contributors

Dominika V. Polanska and Grzegorz Piotrowski

Dominika v. Polanska, Institute for Housing and Urban Research (IBF) at Uppsala University and Södertörn University. Leader of a project started in 2015 at Södertörn University, financed by the Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies, called “Challenging the Myths of Weak Civil Society in Post-socialist Settings: ‘Unexpected’ Alliances and Mobilizations in the Field of Housing Activism in Poland”.

Grzegorz Piotrowski is currently a CBEES Fellow; previously involved in three research projects at Södertörn University.  PhD in social and political sciences at the European University Institute in 2011. Research interests: issues of anarchism, alterglobalism, squatting, social movements, postsocialism, and urban movements.

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Articles by Dominika V. Polanska and Grzegorz Piotrowski

  1. WINTER OF DISCONTENT AND ELECTIONS Understanding Bulgaria’s 2025 protests and issues of Bulgarian politics

    Widespread anti-government and anti-austerity protests erupted in Bulgaria in December 2025, reflecting intense public opposition to the state’s fiscal policies, governance models, and lack of transparency in political and judicial processes, which eventually led to the resignation of the Zhelyazkov Government. The eighth round of parliamentary elections in just five years took place on April 19, 2026 and resulted in victory for Progressive Bulgaria, the new party of the former president Rumen Radev. The country faces ongoing political instability. The current essay sheds light on the central misrepresentations in the portrayal of the protests and underlying structural issues in Bulgarian politics based on the analysis of state documents, media coverage, corruption investigation cases, and digital observations.

  2. WORLDS APART, STRUGGLES ALIKE Early-career academics in Albania and Sweden

    Early-career academics (ECAs) generally experience insecure employment conditions, intense competition for research funding, and limited access to effective mentorship. Postdoctoral career pathways are marked by uncertainty and precarity, with short-term contracts and high expectations for research output, teaching, and administrative work. Drawing on interviews with ECAs in Sweden and Albania, this essay identifies a striking convergence in their experiences despite substantial differences in national academic systems. The findings suggest that these difficulties are not merely country-specific but reflect broader structural characteristics of contemporary European academia. The persistence of such conditions highlights a systemic disconnect between doctoral training and sustainable academic careers, pointing to the need for reforms that promote long-term career stability and healthier research environments. The essay also reveals differences between Albanian and Swedish ECAs’ career aspirations and experiences of gender equality.

  3. IN SEARCH OF SOLIDARITY BETWEEN THE GLOBAL EAST AND THE GLOBAL SOUTH

    The CEEShub’s (Central and Eastern European Security Hub) inaugural conference: "Between Peripheries: Critical- Relational Security from CEE and the Global South" took place in January 22–25, 2026, Tallinn University, Estonia.

  4. Hungary before the Change?

    I have been monitoring academic freedom and institutional autonomy in the region for the past few decades. Hungary stood out […]

  5. Laura Lapinské (151) Care to live. Everyday strategies among single mothers in Lithuania

    Abstract [en] This dissertation, Care to Live, offers an in-depth ethnographic study of well-educated single mothers navigating everyday life in Kaunas, […]

  6. Moa Höglund (150) Platser att minnas på. Venedigbiennalen 1991-1993, postsocialism och de nationella paviljongerna [Places of Remembrance. The Venice Biennale 1991–1993, post-socialism and the national pavilions]

    Places of Remembrance examines the cultural functions served by the Hungarian (1909–), Polish (1932–), and Czech-Slovak (1926–) pavilions in the Venice […]

  7. Nicholas Lawrence (149) Salomon Mainmon’s Life; or, the History of the Imagining I

    Abstract [en] This thesis breaks with tradition by reading Salomon Maimon’s Lebensgeschichte as a work of philosophy. Rather than the mere re-telling […]

  8. Ellen Jacobsson (148) Integrators. Contradictions in Practice

    Abstract [en] This thesis investigates contemporary practices focused on facilitating the integration of those who, for various reasons, are perceived […]

  9. In Memoriam Kristian Gerner

    Kristian Gerner (b. 1942), esteemed historian and emeritus professor of history at Lund University, passed away on April 2, 2026, in Lund, Sweden, at the age of 83. His voice in Sweden’s public and academic life will be greatly missed.

  10. Introducing the Belarus Voices: A New Book Series on Politics, Society, and Culture in Belarus

    An important goal for the new series is to create a space where scholars from different disciplines can engage with one another. Research on Belarus is often dispersed across various fields — political science, history, sociology, anthropology, and cultural studies — and the series aims to bring these perspectives into dialogue.

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