ivan Krastev Ivan Vejvoda Shalini Randeria Venelin GanevJacques Rupnik, Ana Blazeva, Katerina Kolozova	Liberalism in Crisis: Between Totalitarian Responses and Progressive Dreams Tue, 25.02.2020 Speakers: Adam Ramsay Ivan Krastev Ivan Vejvoda Shalini Randeria Venelin GanevJacques Rupnik, Ana Blazeva, Katerina Kolozova Series: Panels and Discussions In the past decade, many have spoken of the “crisis of democracy” due to the rise of populism in Europe, both in the East and the West, in the Union’s member states and in the aspiring member countries. But is democracy really what is at stake and in crisis nowadays, or is it a whole set of political-ideological values that are termed “liberal”? Can we argue that democracy is not a value system but an empty form of a political organization, a syntax that can be furnished with different semantics, including that of the illiberal world view as Viktor Orban has proposed years ago? Read more
Liberalism in Crisis: Between Totalitarian Responses and Progressive Dreams Tue, 25.02.2020 Speakers: Adam Ramsay Ivan Krastev Ivan Vejvoda Shalini Randeria Venelin GanevJacques Rupnik, Ana Blazeva, Katerina Kolozova Series: Panels and Discussions In the past decade, many have spoken of the “crisis of democracy” due to the rise of populism in Europe, both in the East and the West, in the Union’s member states and in the aspiring member countries. But is democracy really what is at stake and in crisis nowadays, or is it a whole set of political-ideological values that are termed “liberal”? Can we argue that democracy is not a value system but an empty form of a political organization, a syntax that can be furnished with different semantics, including that of the illiberal world view as Viktor Orban has proposed years ago? Read more
	How Can We Realise a Holistic Concept of Prosperity for the Many, not the Few?	Wed, 27.11.2019	Panels and Discussions	Ivan Vejvoda Shalini RanderiaFelwine Sarr, Christoph Badelt, Sergiu Manea, Sigrid Stagl, Boris Marte	How Can We Realise a Holistic Concept of Prosperity for the Many, not the Few? Wed, 27.11.2019 Speakers: Ivan Vejvoda Shalini RanderiaFelwine Sarr, Christoph Badelt, Sergiu Manea, Sigrid Stagl, Boris Marte Series: Panels and Discussions On 27 November, ERSTE Foundation welcomes you to the 4th Tipping Point Talk with Felwine Sarr, Professor of Economics at Gaston Berger University in Saint-Louis, Senegal. His recent book, Afrotopia, presents a holistic approach to economic and cultural interaction, or rather, the cultural foundations of economic choices. Felwine Sarr’s lecture will be followed by a stage conversation with Christoph Badelt, Sergiu Manea, Shalini Raderia, Felwine Sarr and Sigrid Stagl. Read more
How Can We Realise a Holistic Concept of Prosperity for the Many, not the Few? Wed, 27.11.2019 Speakers: Ivan Vejvoda Shalini RanderiaFelwine Sarr, Christoph Badelt, Sergiu Manea, Sigrid Stagl, Boris Marte Series: Panels and Discussions On 27 November, ERSTE Foundation welcomes you to the 4th Tipping Point Talk with Felwine Sarr, Professor of Economics at Gaston Berger University in Saint-Louis, Senegal. His recent book, Afrotopia, presents a holistic approach to economic and cultural interaction, or rather, the cultural foundations of economic choices. Felwine Sarr’s lecture will be followed by a stage conversation with Christoph Badelt, Sergiu Manea, Shalini Raderia, Felwine Sarr and Sigrid Stagl. Read more
	Europäische Nation vs. Europa der Nationen?	Sun, 10.11.2019	Panels and Discussions	Ivan Krastev Ivan Vejvoda Ruth WodakJacques Rupnik, Constanze Itzel	Europäische Nation vs. Europa der Nationen? Sun, 10.11.2019 Speakers: Ivan Krastev Ivan Vejvoda Ruth WodakJacques Rupnik, Constanze Itzel Series: Panels and Discussions Was hat die Nation zu einem Erfolgsmodell gemacht? Wie umgehen mit dem Wiedererstarken von Nationalismus und Isolationsbestrebungen? Und welche imperialen Vermächtnisse spielen in der aktuellen Identitätssuche Ost- und West-Europas eine Rolle? Read more
Europäische Nation vs. Europa der Nationen? Sun, 10.11.2019 Speakers: Ivan Krastev Ivan Vejvoda Ruth WodakJacques Rupnik, Constanze Itzel Series: Panels and Discussions Was hat die Nation zu einem Erfolgsmodell gemacht? Wie umgehen mit dem Wiedererstarken von Nationalismus und Isolationsbestrebungen? Und welche imperialen Vermächtnisse spielen in der aktuellen Identitätssuche Ost- und West-Europas eine Rolle? Read more