Materials - Katya Murray & Mimi Larsson's lecture: Power, conflict and morality in East / Central Europe - Course at the Institute of Anthropology, Copenhagen University, Fall 2004

Power, Conflict and Morality in the Postsocialist World
Course held by the East / Central Europe Research Group Institute of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen Coordinator - Finn Sivert Nielsen
Materials for Katja Murray and Mimi Larsson's lectures
The text for the lecture on Oct. 7th is: Cruz, Bernardo Ivo. n.d. Democracy in the New Member States: Is the Commission on the Right Path? *It can be downloaded from:* http://www.eupolicynetwork.org.uk/research/cruz1.pdf Some suggestions for further reading - on NGO's, democratization and civil society Sampson, Steven: Weak States, Uncivil Societies and Thousands of NGOs Western Democracy Export as Benevolent Colonialism in the Balkans. Published on AnthroBase. Click the link to download. (The article discusses local and Western sponsored NGO's in the Balkans; written by an anthropologist with long practical and research experience in the region.) Pedersen, Anne Sofie: "Menneskerettighedsundervisning i Georgien" Et eksempel på en antropologisk fortolkning. (Only in Danish.) Published on AnthroBase. Click the link to download. (A BA essay written by one of our students, on her work on a Human Rights project in Georgia.) Anderson, David G. 1993: Civil Society in Siberia. The Institutional Legacy of the Soviet State. In Hermine G. De Soto & David G. Anderson, eds.: The Curtain Rises. Rethinking Culture, Ideology, and the State in Eastern Europe, Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Humanities Press, p.76-96. (A controversial and thougyt-provoking article that argues that a form of civil society existed in Soviet times. Compare this to Sampson's article above.) Course questions for October 5th and 7th. General questions: What is democracy and democratisation? How is democracy and democratisation typically studied, measured, evaluated? What is an anthropological approach to the study of democratisation/ What alternative approaches can anthropology contribute with? Please consider the following questions when reading the texts: Which models of democracy/democratisation are described? Who defines these models? What problems can be identified in these approaches? From what do actors derive the power to define ‘true’ democracy and the ‘right’ democratisation tools? What conflicts exist between different models for democracy/tools for democratisation? What alternative approaches are suggested? These questions are meant as a guide for your reading. We expect your active participation in class discussions about these issues. And we look forward to sharing our ideas and thoughts with you!