Social Science Research Council

In the series of workshops and publications organized through this project, a conference and related publication on "Justice, Hegemony and Social Movements: Views from Central/East Europe and Eurasia" is currently underway. This project is funded by the John D. and Catharine T. MacArthur Foundation. Previous activities included workshops on "Empire and Dissent: Reflecting on History" and "Empire and Dissent: Focus on Latin America." A fourth, and last, activity will focus on the role of "experts" in shaping and controlling the debate on regional and global policies such as the current discussion of Iraq, on the one hand, and the role of experts and expert knowledge in global social movements, such as the debates on global warming, on the other.

Briefly stated, "Justice, Hegemony and Social Movements: Views from Central/East Europe and Eurasia" aims at examining social mobilization in post-communist countries, specifically in response to emergent hegemonic processes (economic, political and cultural), at global, regional and national levels. We are specifically interested in notions of justice and fairness and the ways in which these notions are articulated through conventional and unconventional forms of politics. Going beyond formal politics and procedural understandings of democratization, the project aims at understanding how demands are articulated and channeled through a variety of forms of mobilization. The project will seek to unpack the meanings of "justice," hegemony and social movements as they manifest themselves in the region, whenever possible engaging in comparisons within the region and globally.

A number of prominent scholars first met at Rutgers University on May 24-25, 2006 for a planning meeting. Five of these scholars prepared background papers on key themes, including corruption, poverty, media, gender and the environment.

On April 13-15, 2007, the main group of participants from the Rutgers Planning Meeting, joined by a few additional scholars, will once more come together in Warsaw, Poland for a conference. At this conference, full-length papers on the initial five themes, complemented by a number of additional pieces, will be presented and discussed, and final plans will be made to turn the papers into an edited volume for publication.