International Conference: “Democratization through Social Activism: Gender and Environmental Issues in Post-Communism Societes”, Bucharest, Romania, 16 and 17 May 2013

The impact of new social movements is hardly discussed in European post-communist context. Strands of social contention such as the feminist and the environmentalist ones sprung in western democracies in the late 60s and 70s and they became the object of much research using approaches as diverse as organizational theory , deliberative theory, public policy, political science, or social movements theory. What is to be said about women’s and environmental movements in the Central and Eastern European transitional societies? To what extent and through what means have such groups succeeded in pushing their interests on the public and institutional agendas in their countries? What are, and to what we owe the differences between their mobilization capacity, visibility and their success/or failure in different national contexts sharing this similar trait of having a post-communist past?
      National School of Political Science and Public Administration (NSPSA) invites you to discuss these questions in a two-day international conference, taking place in Bucharest, Romania on 16 and 17 May 2013. The conference is organized and funded through the project “Civil Society and the State: Analyzing Public Debates on Gender and Environmental Issues in Post-Communist Romania”, financed by National Council for Scientific Research in Higher Education and coordinated by Professor Mihaela Miroiu (NSPSPA).

Here are some directions of inquiry we are interested in:
- What are the internal (organizational) and external (environmental) factors that influenced the mobilization process and the undertaking of collective action on gender and environmental issues?
- How did the relations between women’s and/or environmental organizations shaped the mobilization process?
- What are the strategies/tactics by which women’s and environmental groups are trying to influence the public policies?
- Which strategies proved successful in influencing the decisional process?
- How did these change in time, following changes in the political climate (pre/post EU accession, the change in government’s political color)?
- To what extent did women’s and environmental groups succeed in adding a gender, respectively an environmental dimension to public agenda?
- To what extent and in what form did state institutions incorporate women’s and environmental groups’ claims into the outcome of the public deliberation process?
- To what extent and under what circumstances did the public deliberation displayed by mass communication turn into official public debate?

Conference details
As we have this double focus, on women’s movement on one hand and on environmental movement on the other, the conference will be organized as such; the 16th of May will be dedicated to the discussion of the papers engaging with the first issue and on the 17th will take place the presentations on the second issue.
The conference is open for all young researchers and academics, PhD or post-doctoral students with a research interest in women and/or environmental movements in Central and Eastern Europe.

NSPSPA will cover the transportation and accommodation costs for the participants from Central and Eastern European countries. However, participants from other regions will have to cover their own transportation and accommodation costs.
Additionally, all papers presented in the conference will be published as a book.

How to apply
Please send an abstract (no more than 300 words), and a brief Resume to ecofeminism@snspa.ro
Contact persons for Women’s movements and feminism: Ioana Vlad and Andreea Molocea (Research assistants). Contact person for environmental topics: Cristian Branea (Research assistant)
Should you have any further questions, you are welcome to contact us via email.

Important dates
Deadline for application (Abstracts): 14 December 2012. Notification of acceptance: 21 December 2012.
Deadline for full paper submission: 26 May 2013. Conference: 16-17 May 2013.

Informations from the event's facebook page.