Centre for Advanced Study Sofia Newsletter, no. 1-2, 2007

2007·1.5 MB·English

by  Centre for Advanced Study Sofia

No 1-2 // 2007
Contents
3 Institutional Impetus
Project Parade
4 Shaken Order (cid:150) Authority and Social Trust
in Post-Communist Societies moder ves c e S...
6 ... and our interview with Prof. Dr Dieter Grimm ti n E
nisation ra e G I
8 NPreowje Fcte lilno wPsrogress m n arf sil O L O
a o N
tre s H
12 Regimes of Historicity and Discourses ns e C
of Modernity and Identity, 1900-45, ai n . E
in East-Central, Southeast and Northern Europe m o (cid:133)T.
us Z s
Workshops & Conferences rs es
ve gr a clockwork
o
13 oInnte Rrnegaitmioensa lo Wf Hoirsktsohroicpit y .. pr dy h (cid:133)c. alled (cid:133)..
14 SCOPES Project Conference, val?.. al boealt the long Balkan
University of Fribourg vi on h
Re ti nineteenth century
a
Discussion Series e n ne and
16 A New Start: Natural Sciences th ie
g
and Social Worlds y
h

20 Pluralist Rediscoveries of the Nature Landscape
CAS Guest Lecture Series:
23 Prof. Dr Marta Petrusewicz
24 Dr Franziska Metzger
25 Prof. Dr Dieter Grimm
27 Prof. Dr Sujata Patel
29 CAS (cid:145)Academic Dialogues(cid:146) Series:
Studies of the Scientific and
Technological Developments
in Post-Socialist Bulgaria
Document Drawer
30 CAS in Support of the Right
The Balkan EUROPE Express
of Freedom of Research
32 CAS Calendar
Centre for Advanced Study So(cid:222) a No 1-2 // 2007
Members of the CAS Academic
Advisory Council
Centre for Advanced Study So(cid:222) a ! Prof. Urs Altermatt
History and Political Science,
70 Neofit Rilski Str,
Fribourg University, Switzerland
Sofia 1000, Bulgaria
tel.: [phone]
! Prof. Michael Herzfeld
fax: [phone]
web-page: www.cas.bg Anthropology, Harvard University, USA
e-mail: [email protected]
! Prof. Kolyo Koev
Sociology, Bulgarian Academy
of Sciences
! Prof. Claus Offe
Sociology, Humboldt-Universit(cid:228)t zu
Berlin/Hertie School of Governance,
Germany

! Prof. Hristo Todorov
Philosophy, New Bulgarian University,
Bulgaria
! Prof. Maria Todorova
History, University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign, USA
Donors and Partners
! !
Zuger Kulturstiftung Landis & Gyr, Zug, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, Germany
Switzerland !
! Collegium Budapest, Hungary
Volkswagen Foundation, Germany !
! Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study
Federal Department of Home Affairs, in the Humanities and Social Sciences /NIAS/
Swiss Confederation !
! New Europe College, Romania
The Ministry of Education !
and Science of the Republic of Bulgaria Fribourg University, Switzerland
! !
The Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Center for Liberal Strategies, Bulgaria
Foundation, Sweden !
! Central European University, Hungary
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, USA !
! Institut fran(cid:231)ais, Sofia, Bulgaria
Stifterverband f(cid:252)r die Deutsche !
Wissenschaft, Germany Fondation Maison des sciences de l(cid:146)homme,
! Paris, France
Rule-of-Law Program
CAS has working agreements
South East Europe
Konrad Adenauer Foundation for collaboration with:
! !
Trust for Civil Society in Central The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
and Eastern Europe !
! The Ministry of Education and Science
Fritz Thyssen Foundation, Germany of the Republic of Bulgaria

2 Centre for Advanced Study Sofia
INSTITUTIONAL IMPETUS
Members of the CAS Board
of Trust ees:
! Prof. Dieter Grimm,
Rector of the Wissenschaftskolleg
zu Berlin (Chairman)
! Dr Wouter Hugenholtz,
Executive Director of the Nethe rl ands
Institute for Advanced Study
! Dr. Charles Kleiber,
State Secretary for Education and The year 2007 proved thriving and productive,
Research of the Federal Department but also a transformative one for CAS in many
of Home Affairs, Swiss Confederation respects.
Behind the seeming (cid:145)respite(cid:146), invisible work was
! Prof. Andrei Pleşu,
being carried out in several areas, marking the
Rector of the New Europe College,
Centre(cid:146)s transition from an initial phase of insti-
Bucharest
tution-building and project designing to a new
! Prof. Alexander Shurbanov, stage of sustained development and renewal.
Three were the major areas of (cid:145)preparatory
Sofia University (cid:145)St. Kliment Ohridski(cid:146)
work(cid:146): securing institutional sustainability for the
! Dr Heinz-Rudi Spiegel, coming five to ten years, broadening the current
Stifterverband f(cid:252)r die deutsche disciplinary and thematic fields of project work
Wissenschft at CAS, and attracting new academic associates
to the Centre(cid:146)s activities.
! Prof. Naum Yakimoff,
In institutional terms: the Swiss government gen-
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
erously more than doubled its support for CAS for
! Mr Martin Zaimov, the next four years. We are no less appreciative
Societe Generale Expressbank of the financial support which the government of
the Republic of Austria decided to kindly lend to
CAS for the coming three years.
Director and Meanwhile, a number of CAS projects and
Academic Associates fellowship programmes were led to successful
completion. Our attention was concentrated,
above all, on disseminating their results and
! Assoc. Prof. Dr Diana Mishkova,
developing new ideas in novel research fields.
Director
New topics were contemplated and new project
proposals were developed and submitted for
! Dr Roumen Avramov,
approval. The Centre(cid:146)s thematic and disciplin-
Center for Liberal Strategies, Sofia
ary profile was broadened, and an additional
Academic Associate
emphasis was placed on social science research
! Prof. Pepka Boyadjieva, and its (cid:145)cross-fertilisation(cid:146) with human sciences.
Institute of Sociology, The past year also expanded the Centre(cid:146)s
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences,Sofia academic capital by adding new academic as-
Academic Associate sociates (with terms starting January 1, 2008).
The new associates will be presented in the first
2008 issue of our Newsletter. We were also
happy to welcome on our Board of Trustees two
new Members: Dr Heinz-Rudi Spiegel (Stifter-

' Centre for Advanced Study Sofia verband f(cid:252)r die deutsche Wissenschft) and Mr
Martin Zaimov (Societe Generale Expressbank).
Articles, pictures and interviews can be
We take the opportunity to express once again
reprinted only with the consent of the
Editor/CAS. Any citations should be duly our thanks to Prof. Yehuda Elkana, former CAS
acknowledged.
Board Member, for the whole-hearted support
Editor: Dr Svetla Baloutzova he had been lending us since the very beginning
Design: Vesselin Pramatarov
Printed by: Ango Boy of the Centre. !
No 1-2 // 2007 3
Project Parade:
SHAKEN ORDER
Shaken Order

Authority and Social Trust
in Post-Communist Societies (cid:150)
Case Studies in Law
Authority and social trust are essential ingredi- between the two variables is more complex
ents of social life, frequently considered a kind of and contextually dependent?
(cid:145)basic glue(cid:146) of social integration. However, they
! There is an attempt to compensate for the
are subject to constant, sometimes profound,
decrease of authority and public trust in the
change, which may affect the very foundations
national institutions by global institution-
of society. The Shaken Order project (cid:150) a col-
building, in order to maintain a functional
lective, interdisciplinary research endeavour,
level of social stability. To what extent does
(cid:150) investigates the dynamics and tendencies
this compensation succeed?
of deterioration of authority and social trust
in society in the field of law, placing the focus ! Where are the (cid:145)loci of authority(cid:146) in contem-
on (European) post-communist societies. The porary societies and what kinds of (cid:145)author-
project(cid:146)s principal objectives are: ity structures(cid:146) replace the nation-state as a
central authority of modernity?
! to identify the systemic/structural and
the epistemological preconditions of the ! What is the real influence on the dynamics
profound changes of authority and social of authority and trust of the legal reforms
trust; carried out after 1989 in the (European)
post-communist societies?
! to study the effects of these processes on
social (in)stability and the possibilities for ! Does the decrease in authority and trust have,
institutional reforms in the field; besides the negative social consequences,
some positive effects in the realms of indi-
! to test the heuristic potential of relevant
vidual autonomy and active citizenship?
theoretical traditions in the outlined problem
areas, and to generate new ideas and ap- The general assumption of the project is that the
proaches. profound changes in the distribution and levels
of authority and social trust stem mostly from
The project offers heuristic perspectives and in-
the co-evolution of global systemic-structural
spiration to scholars of different disciplines and
processes (democratisation, pluralisation, ex-
with different theoretical adherence, including
pansion of the mass-media, intensified interna-
cross-national comparisons. It aspires to find
tional migration, diminished prerogatives of the
answers to questions such as:
nation-state, insufficiency of the supra-national
! How should we reconsider the familiar no- institution-building as a substitute source of
tions of authority and trust in the context social order) and epistemological changes (i.e.
of the overwhelming globalisation and the the dramatically transforming contemporary
enlargement of the European Union? notions of rationality).
! Is the dynamics of authority unfolding in
parallel to the corresponding dynamics of
public trust or the presumed connection
4
Centre for Advanced Study So(cid:222) a
Project Parade: SHAKEN ORDER
Bearing in mind the project(cid:146)s interdisci- methods (emphasising qualitative tech- trust, and what is the intimate relation-
plinary agenda, there is no highly elab- niques for data collection) are defined ship between the changes of authority
orated, strictly uniform theory imposed as essential for achieving the project(cid:146)s and the changes of public trust.
on the individual, constituent projects. research objectives.
The project results will provide data
Instead, bridges are expected to be
The expected results envisage an in- and analyses of issues which are (cid:145)hot(cid:146),
built on the level of different concep-
novative, detailed and interconnected publicly sensitive, and important for
tualisations and areas of research. To
picture of the dynamics of authority the future development of the societies
ensure the productivity of the academic
and social trust in the studied field. On under consideration.
dialogue, a common core of general
the theoretical level, building on the
theoretical ideas and theoretical (cid:145)lead-
collected empirical data, the project The project(cid:146)s overall duration is two
ing images(cid:146) is developed. Thus all
team hopes to elaborate a model of years. Each year four new Fellows are
individual projects are supposed to deal
the factors responsible for the changes selected by the CAS Academic Council
with some shared and simple enough
in authority and social trust in the field (cid:150) the Centre(cid:146)s supreme academic body
implications of an initially developed
of law in post-communist (European) comprised of internationally renowned
general framework. Such is the notion
societies. It also intends to identify, scholars. The (cid:145)mastermind(cid:146) behind the
that profound changes in the distribu-
(cid:145)map(cid:146) and systematise trends in the project is Prof. DSc. Pepka Boyadjieva
tion and levels of authority and trust
dynamics, especially in the process of (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences), with
are not limited to the post-communist
deterioration of authority and social Dr Ivo Hristov as collaborator and
space, but are really world-wide and
trust within the field. The project is also team-leader of the (cid:145)Law(cid:146) module. The
subsequently subject to some global
expected to contribute to deepening our project is funded by the Trust for Civil
regularities. Secondly, it is assumed that
understanding of the notions of author- Society in Central and Eastern Europe
the processes of central interest for the
ity and social trust, by revealing how the and the Rule-of-Law Program South-
project are significantly influenced by
specificity of the social field influences East Europe of the Konrad Adenauer
the crucial characteristics of both com-
the dynamics of authority and social Foundation. !
munist and post-communist experience.
Thirdly, there is a pronounced under-
standing that national cultures and
persisting national traditions have their
own important impact on the dynamics
of authority and social trust.
Within this complex, interdisciplinary
framework of the project(cid:146)s agenda, a
great variety of methods and sources
of information are used. However, the
major methodological choice is left to
the individual researcher(cid:146)s competence
field. Sociological and anthropological
No 1-2 // 2007 5
Project Parade:
SHAKEN ORDER
Five years later:
Interview with
Professor Dr Dieter Grimm,
Chairman of the CAS Board of Trustees
On 10 November 2007, the Centre for Have you noticed any developments and
Advanced Study welcomed Professor changes in the Bulgarian public and aca-
Dieter Grimm, Permanent Fellow and demic life since your first visit here?
former Rector of the Wissentschaftskol-
leg in Berlin (2001-7), former Judge This is difficult for me to tell since my Bulgarian
of the German Constitutional Court, contacts were more or less confined to CAS.
member of the Global Law Faculty at However, I observed how the city of Sofia be-
New York University, and Chairman came more and more Western. Western firms
of the CAS Board of Trustees. Besides have taken over and advertising is everywhere.
meeting the newly-elected Fellows, en- But I am reluctant to say more. My visits were
gaged in the project Shaken Order: too short.
Authority and Social Trust in Post-
In your first interview for the CAS Newsletter,
communist Societies (see p.4) and
you expressed your hope for more equal
delivering a lecture on Constitutions,
and extensive cooperation between West
Constitutional Courts and Constitu-
and East. Have you observed any East Eu-
tional Interpretation at the Interface of Law
and Politics (see p.24), Professor Grimm also ropean influence upon Western scholarship
kindly agreed to be interviewed for the latest since then?
issue of our Newsletter.
Yes, definitely. One example is European inte-
This is the second interview that Professor gration. When, in connection with the Consti-
Grimm gave for the readers of the CAS tutional Treaty, the question was discussed what
Newsletter, the first dating back to autumn the ultimate end of the process ought to be, a
2002/ No.2. The current interview seeks to distinct East European voice could be heard.
highlight some new developments in the aca- This had something to do with the experiences
demic environment during the last five years the new member states had made after the
and underscore some major issues raised in Second Word War. These were experiences dif-
his lecture. ferent from those in the West, and they should
not be overlooked when the future of the EU
Professor Grimm, welcome to one of your
is at stake.
regular visits to Bulgaria. Do you remember
In addition, it seems that the contacts between
when and why you first visited Bulgaria?
scholars from East and West have become
Of course. It was four or five years ago, more regular and more intense. The distinction
and it was in connection with the Centre for between centre and periphery is disappear-
Advanced Study. The Wissenschaftskolleg zu ing. Questions of identity, of coming to terms
Berlin had been instrumental in establishing with the past, of commonalities and conflicts
CAS, and when I became Rector of the Wis- within the Balkans, of strengthening democratic
senschaftskolleg in 2001, I also became a structures and the rule of law are as important
member of the Centre(cid:146)s Board.
6
Centre for Advanced Study So(cid:222) a
Project Parade SHAKEN ORDER
for Western academics as they are cies toward deterioration of authority impressive number of private universi-
for those from Eastern countries. The and social trust in the post-communist ties in the country. How do you see
European project depends on a broad societies. A working assumption is the role of private and state-funded
knowledge of the various regions and
that these new developments might education in our modern world?
their history.
be the result of some global sys-
Again, it is difficult to give a general an-
Fifteen years ago, there was a still tem-structural processes such as the
swer. The context in various countries is
sharp division between Eastern and growth of pluralisation, democratisa- so different. And context matters. In the
Western academia. Have scholars tion, the decay of the nation-state, United States the best universities are
come together eventually and if so, and of the scale of international private institutions, and they offer the
what common topics and research migration. Do you think that there best conditions for excellence, diversity,
interests have there been shaped? could be a negative side to pluralisa- public service orientation, academic
freedom. In Europe with a long-stand-
tion and diversity, too?
The ability to communicate has certainly ing tradition of state universities the
increased on both sides. Yet, when I The more homogeneous a society is the conditions for private universities are
read the applications for fellowships, less numerous the sources of conflict are. less favorable. It will not be as easy for
here and in similar institutions, I get The more pluralistic a society ,the more them to defend their academic freedom
the impression of a certain conformity. difficult its integration. But this is the and to withstand economic pressures
Much is centred around identity and modern condition, we will not change and temptations.
nation building, much around belong- it, we have to face it and therefore we
Talking about fundamental human
ing to Europe, understandably so and should develop a productive attitude
of importance, no doubt, but no longer towards pluralism. This is particularly rights (cid:150) is there a difference in the in-
very original. A little more comparative true with regard to religious pluralism terpretation of fundamental rights in a
work and a little more attention to the with its conflicts which we believed to be Christian and a Muslim culture? How
structural preconditions of democracy, history. A problem in Eastern Europe is do their attitudes toward fundamental
rule of law etc. might be helpful. that the institutions, political institutions, rights meet and accommodate in the
judicial institutions, institutions of mass
Would you be in favour of more plu- European Union?
communication are still rather weak,
ralisation and diversity of opinion in
and trust is a scarce resource here. This is a big problem. Although many
the scholarly field?
This is why I find the Shaken Order Islamic states are among the signers of
Yes, because there is a whole universe project important. But I would like to the UN pact on political and civil rights
of open questions waiting for answers. make clear that, in my view, the growing traditional Islam has not found a way to
A problem may be that some of the divide between rich and poor, the lack accept the idea of individual self-deter-
best scholars from the region have been of a notion of the common weal and mination, which is the basis of human
lured to the United States and pursue the prevailing nihilistic attitude towards rights. All political systems based on
their research there under more favor- the law are problems much bigger than predetermined truths have difficulties
able conditions. Still, it is a pity if they those presented by pluralism. with this idea. It took very long until the
Christian Churches came to terms with
do not come back.
There is a growing discussion focus-
rights and a secular state. But they have
The Shaken Order project, which ing on the need for paid academic learnt to accept it. The secular state
CAS is starting, addresses the tenden- studies in Bulgaria as well as on the allows them to preserve their truth, but
No 1-2 // 2007 7
Project Parade: SHAKEN ORDER
New Fellows
Participants in the
The Shaken Order
Project
prevents them from imposing it on society DR RUZHA SMILOVA,
as a whole. In many Islamic countries the BULGARIA
state identifies itself with religion and is
therefore not prepared to recognise indi-
Project title:
vidual freedom. Yet, Muslim culture is more
THE DUTY TO OBEY THE LAW AND
heterogeneous than we mostly think. This
SOCIAL TRUST: THE EXPERIENCE OF
may give some hope for the future.
POST-SOCIALIST BULGARIA
What is the role and function of institu-
tions such as the secret services and the
police in the contemporary framework
Dr Smilova is a graduate from the
of fundamental human rights? Do they Department of Philosophy, Sofi a Uni-
still have their place in our democratic versity (MA, 1995) and the Political
Science Department at Central Euro-
world?
pean University, Budapest (MA, 1998).
After the collapse of the socialist regimes She holds a Certifi cate of Studies from
many people thought that armies as well Oxford University, UK (2001) and a PhD
as secret services were no longer needed. degree in Political Science from CEU,
The Yugoslavian wars and the terrorist Budapest (2006). Her doctoral thesis
focused on A Reason-Based Justifi cation
attacks destroyed this dream. The most
for Liberal-Democratic Authority, and
important means of defence against terror-
was supervised by Prof. Janos Kis.
ism is prevention. And prevention requires
Her research interests are in the fi elds
above all information, information about
of contemporary moral and politi-
intentions, plans, milieus that breed ter-
cal philosophy, legal theory, rational
rorism, potential actors or collaborators. choice, social choice and public choice
This means that many more people will be theories, research methods for social
objects of observation, detention etc. than sciences – game theory, value theory,
are actually involved in terrorist activities. and normative democratic theory.
This is why a reasonable balance between Dr Smilova has been awarded a wide
liberty and security must be stricken. This range of international distinctions
and fellowships, amongst which Best
can only be provided by laws limiting the
PhD Dissertation Award – 2nd place,
hunger of the preventive state for infor-
CEU, Budapest (2006), and Returning
mation. The state should not be allowed
Scholar Fellowship, Academic Fellow-
to know everything that it could possibly
ship Programme, Open Society Insti-
know. And there are some absolute limits:
tute, Budapest (2006-7). She has been
Torture, for instance, is not justifiable under actively participating in conferences at
any circumstances. ! home and abroad, and has contributed
with a number of articles and transla-
tions to Bulgarian scholarly journals.
Interview: The Editor
At present, she is combining her CAS
8
Centre for Advanced Study So(cid:222) a
FELLOWS
Shaken Order
attention. Following my assumptions, I and is currently enrolled in the PhD
expect them to be the law-applying and programme of the History Department
the law-enforcing institutions such as the at CEU. The topic of his doctoral thesis
courts and the police. is Legal Reading of the Past: Historians
as Expert Witnesses.
My second research hypothesis is that
His professional interests fall into the
institutions do indeed matter for building
fi elds of historical narratives in con-
social trust but their influence is indirect.
temporary international criminal law,
Some desirable qualities of the institutions
legal reading of the past, Nonalign-
allow (and when not present _ do not al-
ment and Cold War, globalisation and
low) citizens to put their trust in them, and
transitional justice, as well as German
only then do these institutions generate
interwar history.
and support (or undermine) social trust.
Petrovic´ has published widely in native
journals, contributed with chapters to
books, and is the author of the mono-
graph Yugoslavia Steps on the Middle
fellowship with a visiting lectureship
East (Belgrade 2006).
at the Political Science Department
He has lectured at Belgrade Open
and the Philosophy Department at
School, the USA Embassy to Serbia, at
Sofia University, teaching MA and
the Petnica Advanced Research Centre,
BA courses on contemporary political
and has participated in the lecture
theory, rational choice theory, and
series Yugoslavia: Making the Nation
moral philosophy.
– Breaking the Nation, organised by
CEU.
Petrovic´ holds memberships at nu-
PROJECT ABSTRACT
merous research institutions, among
which the Association of Researchers
This is a study of the individual attitudes VLADIMIR PETROVIĆ, in Humanities and Social Sciences of
of different groups of Bulgarian citizens SERBIA Serbia, the Association of Historians
toward their duty to obey the law. This ‘St. Novakovic’, Serbia, and the Inter-
purported duty to obey the law will be national Workgroup on the History of
studied in relation to social trust in post- Project title: Racial Sciences and Biomedicine.
socialist Bulgaria. In post-communist GAINING THE TRUST THROUGH
countries, we observe both an insufficient FACING THE PAST? PROSECUTING
level of horizontal social trust and a lack WAR CRIMES COMMITTED IN THE PROJECT ABSTRACT
of vertical trust in authority. The lack of FORMER YUGOSLAVIA
trust in authority is expressed in declining IN NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL
levels of law-abiding behaviour and in a LEGAL CONTEXT The project aims to investigate the as-
pects of restoring the political order and
shaken belief of the citizens in their duty
reestablishing societal trust in the postwar
to obey the law.
Vladimir Petrovic´ has graduated from region of former Yugoslavia, assembled
My research is on the following specific
the History Department of the Faculty under the generic term of facing the past.
groups of obligations: the payment of
of Philosophy at Belgrade University The strategies of influencing the collective
electricity and central heating bills, and
(BA, 2003; MPhil, 2006), the History memory through revisiting the crimes of
the payment of taxes. It will be based
Faculty at CEU, Budapest (MA, 2005), the recent past are treated as complex
on in-depth interviews with citizens and
officials, using questionnaires, contain-
ing among other questions hypothetical
scenarios, which will provide insights into
the dynamics of citizens(cid:146) and officials(cid:146) at-
titudes to law and their obligations.
The first research hypothesis is that the
attitudes of citizens towards their own
compliance with the law depend on their
perceptions of their fellow citizens(cid:146) levels
of compliance, but they also depend on
their experience with and expectations
about the performance of certain state
institutions. I hope this study will yield a
more determinate answer regarding the
state institutions at the centre of public
No 1-2 // 2007 9
FELLOWS
Shaken Order
MARIA-CARMEN PANTEA,
ROMANIA
Project Title:
STATE AND ITS
CHANGING INFLUENCE:
A LEGAL AND SOCIAL APPROACH
OF EARLY ENTRY INTO EMPLOYMENT
IN ROMANIA
projects at the intersection of law, his- Maria-Carmen Pantea is a graduate simultaneously comply with assumed
tory and politics. The research intends from Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj, global conventions, with corporatist inter-
to identify the institutional and individual (2001) with a BA degree in Pedagogy ests, international pressure and the need
agency, as well as the legal and extralegal and Letters, and an MA degree in In- for public control. Declining institutional
means through which projects of facing tegrated Education. She holds an MA trust, individual economic strategies and
the past are promoted in both national degree in Gender Studies from CEU, migration are important challenges a
and international context. The entangled Budapest (2002) and an MSc degree state like Romania needs to face. Under
interaction, correlation, convergence or in Evidence Based Social Interven- these circumstances, the (cid:145)main ingredients
collision of these efforts are examined tions from Oxford University, Merton of social life(cid:146) are undergoing changes
through the two clusters of cases related College (2007). In 2008, she is to start that may alter the way people experience
to the role of visual records in the process her PhD studies in Sociology at Babes society, the state and its institutions.
of documenting war crimes in former Bolyai University, Cluj, where she is The project aims to examine the juncture
Yugoslavia. combining doctoral studies and teach- between the perceived authority of na-
ing assistantship.
The cases at stake concern the role of tional labour laws and social capital, with
Maria-Carmen Pantea holds a number
photographs and footages, as both reference to one of the most vulnerable
of international awards, amongst which
indispensable and immediate means social groups in Romania: early school
a Chevening Scholarship by the Foreign
of documenting war crimes, raising the leavers without qualifications (15-18 years
and Commonwealth Offi ce, UK, and an
public awareness and fostering prosecu- old). The qualitative inquiry will approach
International Policy Fellowship of Open
tion of the perpetrators. As a focal point teenagers(cid:146) own perspectives on work,
Society Institute. She has actively par-
of the project of facing the past, visual law and education. It will explore social
ticipated in international conferences
records function as powerful vectors of practices that lead to early entry into
with papers on poverty, labour and
memory. They are at the same time employment, the subjective dimension of
children and has contributed to refer-
subject to passionate interpretations, in work and law as experienced by teenag-
ence books with publications in the
which the issues of authenticity and ob- ers, but also the structural constrains that
fi led of child labour in Romania.
jectivity are contested repeatedly by the maintain them at the margins of social
segments of society, locked in denial. The concern.
role of different agencies (governmental What can the entry on the black or grey
institutions and NGOs, international PROJECT ABSTRACT labour market say about youths’ under-
and national actors, courts and media) standing of law, and which are the main
in the transfer from seeing to believing reasons for embarking upon this path?
In many European countries, various
is examined as crucial aspects of facing Is illegal and informal work a temporary
social security schemes or welfare pro-
the past projects. Their impact on the undesirable solution resulting from family
grams are in place in order to encourage
pace of the societal interiorisation of the poverty? What are the potential collective
employers(cid:146) participation and to sup-
recent bad past is scrutinised in regard to losses, besides the immediate economic
port young persons entering the labour
its importance for reshaping the political ones? What civic arguments can emerge?
force.
and social landscape of the region of What are the potential insights into social
former Yugoslavia. However, in many East European coun- capital and social trust?
tries, legal and social factors are con-
The project will highlight the fact that so-
tributing to teenage entry into low skilled
cial transformations are not smooth tran-
jobs, mainly in an often-invisible segment
sitions, but rather intricate phenomena
of the labour market.
resulting from the coexistence of various
At the time the first generation born after
layers of power and influence, political
communism is reaching active age, the
discourses and social transformations.
state has to play new roles. It needs to

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Centre for Advanced Study So(cid:222) a