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Civil Society and External Democratization in Post-Socialist Europe

The Heinrich Böll Foundation (Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung) in cooperation with the European University Viadrina Frankfurt/Oder and the Federal Institute of Technology Zurich is pleased to announce six doctoral scholarships in the following subject: Civil Society and External Democratization in Post-Socialist Europe.
The proposed doctoral program will explore the diverse activities of civil societies in European post-transition countries. As well as analyzing the presence and activities of civil societies, the course will focus primarily on the effects of civil society in-terventions and their interaction with external democratization ef-forts, particularly through regional organizations such as the Coun-cil of Europe or the European Union, NGOs, and transnational net-works.

Those post-socialist states that are neither entirely completely consolidated democracies nor have reverted to the status of autocra-cies since the 1989/1991 transition are identified as post-transition countries; they are located mainly in the western Bal-kans, the eastern reaches of Eastern Europe, as well as the Cauca-sus.
Dissertations may examine the effectiveness of aid provided by ex-ternal democratization efforts on post-socialist civil societies as well as the impact potential of non-governmental actors with the aim to better understand the role and interaction of civil society and external actors in transition and hybrid regimes. The aim is to gen-erate a high proportion of papers with a comparative perspective; regions of comparison may also lie outside of Europe. An integrated socio-scientific concept forms the basis of the proposal, providing the framework for discussions on political science, sociology, so-cial and cultural anthropology, and history.

A supporting academic program will be offered as part of the doc-toral course, the attendance of which is mandatory for all partici-pants. This will include colloquia on theoretical and methodological questions or the organization of workshops and conferences by the course participants, together with outside scientists. Additionally, practice-oriented workshops are planned with the regional offices of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, allowing the scholarship holders in-sights into the work of external democratization agents while at the same time providing networking opportunities with civil society ac-tors in three countries.

Periods of regular attendance are required, with office space avail-able at the European University’s Frankfurt Institute for Transfor-mation Studies (FIT) and the ETH and University of Zurich’s Center for Comparative and International Studies (CIS). Both Frankfurt and Zurich regularly offer classes at postgraduate level on the subjects of democracy, civil society or external democratization.

If you are interested in the doctoral program, please send a brief application to the Heinrich Böll Foundation’s Studienwerk address below. Please note the following on your cover sheet: “Application for doctoral course ‘Civil Society and External Democratization in Post-Socialist Europe’.”

More about the scholarships you can find on http://www.boell.de/stipendien/stipendien.html

The working languages of the program are German and English. Students not sufficiently familiar with either of the two languages are expected to acquire the necessary language skills ahead of the start and during the program.

The application deadline is 1 March 2008.

Please hand in your application in either English or German to the Heinrich Böll Foundation.

For questions regarding content, please contact:

Prof. Dr. Timm Beichelt
Europa-Universität Viadrina
Große Scharrnstr. 59
15230 Frankfurt/Oder, Germany
Mail: beichelt@euv-frankfurt-o.de  
Web: www.euv-frankfurt-o.de  

Prof. Dr. Frank Schimmelfennig
ETH Zürich
SEI G 12
8092 Zürich, Schweiz
Mail: frank.schimmelfennig@eup.gess.ethz.ch    
Web: www.eup.ethz.ch

For questions regarding application procedures and formalities, please contact:
Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung
Studienwerk
Bärbel Karger Rosenthaler Str. 40/41 10178 Berlin, Germany
Mail: studienwerk@boell.de  
Tel.: 030-28534-400
Fax: 030-28534-409

The announcements in English and German you can find attached.

Materials

Heinrich eng (47 kb)
Heinrich ge (43 kb)