Activism in Hard Times in Central and Eastern Europe elevates the voices of civic activists from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and analyzes a wealth of information to generate new insights into how activism in the region manages to be vibrant, diverse, and consequential.
Activism in Hard Times in Central and Eastern Europe elevates the voices of civic activists from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and analyzes a wealth of information to generate new insights into how activism in the region manages to be vibrant, diverse, and consequential.
Because of these countries’ unique historical trajectory, CEE activists have, in important ways, leap-frogged their counterparts in the West. Giving special attention to activists in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Hungary, Poland, Russia, and Ukraine, the book focuses on responses to the recent “hard times” – the shrinking of public space for civil society, democratic backsliding, polarization, and Russia’s war in Ukraine. The contributors contend that CEE activists provide important lessons for others confronting similar challenges around the world.
The book is well-suited for a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses, such as comparative politics, human rights, global governance, social movements, Central and East European politics, and contemporary world politics. This timely and readable book, co-created by academics and activists and written in a conversational tone, will also appeal to the interested public and practitioners. The book encourages readers to think differently about the role of civil society and activism, as well as about how new tools and polarizing dynamics affect activism in this region.
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1: Introduction to civil society 2.0
Paula M. Pickering and Patrice C. McMahon
Chapter 2: Polarization as driver and barrier to civic activism
Dorota Pietrzyk-Reeves and Lisa McIntosh Sundstrom
Chapter 3: Democratic innovations as a response to shrinking public space
Paulina Pospieszna and Dorota Pietrzyk-Reeves
Chapter 4: Conflict and collaboration in generational divides
Lisa McIntosh Sundstrom and Patrice McMahon
Chapter 5: The lure of digital activism
Patrice C. McMahon, Lisa McIntosh Sundstrom, Darko Brkan, and Alena Popova
Chapter 6: Everyday environmentalism
Laura A. Henry, Samir Leme, and Paula M. Pickering
Chapter 7: Crises: COVID-19 and Russias war on Ukraine
Ella Rossman, Valerie Sperling, and Paula M. Pickering
Chapter 8: From the margins to central stage: insights and lessons
Paula M. Pickering, Patrice C. McMahon, and Dorota Pietrzyk-Reeves
Patrice C. McMahon is Director of the University Honors Program and Professor of Political Science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA.
Paula M. Pickering is Richard S. Perles Professor of Government and Faculty Affiliate of the Global Research Institute at William & Mary, USA.
Dorota Pietrzyk-Reeves is Professor of Political Philosophy at the Institute of Political Science and International Relations at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland.
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