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Report - Code for the conduct of social-research in the European Union
The RESPECT project, funded by the European Commission, invites scholars to
comment on a professional and ethical code for the conduct of social-research in
the European Union.
The RESPECT guidelines are intended to form the basis of a voluntary code of
practice covering the conduct of socio-economic research in Europe. They are
based on a synthesis of the contents of existing codes, together with current
legal requirements in the EU. This document is designed as a summary of the
principles involved. The purpose is not to create new requirements or
restrictions on the conduct of research, but to spread existing good practice,
enabling the development of a European Research Area with common standards that
are transparent and universally agreed. Such common standards are a prerequisite
for the development of a European market in socio-economic research, in which
research can be commissioned and partnerships entered into on the basis of clear
mutual understandings and expectations.
The draft code is available at
http://www.respectproject.org/code/ and comments can be submitted online.
For any further information, please contact: Hilary Williams, Project officer,
hilary.williams@employment-studies.co.uk
CfP: Valachian Journal of
Historical Studies
"Valachian Journal of Historical Studies"
http://www.rhp.ro/valachian/
1. Where the Europe ends: the Europe in-between as an outsider or insider of the
Old Continent?
2. The Europe in-between in the French politics and culture during the Modern
Age
3. The Europe viewed from the margins
4. Eastern Europe as a frontier of the Old Continent
5. The other in the in-between Europe during the modern age
6. The Balkans: a space of convergence or conflict? The changing images of a
European space
Valachian Journal of Historical Studies is a new review based in Targoviste,
Romania, which aims, besides publishing articles wrote by already consecrated
academic or research staff, at promoting the new generation of young historian
writings and their new vision in the field of political, cultural, economic,
social, ideological medieval, modern and contemporary history.
Although edited and published in Romania, this review envisages, from the very
beginning, to focus on the history of a larger region, Europe, or at least
Europe in-between as part of the European continent, and its share in the world
history. It aims to attract the interest of worldwide contributors who are
welcome to publish their articles in English, French, German and Spanish in this
biannual review.
The contributors are expected to send their contributions till December 15th,
2003 for the first issue, and May 15th, 2004 for the second issue. From then on
the deadline will be set on those days.
The articles are expected to have the following format: Times New Roman,
characters 12, top 2,54; bottom 2,54; left 3; right 3; header and footer 1,25.
By end of the text will be added the references.
Office: Silviu Miloiu, "Valahia"; University of Targoviste, Faculty of
Humanities, Stancu Ion St., No 33-35, Targoviste 0200, Romania
E-mail: Miloiu_S@yahoo.com
Web page: www.rhp.ro/Silvium
The Next
Europe: Southeastern Europe after Thessaloniki
Summary
The European Council and the Balkan Summit in Thessaloniki failed to deliver the
necessary consistent implementation strategy for the European integration of the
Balkans. At the same time, the euphoria related to the successful completion of
Eastern enlargement seems to nurture the illusion that this role model of
integration suffices to cope with the stability risks and the developmental
deficits of the Balkans. In their latest analysis that looks beyond the
political statements of Thessaloniki, the Bertelsmann Foundation and the Center
for Applied Policy Research champion a rethinking and renewal of Balkan
strategies. The arrangement should contain as many pre-accession instruments as
practicable, as much stabilisation policy as needed and as much
economic-development assistance as possible. Since 2000, the Bertelsmann
Foundation and the Center for Applied Policy Research have studied potentials
and limitations of a "European perspective" for the Western Balkans. Integration
strategies were assessed and designed in cooperation with the Planning Staff of
the German Foreign Ministry and leading think tanks from the region. On the
basis of the conclusions from Thessaloniki, the paper analyses the regional
state of affairs and identifies strengths and weaknesses of current European
Balkan policies.
Download the 8-page paper "The Next Europe: Southeastern Europe after
Thessaloniki" from:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/balkan_forum/files/
We would like to announce the newest PER report
"The Romani "Mahalas" (Neighborhoods) of Southeastern Europe: Politics,
Poverty, and Ethnic Unrest." The full text is available on PER's Web site at
www.per-usa.org.
Prospects for Further (South) Eastern EU Enlargement: from Divergence to
Convergence?
by Vladimir Gligorov, Mario Holzner and Michael Landesmann
wiiw Research Reports, No. 296, June 2003
38 pages including 11 Tables and 16 Figures
available in hardcopy (EUR 22.00) or PDF (EUR 20.00)
For Abstracts see www.wiiw.at Publications
WORLD BANK CALLS ROMA POVERTY CRITICAL IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE
A World Bank report identified "the complex cycle of Roma poverty" as "one
of the most critical remaining issues on the agenda of countries of Central and
Eastern Europe as they prepare for European Union (EU) membership," according to
news agency accounts. The report, released on June 24, comes just ahead of a
conference in Budapest on the subject, co-sponsored by the World Bank, the Open
Society Institute, and the European Commission.
According to Agence France Presse, World Bank President James Wolfensohn said
that the conference "could very well mark a turning point for the Roma. " He
welcomed the "new-found awareness that the Romany issue should be seen not only
in terms of human rights and discrimination, but also as a core economic and
social-policy issue. Europe must not leave the Roma behind." According to the
report, nearly 80 percent of Roma in Bulgaria and Romania live on less than
$4.30 a day, while in Hungary, which is expected to join the EU in 2004, 40
percent of Roma live on that income.
The Roma are the fastest-growing minority in the region where their population
is estimated at between seven and nine million people. This is the first time
that the World Bank has addressed the plight of the Roma, and its level of
concern with a minority is also unprecedented.
The Center for Policy Studies at the Central European University is pleased
to announce the web publication of three new conference reports:
The Nation-building Versus State-building in the Balkans
Lessons Learned
conference was held at the CEU in November 2002. It was organized by the
Nation-State Research Group of the Blue Bird Agenda for Civil Society in
South-East Europe Project and the CPS and brought together scholars and
policy makers to discuss the development of the Balkans as a region. The
conference was a fruitful exchange of views and discussions on how such
factors as institutions, the international context (such as the EU
integration process), economic performance, minority mobilization and the
dynamics of ethnic relations contribute to the stability and
democratization of the multiethnic states of the Balkans.
http://www.ceu.hu/cps/bluebird/eve/eve_statebuilding.htm
Understanding Xenophobia in Eastern Europe
Workshop was held at the CEU in
June 2002 and was organized by the CPS in cooperation with the Humanities
Center. The workshop included an in-depth analysis of the growth of
xenophobia in Eastern European over the past decade, explored the meanings
of various manifestations of xenophobia, as well as provide a critical
examination of traditional and innovative methodological devices.
Participants discussed cutting edge research revealing the relationship
between xenophobic tendencies and the overall level of intolerance in
society, and between the legitimacy of public xenophobic rhetoric and the
levels of everyday xenophobic practices. The workshop also addressed the
major policy relevance of comparative social research to the topic.
http://www.ceu.hu/cps/eve/eve_xenophobia.htm
Social Capital in the Balkans
The Missing link was a workshop organized by
CPS and the Social Inclusion Research Group of the Blue Bird Agenda for
Civil Society in South-East Europe Project. It was held in Cluj-Napoca in
January-February 2003 and it provided an opportunity for policymakers, NGOs
and academic researchers to discuss the practical and conceptual merit of
social capital for understanding recent developments in the Balkan
area. Sessions explored the controversies over its meaning and
application, the links between social capital and the development of civil
society, its application in lesser-known fields such as administrative
reform, as well some of the dangers of an uncritical promotion of social
capital as a public good.
http://www.ceu.hu/cps/bluebird/eve/eve_soccap.htm
RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY
RFE/RL East European Perspectives
Vol. 5, No. 12, 11 June 2003
News and Views on Central and Southeastern Europe
POVERTY, ETHNICITY, AND IDENTITY IN ROMANIA: REFLECTIONS ON THE STATUS OF THE
ROMA
By Alexandra Nacu
"In a country where...ever since Romania used to be an authentic totalitarian
state, beggars stretch their hands out to thieves and thieves steal from beggars
in full circle, it is difficult to believe that democracy will bring the light
of justice as long as democracy itself continues to use thieves and beggars." ("Dilema,"
22-29 October 2002). The following considerations on poverty and the Roma in
postcommunist Romania might help one understand this reflection by a Romanian
journalist. The thief and the beggar, the two traditional stereotypes of the
Gypsy in Romania, are here presented as the emblematic characters of Romania's
corrupt postcommunist democracy, whose negative image is, in addition, rooted in
history. This symbiosis between collective humiliation and crime on a national
scale is perceived as being based on corruption -- the latter understood in the
economic but also in the physical and moral senses. Since 1989, a significant
portion of the Romanian population has confronted a process of more or less
acute impoverishment. If poverty lines and thresholds are always questionable,
there is a tangible sense that poverty has become a major reality for a
significant segment of the population, and a potential danger for another
segment (Tesliuc et al., 2001, pp. 21-30). In the process of newly forming
social inequalities -- of status redefinition -- the Roma appear to be the
"loser" of "transition," massively affected by this process of impoverishment.
Statistics and observations confirm this impression: Already in a disadvantaged
position under the communist regime, a significant portion of the Romany
population is now in poverty -- although this does not mean that all Roma in
Romania experience the same kind of poverty or exclusion. Their plight is
manifest in various patterns: In examining the issue more closely, one should
distinguish between Roma living inside exclusively Romany settlements or outside
of them; between settlements where social cohesion has been maintained and where
it has not; and between those who are somewhat integrated into the local town or
village and those that are completely isolated. Nevertheless, despite this great
diversity, Roma are unified by their functional role -- as indeed they are in
most East-European countries -- a factor that allows us to speak of a community
of destiny. Apart from being a social reality, poverty has become a public issue
requiring the identification of responsibilities and programs for solutions,
often blotting out complex intricacies and the great variety of situations and
giving way to ordinary racism. The "Romany question" occupies an important part
in these debates, in which it appears at the crossroads of issues of ethnicity
and poverty. If during the communist period both "poverty" and "Gypsy" were
words banned from the public discourse, they have reappeared since 1989 in close
connection with each other. We should add that the poverty issue does not merely
contribute to creating divisions inside the country, but it also shapes the
country's identity: Having regained a long suppressed freedom of expression,
Romania had to redefine itself in the community of states, and the obvious
conclusion was that it was "a poor country." (We shall return to this theme
later.) The question of Roma and poverty is complex, first of all because there
are notorious definitional problems. Neither the Roma nor poverty is easy to
define. We just have to consider the polysemy of the word "tigan" (Gypsy) in
Romanian, which can be used as a census category representing ethnicity but also
as an everyday element of identification of "the other" -- in a reference to
status or otherwise pejoratively. These forms of classification do not coincide,
and the question of "Who is a Gypsy?" does not lend itself to an unequivocal
answer. But aside from these doubts concerning definition, the question is also
difficult because there is a gap between "objective" features and perceptions.
We shall try to consider some of these problems.
Full Report:
http://www.rferl.org/eepreport/
Retirement
The International Labour Organisation has presented a study "Recent trends
in the launch of the retirement reforms in the EU candidate countries" that
indicates that the simple change over in retirement systems managed by the State
to a private system is inadequate in the face of the challenge presented by
paying pensions in the near future.
THREE CPS CONFERENCE REPORTS NOW ONLINE
http://www.ceu.hu/cps/pub/pub_reports.htm
Three new reports from conferences organized by the Center for Policy Studies at
CEU are now available online.
"Nation-building versus State-building in the Balkans: Lessons Learned"
http://www.ceu.hu/cps/bluebird/eve/eve_statebuilding.htm
"Understanding Xenophobia in Eastern Europe"
http://www.ceu.hu/cps/eve/eve_xenophobia.htm
"Social Capital in the Balkans: The Missing link"
http://www.ceu.hu/cps/bluebird/eve/eve_soccap.htm
The Romanian Academic Society (SAR) is pleased to
launch the first issue of the Policy Warning
Reports (PWR) / Papers on Governance -- analytic materials monitoring
the socio-political and economic developments in Romania, aimed at identifying
situations with crisis potential. This series follows the Early Warning Reports
produced by SAR in the last two years with funds mainly from UNDP, after
institutional constraints made impossible for the main sponsor to continue its
commitment to independent monitorization. Our regular reports will appear
on a quarterly basis and continue to analyze trends in the four policy areas you
already know: Economy, Society, Politics and Rule of Law. In addition special
issues focusing on particular topics, including regional affairs, will be
published periodically. You can find below a summary of the topics
included in this first issue; the full text in English and Romanian, as well as
all EWR back issues, at www.sar.org.ro. We
have also launched the Yearly EWR covering 2002, the last issue sponsored by
UNDP. It is also available in Romanian and English from our web page.
Alina Mungiu Pippidi, President
Sorin Ionita, Director
Romanian Academic Society (SAR)
15 Petofi Sandor, Bucharest 1
+40-1-222-1868
office@sar.org.ro
PWR Romania, 1/2003, May
ABSTRACT
Split between its desire to join the EU and the necessities of regional
security that Europe has not been able to address so far, Romania is facing hard
choices in the years to come. However, the Politics section points out that it
will be difficult to deal with these external challenges if the domestic
policy-making and administrative capacity continue to remain low (arguably, the
lowest among candidate countries). SAR used the implementation of the Freedom of
Information Act as a test case of general administrative capacity, and found out
that Romanian public institutions function at about half the efficiency of their
Bulgarian counterparts. Without good and efficient domestic institutions,
even EU financial assistance can hardly make a difference. The issue of
"absorption capacity" of these funds has been debated with much passion, but no
conclusive arguments have been presented to the public so far. For the first
time, we break the silence on this matter and show that the problem is
significant, point out where the real institutional bottleneck is in
administering EU assistance programs, and suggest remedies. Public opinion
section shows trust in government on a slight decrease after a long stagnation.
The current government has managed to cling to its electorate in the past year,
but made no new inroads. Here you can find a synthesis of the public opinion in
the last twelve months read through the CURS-SAR polls.
Economy. Sidex is being restructured, but can other big SOEs follow in its
steps? This section analyzes the results achieved with Sidex by the new private
owners and concludes that on balance the picture looks good. But the
peculiarities of the steel industry make this success hard to replicate elswhere.
Rule of law. With a tradition of state abuse and a weakened media, is Romania
able to cope in the new security-conscious global environment? Looking back at
the last year and a half, SAR warns that freedom of speech and other civil
rights may be under assault. Restrictive legislation, indebted TV channels and
economic pressures on local newspapers reduce the scope for independent opinion.
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