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• Baltic Worlds’ Online Coverage: “The Impacts of the Pandemic”

  By Ninna Mörner on 10 May, 2020

  Baltic Worlds’ website is publishing comments from different countries and regions on the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. There will be contributions from several countries, more to expect soon.
  Baltic Worlds’ Online Coverage will examine how politicians in different parts of the world are reacting to the crisis. Some are using the crisis to promote authoritarian or illiberal policies. Restrictions have been enacted to protect vulnerable groups from Covid-19, but the consequences and costs are hard to estimate, not only economically; we know that domestic violence has increased, and other side effects are also open to discussion.
  Is work to combat the pandemic eroding democracy? People have fewer tools than ever for making their voices heard, defending human rights, or crossing borders. What will the outcome be?

  Category: Okategoriserade

• 

  In Poland, COVID-19 exposes progressing societal militarization

  By Weronika Grzebalska on 31 May, 2020

  As Poland lifts restrictions and comes out of the lockdown ensued by COVID-19, much has been said on what the pandemic has revealed about our economy, public institutions, gender relations, and state of democratic checks and balances. What has been less discussed, yet not gone unnoticed, is the way this security crisis has revealed ongoing processes of societal militarization, and the shift of society-military relations towards closer ties and interactions. Just like the war in Ukraine and the Refugee Crisis, Covid-19 has further normalized bringing the Polish society into defense through militarized channels. However, a closer look reveals the potential for shifting this process into more civilian-based forms.

  Category: Okategoriserade

  

  The pandemic experience and the lockdown in Albania

  By Gilda Hoxha on 18 May, 2020

  We can all agree that this pandemic is hard to manage and that the saving citizens’ life is the most important issue to deal with initially, but let us reflect on the consequences of the responses. The pandemic experience and the lockdown in Albania, among other perspectives, can be analysed by answering two main questions: 1. What is the socio-economic cost of the lockdown for almost 3 months? 2. What are the implications for the democratic system, is the freedom challenged?

  Category: Okategoriserade

Just in

• In Poland, COVID-19 exposes progressing societal militarization

  As Poland lifts restrictions and comes out of the lockdown ensued by COVID-19, much has been said on what the pandemic has revealed about our economy, public institutions, gender relations, and state of democratic checks and balances. What has been less discussed, yet not gone unnoticed, is the way this security crisis has revealed ongoing processes of societal militarization, and the shift of society-military relations towards closer ties and interactions. Just like the war in Ukraine and the Refugee Crisis, Covid-19 has further normalized bringing the Polish society into defense through militarized channels. However, a closer look reveals the potential for shifting this process into more civilian-based forms.

  By Weronika Grzebalska No Comments on In Poland, COVID-19 exposes progressing societal militarization

• Latvia’s e-parliament does it from a distance

  The Covid-19 pandemic created the need to find a new way for 100 Latvian MP’s to debate and pass laws without sitting side-by-side in their historical parliamentary hall. A new e-system now enables Latvian MP’s to perform their legislative functions from anywhere they have an Internet connection.

  By Ojars Eriks Kalnins No Comments on Latvia’s e-parliament does it from a distance

• Poland. Elections with no ballots

  Presidential elections were formally held in Poland on Sunday, May 10, 2020, but in practice no election took place and no ballots were cast. The distinction between what happens formally and what takes place in practice has become more and more important for Polish politics and public life.

  By Jaakko Turunen No Comments on Poland. Elections with no ballots

• The pandemic experience and the lockdown in Albania

  We can all agree that this pandemic is hard to manage and that the saving citizens’ life is the most important issue to deal with initially, but let us reflect on the consequences of the responses. The pandemic experience and the lockdown in Albania, among other perspectives, can be analysed by answering two main questions: 1. What is the socio-economic cost of the lockdown for almost 3 months? 2. What are the implications for the democratic system, is the freedom challenged?

  By Gilda Hoxha No Comments on The pandemic experience and the lockdown in Albania

• Baltic Worlds’ Online Coverage: “The Impacts of the Pandemic”

  Baltic Worlds’ website is publishing comments from different countries and regions on the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. There will be contributions from several countries, more to expect soon. Baltic Worlds' Online Coverage will examine how politicians in different parts of the world are reacting to the crisis. Some are using the crisis to promote authoritarian or illiberal policies. Restrictions have been enacted to protect vulnerable groups from Covid-19, but the consequences and costs are hard to estimate, not only economically; we know that domestic violence has increased, and other side effects are also open to discussion. Is work to combat the pandemic eroding democracy? People have fewer tools than ever for making their voices heard, defending human rights, or crossing borders. What will the outcome be?

  By Ninna Mörner No Comments on Baltic Worlds’ Online Coverage: “The Impacts of the Pandemic”

• Tajikistan’s Fake Election

  Unsurprisingly, the ruling People’s Democratic Party, won Tajikistan’s parliamentary elections on March 1, 2020. The election campaign was a muted affair. No previous Tajik election has been judged free and fair by legitimate international observers. The Central Election Commission stated that the elections were open and transparent, and reported that it received no reports of violations. But independent observers reported a slew of violations, including ballot stuffing and proxy voting.

  By Edward Lemon and Oleg Antonov No Comments on Tajikistan’s Fake Election

• Slovak Parliamentary Elections 2020:  Drugs, Computer Games and Islamophobia

  On Sunday March 1, Slovakia woke up to a new political era. Slovaks showed to former ruling parties (SMER – SD, Slovak National Party and the Bridge) that there were fed up with their empty promises and all the corruption, scandals and nepotism. They decided to give a chance to Matovič and some of the other opposition parties.

  By Michaela Grančayová No Comments on Slovak Parliamentary Elections 2020:

• Feminists revisit the breakups and breakthrough of 1989

  Conversation with Slavenka Drakulić, Croatia; Samirah Kenawi, Germany; Tamara Hundorova, Ukraine; Ewa Kulik-Bielińska, Poland; and Olga Lipovskaia, Russia.

  By Witness Seminar No Comments on Feminists revisit the breakups and breakthrough of 1989

• “Almost every nationally-defined state turned autocratic and anti-pluralistic”

  Kristina Jõekalda and Linda Kaljundi in a conversation with Joep Leerssen on past and present nationalism in Europe and beyond. Joep Leerssen, Professor of European Studies at the University of Amsterdam, is one of the leading scholars of nationalism, having initiated several innovative projects and produced influential texts in the field.

  By Linda Kaljundi and Kristina Jõekalda No Comments on “Almost every nationally-defined state turned autocratic and anti-pluralistic”

• Talking about the past and future of the Baltic states

  The theme of this year’s conference, the 13th Conference on Baltic Studies in Europe (CBSE) was “Baltic Solidarity” — and most appropriate, no one less than Lech Wałęsa was there to open the event.

  By Joakim Ekman No Comments on Talking about the past and future of the Baltic states

• Baltic Worlds Election Coverage!
  Elections in over 20 different countries are covered here.>>
• The Baltic Worlds Inhouse Edition. Please download pdf.
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• Baltic Worlds covers; the Baltic Sea Region, Eastern Europe, Russia, Caucasus and the Balkan area.
  Articles listed by country you find here.>>

• reviews

  1. The revision of Herstory. Global state socialist women’s activism from a new perspective

     Second World, Second Sex: Socialist Women’s Activism and Global Solidarity during the Cold War. Kristen Ghodsee. Duke University Press, 2019, 328 pages.

  2. Linking gender and food in the late Soviet context Narratives, discourses, representations

     Seasoned Socialism: Gender and Food in Late Soviet Everyday Life , Ed. by Anastasia Lakhtikova, Angela Brintlinger, and Irina Glushchenko. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2019, 396 pages

  3. The Chernobyl disaster. From the explosion to the closing of the plant

     Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy, Serhii Plokhy, Penguin (2019), 432 pages, Winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize 2018

  4. Art History outside the nationalist paradigm. Soros art centers in a global perspective

     Globalizing East European Art Histories. Past and Present. Routledge Research in Art History Beáta Hock and Anu Allas (ed.), London: Routledge, 2018. 232 pages.

  5. Politics of colonization. Russian imperial governance through the institution of marriage

     Negotiating Imperial Rule. Colonists and Marriage in the Nine-teenth-Century Black Sea Steppe Julia Malitska, Södertörn Doctoral Dissertations 135, Stockholm 2017, 392 pages.

  6. All reviews