The project seeks to place the current anti-liberal and anti-democratic backlash in Eastern Europe, arguably manifesting the all-European socio-political and ideological crisis in its most acute form, into a comparative historical perspective. It raises fundamental questions concerning the intellectual contribution and responsibility of those local and international actors (scholars, experts, think-tanks, NGOs, public intellectuals, etc.) who devised roadmaps for the transition to liberal democracy and market economy, and the interplay of these roadmaps and the realities “on the ground”.

This 1st workshop will serve to discuss the individual research proposals of the junior scholars and further accommodate their agenda with the thematic and methodological focus of the project, as well as outline the work of the five modules (economy, state, civil society, social inclusion-exclusion, and identity).

Senior Participants:

• Diana Mishkova, Centre for Advanced Study Sofiа
• Balazs Trencsenyi, CEU Budapest
• Ivana Spasic, University of Belgrade, Department of Sociology
• Janos Matyas Kovacs, University of Vienna
• Michal Kopecek, Institute for Contemporary History, Czech Academy of Sciences
• Bogdan Iancu, University of Bucharest, Faculty of Political Sciences
• Daniel Smilov, Centre for Liberal Strategies, Sofia / Sofia University
• Marta Bucholc, University of Bonn
• Pavel Kolar, University of Konstanz, History of Eastern Europe
• Magdalena Craciun, University of Bucharest, Faculty of Sociology and Social Work
• Violetta Zentai, CEU Budapest
• Juraj Buzalka, Comenius University in Bratislava
• Nebojša Vladisavljević, Faculty of Political Science, University of Belgrade
• Sophie Lambroschini, Centre Marc Bloch
• Dirk Lehmkuhl, Chair of European Politics, University of St. Gallen

Junior Scholars:

• Anna Calori, University of Leipzig
• Ondrej Slacalek, Charles University in Prague
• Lukas Becht, Institut für Osteuropäische Geschichte, Wien
• Weronika Grzebalska, Graduate School for Social Research, Polish Academy of Sciences
• Georgi Medarov, Institute of Sociology, Bulgarian Academy of Science
• Marton Szarvas, Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, CEU
• Tamara Petrovic, Institute for Sociological Research, University of Belgrade
• Ewa Dabrowska, University of Amsterdam / Political Economy and Transnational Governance (PETGOV) Research Group