As of the beginning of 2008, the CLS is involved in several research projects. Some are towards their end, some are just starting. They involve CLS in three capacities – as leader of research with international relevance, a partner in international research networks, and a student of Bulgaria.
CLS is the Bulgarian partner in the SOCCOH project, financed through the 6th framework program of the European Commission. Its goal is to study the role of social capital in economic development through its impact on regional development policies. More precisely, the project focuses on the analysis of policy-making social networks at the regional level in terms of their national contextual analysis and their international comparison, with a focus on policy recommendations for the 2014-2020 planning period. Now, towards the end of the project, the research is already completed, the policy-making structures and the social network analyses on the national level are prepared, and the international comparison is being finished. The result of the project, besides specific policy proposals, will be two books containing the national and comparative analyses of existing policy structures and of the studied regional policy-making networks.
This article was published in Politeia Newsletter 48 - February 2008
Spearheading the development of a European focus and European debates on the relationship between the EU, and the West as a whole, and Russia, CLS has started the “Sovereign Democracy” project, funded by a Bulgarian donor – the Communitas Foundation. The concept of “sovereign democracy”, launched by Putin’s regime, has so far been treated cavalierly by the West. But it works in today’s Russia and should be analyzed seriously. Presently, as Putin is leaving in order to stay, the Western societies need a better understanding and a serious debate on the nature of Kremlin’s regime. The project will produce a book. It shall consist of writings by the leading ideologues (Russians and foreigners) of Kremlin’s concept of sovereign democracy on the one hand, countered by criticism from influential thinkers (Russians and foreigners) on the other hand. The presentation of the book should be followed by a book-tour all over Europe to start off a debate.
This article was published in Politeia Newsletter 48 - February 2008
A third project, in which CLS is a part as it unfolds during the first half of 2008, is the continuation of the “State of Society” series. The project has an explicit focus on Bulgarian society, and tries to capture trends in the deep structure, perceptions and attitudes in Bulgarian society. This is the third stage in the series, after 2002 and 2006, and will allow for the first time to see if some of the previous findings are confirmed as trends and whether new social processes have emerged. Being a partner in a wider Bulgarian team in the State of Society III project, the CLS is also separately applying the relatively novel method of analyzing “microtrends”, identifying specific social groups whose characteristics and dynamics are judged by the CLS team to be especially telling about Bulgarian society, and studies them in-depth. Thus the macro-social data, obtained through the nationally representative survey on State of Society III will be combined with the in-depth insights from the microtrends for a more nuanced and deeper picture of underlying processes in the Bulgarian society.
This article was published in Politeia Newsletter 48 - February 2008