• Institute
    • Leadership
    • Committees
      • Academic Advisory Board
        • Members' List since 1981
      • Board of Trustees
      • Members' Assembly
    • Contact Persons
    • The Kolleg
      • History
        • History of the Institute
          • History of the Kolleg
        • History of the Buildings and Gardens
          • Hauptgebäude
            • Excursus - Villa Linde's Grounds
          • Weiße Villa
          • Neubau
          • Villa Jaffé
          • Villa Walther
        • History of the Signet
      • Funding & Charters
        • Foundation Deed of the Ernst Reuter Foundation for Advanced Study
        • Charter of the Wissenschaftskolleg
      • Donors & Friends
    • Initiatives & Cooperations
      • College for Life Sciences
      • Blankensee-Colloquia
      • Anna Krüger Foundation
      • Some Institutes for Advanced Study (SIAS)
      • Support for Ukraine
      • VUIAS
        • Bilder der Eröffnungsfeier
      • Elkana Fellowships
    • Library
      • Ordering and Borrowing
      • Research
        • Journals and Newspapers
        • Catalogs
        • Specialised Information Services (Fachinformationsdienste)
        • Archives
      • Books & Music on-site
      • Questions?
  • Fellows
    • Fellow Finder
    • Fellows 2024/2025
    • Fellows 2025/2026
    • Permanent Fellows
      • Former Permanent Fellows
    • Alumni
      • Fellows' Club
        • Club
          • History
        • Membership
        • Newsletter
          • March 2025
            • Editorial
            • Architecture of Survival: An Interview with Natalia Romik (Elkana Fellow 2024/2025)
            • “Definitions Are Not Ultimate Truths”
            • Further Videos in the Wikotheque
            • The School of Human Rights Association: Building an Egalitarian and Democratic Academia in Turkey
            • Academic Freedom on a Small Scale
            • Save the Date: Annual Meeting of the Fellows’ Club
            • Join the Fellows’ Club
            • Membership Fee and Donations
            • New Publications in the Fellows’ Library
            • Prizes
            • Obituaries
          • February 2024
            • Editorial
            • Feeding the World with Edible Insects
            • Schöner Leben
            • Further Videos in the Wikotheque
            • Conversation with a Left-Handed Hairdresser: The Cutting-Edge Sociology of Barbara Thériault (Fellow 2023/24)
            • Dishes that Raise Questions: Interview with chef de cuisine Sonja Frühsammer
            • Round and round the Grunewald Lake: Five Years of Wicked Wiko Runners
            • Save the Date – Meeting of the Fellows’ Club 2024
            • Join the Fellows’ Club
            • Membership Fee and Donations
            • New Publications in the Fellows’ Library
            • Prizes
            • Obituaries
          • February 2023
            • Editorial
            • History Teacher of the People
            • War and Peace. The Past and Future of Ukraine
            • Cold, Ashamed, Relieved: On Leaving Russia
            • Music of a Refugee
            • A Word from the Chairman
            • Save the dates – Meeting of the Fellows’ Club 2023
            • Join the Fellows’ Club
            • Membership Fee and Donations
            • New Publications in the Fellows’ Library
            • Prizes
            • Obituaries
          • March 2022
            • Editorial
            • Politics, Law, and Science in Times of the Pandemic
            • Pandemics: The Maths, the Masks, the Madness
            • Roni Taharlev: The Harbinger of Corona
            • Rachel Wheatley: Berlin with a Mask
            • A Word from the Chairman
            • Save the dates – Meeting of the Fellows’ Club 2022
            • Join the Fellows’ Club
            • Membership Fee and Donations
            • New Publications in the Fellows’ Library
            • Prizes
            • Obituaries
          • February 2021
            • Editorial
            • Between Eigenzeit and Interdisciplinarity
            • The Masked Kolleg Unmasked
            • Was war und zu welchem Ende studiert man Trumpismus?
            • When Computers Took Their First Steps
            • A Farewell to Sonja Grund
            • Angelika Leuchter
            • Blog Series on Academic Freedom
            • Save the dates – Meetings of the Fellows’ Club 2021 and 2022
            • New Publications in the Fellows’ Library
            • Prizes
            • Join the Fellows’ Club!
            • Obituaries
          • March 2020
            • Editorial
            • Constitution as Nonviolent Revolution
            • Imre Kertész und die europäische Literatur der Gegenwart
            • A Profound Sense of Loss
            • The Wissenschaftskolleg and the East: The New Europe College in Bucharest
            • Save the date - Meeting of the Fellows’ Club - Biodiversity: Conceptual Challenges in an Era of Rapid Change, June 11 and 12, 2020
            • New Publications in the Fellows’ Library
            • Prizes
            • Join the Fellows’ Club
            • Obituarium
          • March 2019
            • Editorial
            • Paintings for the Future
            • Landmark Papers Revisited
            • Working Futures
            • Society Benefits From Our Autonomy
            • Two Million Blossoms in a Jar
            • Save the Date - Meeting of the Fellows' Club: June 13-14, 2019
            • Lectures on Film
            • New Publications in the Fellows' Library
            • Prizes
            • Join the Fellows' Club
            • Obituaries
          • March 2018
            • Editorial
            • A Good Bet: Five Years of the College for Life Sciences
            • Lectures on Film: Lisa Herzog
            • Return to Gdańsk
            • Sign the Gdansk Petition
            • Lecture Series: "Recht und Digitalisierung"
            • The Future of the Humboldt Forum: An Epiphany
            • (Almost) A Lifer
            • Late Checkout
            • Save the Date - Fellowtreffen
            • Prizes
            • New Publications in the Fellows' Library
            • Obi­tu­a­ri­um
          • March 2017
            • Editorial
            • Luca Giuliani: Facets of Stephen
            • Berliner Abend 2017
            • Michael Jennions: Walking Berlin
            • Nostalgia
            • Prizes
          • June 2016
            • Editorial
            • Daniel M. Weary: Three days at Wiko to imagine a new world
            • Katharina Wiedemann: Travelling Lights
            • Wiliam Marx (fr)
            • Luc Steels: Grunewaldkirche, Bach, and Passions
            • Nostalgia
          • June 2015
            • Editorial
            • Adam S. Wilkins: Humanities and Natural Sciences
            • Rob Page: The Decline of the Humanities?
            • Alfons Söllner: From "Exilforschung" to "Emigrationsforschung"? A Journey in Memory.
            • Susan Rose-Ackerman and Bruce Ackerman: Wiko Then and Now: 1991-1992 and 2014-2015
            • Daniel Schönpflug: Ins Grüne
          • December 2014
            • Editorial
            • Sebastian Conrad: Global History
            • Sahotra Sarkar, Chris Margules: Biodiversity group at the Kolleg
            • Reinhart Meyer-Kalkus: On Uwe Pörksen: Camelot im Grunewald. Szenen aus dem intellektuellen Leben der achtziger Jahre
            • Meredith Reiches: "Literary studies and biology: The Shakespeare-Workshops at the Kolleg 2012 and 2013"
            • Simon Teuscher: Workshop: Perspectives on Actors in Social History
            • Gebhard Kirchgässner: Workshop “The Economic Model of Human Behaviour”
            • Gerald Wilkinson: Workshop “Mind the Gap: Closing the Gulf between Genomic and Phenotypic Studies of Sexual Selection”
            • Sonja Grund: News from the Fellows’ Club
          • May 2014
            • Editorial
            • Peter Reill: From the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin to Wiko: Reflections on a Return after Twenty-Seven Years
            • Reinhart Meyer-Kalkus:Why artists are needed at research institutions
            • Martin Loughlin: Constitutions beyond the Nation-State
            • Franco Moretti: Invisible objects
            • Stefanie Rentsch: The Forum Transregionale Studien – its Mission and History
          • November 2013
            • Editorial
            • Jim Hunt: Ten Years in the Rearview Mirror
            • Thorsten Wilhelmy: My First Year at the Wissenschaftskolleg
            • Giovanni Frazzetto: The College for Life Sciences at the Wissenschaftskolleg
            • Reinhart Meyer-Kalkus: The Fellow Forum for Former Fellows
      • Fellow Forum
  • Events
    • Calendar of Events
    • Workshops
    • Series of Events
      • Lecture Recitals
      • Zur Zeit
      • Observatorium
      • Ernst Mayr Lecture
    • Three Cultures Forum
  • Wikotheque
    • Wiko Shorts
    • Lectures & Keynotes
    • Features
    • Köpfe und Ideen
    • Projects
    • Yearbook
    • Zeitschrift für Ideengeschichte
  • Becoming a Fellow
    • Fellowship Applications
      • Preconditions
      • Selection Criteria
      • Selection Procedure
      • FAQ
    • Wiko Early Career Calls
      • Early Career Call Humanities and Social Sciences
        • Application and Selection
        • Eligibility
        • FAQ
      • Early Career Call Life and Natural Sciences
    • Living and Working
      • Financial Arrangements
      • Housing
      • Academic Life
      • Services
      • Services for Partners and Families
image/svg+xml
DeutschEnglish
 Login


MENU

  • Institute
  • Fellows
  • Events
  • Wikotheque
  • Becoming a Fellow

  • Leadership
  • Committees
  • Contact Persons
  • The Kolleg
  • Initiatives & Cooperations
  • Library

  • College for Life Sciences
  • Blankensee-Colloquia
  • Anna Krüger Foundation
  • Some Institutes for Advanced Study (SIAS)
  • Support for Ukraine
  • VUIAS
  • Elkana Fellowships

Agenda for Civil Society in South-Eastern Europe 2001 - 2003 (Blue Bird)

At the beginning of the 21st century, the real challenge of the reconstruction of South-Eastern Europe (SEE) is its re-invention.
The "Agenda for Civil Society in SEE", a three-year-long research project coordinated by the Central European University Budapest (CEU) and involving the New Europe College in Bucharest, the Centre for Liberal Strategies in Sofia, the Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin, and other institutions, starts with the assumption that the invention of the region requires the construction of a common regional vision and the emergence of a regional public debate. The project - surrealistically nicknamed Blue Bird - is an attempt to formulate such a vision and to assist the emergence of such debate. Till now, the region has been perceived in terms of risks; the idea of the project is to reformulate the debate on the future in terms of opportunities.

The idea of the project is to come up with a policy document titled "Agenda for Civil Society in South-Eastern Europe" within three years (by 2003) that will serve as the vision paper for development of the region over the next 20 years. The paper will address both governments and publics and should offer coherent policy strategies. The work on the Agenda is intended as a stimulus for opening the discussion to various sectors of society and for initiating regional policy debate.

The primary ambition of the project is to reflect on the reconstruction of SEE, both as an intellectual and as a policy challenge. The current debate on SEE has never addressed the production of knowledge and innovative ideas about the region as a distinctive problem. The international community fails to recognize that the lack of local knowledge is a specific and powerful obstacle to the development of the region. This is one of the reasons why the academic community and the intellectual community in general remained marginal in the initial stages of debating what to do in the Balkans. The urgency of the problems and the extremely limited time for debate resulted in the recycling of old ideas and approaches.

The present project starts with the assumption that the reconstruction of the Balkans is an intellectual problem. In the last decade, Western Europe and SEE have developed in completely different directions and have worked with completely different maps of the future. In the Western part of the continent, the process of integration has reached a critical stage with the launching of the common European currency, the Euro. This has led to fundamental reconsideration of such basic concepts as the nation state, sovereignty, the national economy, national security, human rights, and so on. At the same time, the process of disintegration in the south-eastern part of the continent has brought back some of the 19th-century ideas about the role of states and borders, the value of economic independence, and so on. There is an urgent need for a policy dialogue about the future of the Balkans that can help local and international players involved in the process to "see" the difference between their perceptions of the existing situation.

The existence of the EU and SEE's will to join it make the dialogue on the future more difficult, rather than easier. The temporal utopia of communism has been replaced by the spatial utopia of the present EU. Consensus on joining the EU conceals the lack of debate on the future.
Understanding the intellectual challenge of development has persuaded the research group to avoid the "accession" type of questions in searching for new innovative ideas regarding SEE and to structure the project around four research groups rather than around 24 individual research projects. The ambition of the project is to stimulate researchers to integrate their findings in the common product and not to focus on projects of their own. Four basic questions were formulated about the future of the region and organized the project's intellectual dialogue in the context of these four questions. The selection of the groups' research agenda was based on three basic principles: 
the research topics are broad enough and permit a multidisciplinary approach 
the research topics are formulated in policy language 
both the intellectual and the policy community recognize the research topics as critically important.

The research is organized in four research groups, each consisting of six scholars living in or born in the region, each focusing on a specific theme. It is significant that the groups are composed of scholars from different fields of knowledge. The themes of the four groups are:

1. How the Politics of Social Inclusion are Possible in South-Eastern Europe

This research group will analyze the uneasy process of "socialization" in the region. Who was included, when, and why? What are the risks for social cohesion? Which social and political groups will drive the social agenda? Gender, ethnic, and youth problems; access to education and the characteristics of the social agenda in the region; the role of NGOs and universities. What will be the social effects of "accelerated" or delayed EU integration?
Research Coordinator: Dr. Mihail Arandarenko, CEU

2. How the Regional Economies can be Integrated in the Global Economy

This research group will focus on the economic consequences of establishing a regional market and of introducing the Euro as a common currency; on the region's comparative advantages and disadvantages; on the institutional environment; on factors that will affect foreign investments long-term; on expected strategies of resistance to globalization; and on the role of the national states in blocking or promoting competitive strategies.
Research Coordinator: Dr. Ilian Mihov, INSEAD, Paris

3. What is the Future of the Nation States in SEE?

This research group will focus on the internal dynamics of state-formation in the region; on the sustainability of the existing states and statelets; on the existing constitutional regimes and their effect on the economy and society; on the risks of the weak states; on the prospect of introducing regional institutions and on the effects of EU enlargement on the functioning of the national states in the region; and on the prospects for ethnically "clean" or multi-ethnic states.
Research Coordinator: Dr. Ivan Vejvoda, Fund for Open Society, Belgrade

4. How SEE Identity is Possible

This research group will re-think the common history of the region; the construction of the national identities' educational systems; and the dynamic of the construction of European, national, and regional identities. This group will also focus on the role of religion and of clashes between religions in the formation of SEE identity.
Research Coordinator: Dr. Alexander Kiossev, University of Sofia

The major objectives of the research can be classified in five groups:

  • To map new research areas bringing together the latest methodologies used in the social sciences and to stimulate interest in case studies and the techniques of micro-analysis, focusing on the study of local practices and their policy potential.To set up a new model of intellectual communication between scholars from different countries and disciplines.
  • To formulate the problems of the reconstruction of SEE in a way that makes them intriguing to the broader intellectual community. This is why the project encourages non-scholarly products coming out of the common research: op-eds, public lectures, and participation in NGO activities.
  • To assist the creation and distribution of significant scholarly works. Drawing on the lessons of similar projects, we realize that research by-products - individual articles or books - are usually more influential than the common product.
  • To structure and organize the project so as to make the intellectual potential of the region visible and to foster a new generation of social scientists.

Ivan Krastev (Coordinator of the "Blue Bird" research group) February 2001

Kooperationspartner

Neben dem Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin unterstützen die Vereinten Nationen, die Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Schweden und die Niederlande, der Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft und die VolkswagenStiftung das Projekt.

Ansprechpartner:
Dr. Andrea Krizsán, Central European University, Budapest 
E-Mail: krizsan(at)ceu.hu

Archive

 

  • College for Life Sciences
  • Blankensee-Colloquia
  • Anna Krüger Stiftung
  • Archive
    • Working Futures
    • Recht im Kontext
    • Blue Bird Club
    • Finalität Europas
    • Agenda for Civil Society in South-Eastern Europe 2001 - 2003 (Blue Bird)
    • Working Group Modernity and Islam
    • ethnoArc - Linked European Ethnomusical Archives
    • Circulation of Knowledge. Transregional Studies
    • EUME
    • SIAS Summer Institutes

Institute for Advanced Study

  • Press Releases
  • Contact Persons
  • Contact
  • Vacancies
  • Legal Notice
  • Privacy
  • Sitemap

Institute

  • Leadership
  • Committees
  • Contact Persons
  • The Kolleg
  • Initiatives & Cooperations
  • Library

Fellows

  • Fellow Finder
  • Fellows 2024/2025
  • Fellows 2025/2026
  • Permanent Fellows
  • Alumni

Events

  • Calendar of Events
  • Workshops
  • Series of Events
  • Three Cultures Forum

Wikotheque

  • Wiko Shorts
  • Lectures & Keynotes
  • Features
  • Köpfe und Ideen
  • Projects
  • Yearbook
  • Zeitschrift für Ideengeschichte

Becoming a Fellow

  • Fellowship Applications
  • Wiko Early Career Calls
  • Living and Working