journal: Comparative Southeast European Studies

Open Access Published since September 30, 1952

Comparative Southeast European Studies

ISSN: 2701-8202

Editor-in-chief: Sabine Rutar

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About this journal

The quarterly Comparative Southeast European Studies (COMPSEES) evolved into its new format from that of its predecessor Südosteuropa. Journal of Politics and Society. From 2021 onwards, it is published both digitally, in Open Access, and in print, thereby becoming more easily accessible and even more visible internationally, not least in Southeastern Europe itself. Before long, a digital repository of Südosteuropa will be available to everyone.

Comparative Southeast European Studies will continue to be a forum for scholars in Political Science, Sociology, Contemporary History, Anthropology, Economics, International Relations, Law Studies, Gender Studies, Media Studies, Cultural Studies, and related disciplines. Taking a comparative and broad multidisciplinary perspective it will explore critical processes and societal issues related to　the area bounded by the eastern Adriatic, the eastern Mediterranean, and the Black Sea. We use two formats to showcase research. There are peer-reviewed research articles and a shorter format open to other text genres, which are presented under headings such as ‘Commentary’, ‘Interview’, ‘Background’, ‘Policy Analysis’, ‘Film in Focus’, ‘Debate’, ‘Spotlight’, ‘Book Symposium’, ‘The Making of...’, for example. This is a flexible section allowing us to address more immediately pertinent political, social, cultural, and academic matters. In addition, the Journal also features a book review section.

The new name Comparative Southeast European Studies is the logical next step in the Journal’s evolution. After it was founded in 1952, for more than half a century its predecessor Südosteuropa served as a well-established policy advice journal monitoring events in the region, before in 2007 taking a turn towards becoming a research-oriented multidisciplinary forum of the social sciences. Since 2014 the Journal has been published exclusively in English. We have continued to work towards improving its quality, including by addressing the citation indices relevant in the field, as they increase the pool of potential authors. A rigorous double-blind peer review regime has guided us while we have become more selective in what we publish. We prioritise work that is empirically and methodologically sound, well-written and jargon-free, thereby fostering interdisciplinary scholarly communication. We remain committed to broadening the range of the research we publish, while welcoming both emerging and established scholars to publish with us. Comparative Southeast European Studies strives to consolidate its reputation as one of the major area studies journals focusing on Southeastern Europe. We encourage transnational and entangled comparative perspectives, acknowledging that any ‘area’, any geographical construct, functions in its transareal, indeed global, relations.

We welcome both single manuscript submissions and proposals for guest-edited thematic sections. We look forward to working with you.

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Comparative Southeast European Studies is published by De Gruyter on behalf of © The Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies 2022

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Volume 71 Issue 1

March 2023

Publicly Available March 8, 2023

Frontmatter

Page range: i-v

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Tackling and Regulating Disasters

Open Access March 8, 2023

Tackling and Regulating Disasters. An Introduction

Elya Tzaneva

Page range: 1-11

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Abstract

Today, disasters of different kinds are inseparable from the lives of individuals and of communities. They thrust themselves into people’s existence and bring chaos to organised society, as they challenge, disrupt and change the typical patterns of relations between people and their environment, both natural and social. This subject is positioned in the relatively newly established scientific field of disaster anthropology. Taken together, the articles included have made extensive use of research material to show that human communities and their cultures are formed under the influence of the natural environment, the physical and mental characteristics of the people in them and, accordingly, of the social and economic development they themselves create. The articles examine various questions and subjects and allow comparison of the existing danger of disaster and the vulnerability of the groups affected by disaster, and consider the construction of their behavioural responses in managing disaster, and their relations at official, institutional and personal levels. There is consideration too of changes in the social environment, and of the effects of disasters on the political and economic development of the countries and communities in which they occur.

Open Access March 8, 2023

Local Reflections on the Chernobyl Disaster 35 Years Later: Peripheral Narratives from Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, and Bulgaria

Yelis Erolova, Yulia Tsyryapkina

Page range: 12-31

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Abstract

On 26 April 1986, the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Soviet Ukraine led to a massive disaster, the consequences of which affected millions of people in northern and eastern Europe. Today, 35 years later, we recall it not only as one of the greatest catastrophes in the history of nuclear power but also as one of the main political preconditions or factors that led to the end of the USSR. This paper presents the initial stage of a comparative study on the memories of this disastrous event among Ukrainians, Belarusians, Russians, and Bulgarians living on the periphery of the affected zone. The aim is to trace diverse aspects of public reflection in connection with people’s awareness and the degree to which they were affected, the reactions to the disaster, its effects and consequences, the preparedness of the population, and the latter’s assessment of post-disaster management.

Open Access March 8, 2023

Atomic Atlantis: Ethnography of Settled Villages

Tatyana V. Saveleva, Natalia B. Danilenko

Page range: 32-47

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Abstract

In 1957 there occurred a technological disaster in the Southern Urals in the form of a nuclear accident at the Mayak chemical plant in Ozersk, Soviet Union. The accident led to the resettlement of two historical centres of the first wave of the Russian colonization of the region, as the villages along the Techa river were declared restricted areas during the cleaning of the radiation trail, and their residents were resettled. As a result, the original culture of the villages was lost. The inspiration for our research is Alexey Mityunin, a local historian, enthusiast, and public activist, who collected a martyrology of the disappeared Ural villages. This paper presents the results of field expeditions to Brodokalmak carried out in 2014–2017 by students of the Miass Branch of Chelyabinsk State University, Russia. Brodokalmak is the village where the people resettled from contaminated lands Zamanikha, Boevka, and Muslyumovo live or lived.

Open Access March 8, 2023

Breaking the Carbon Lock-In Effect in Post-disaster Rebuilding: A Case Study of a Wenchuan Earthquake-Stricken City in China

Wei Jiang

Page range: 48-73

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Abstract

While post-disaster rebuilding is an urgent task for affected areas, an approach without consideration for climate protection will probably lead to another disaster of carbon lock-in. Therefore, policymaking and implementation are critically important. This paper takes the Guangyuan prefecture as a case study, where the local government took the lead in low-carbon initiative and made a great contribution to low-carbon development. Based on long-term field investigations and semi-structured interviews, using the theory of multi-level governance, it discusses policy formation and implementation in the Guangyuan prefecture, and how the governance system promoted an environment-and-climate-friendly rebuilding. The results demonstrate the urgency of carbon decoupling in post-disaster-rebuilding and the significance of an effective governance system. This provides insight to the contemporary world that post-disaster rebuilding is not only a revitalization of the affected areas, but a comprehensive undertaking to avoid other possible disasters and ensure a sustainable future.

Open Access March 8, 2023

Migration Strategies and Human-Made Disasters: Considering Tajik Migration Policy Initiatives in Tashkorgan from the Perspective of Disaster Anthropology

Tram Thi Phuong Nguyen

Page range: 74-95

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Abstract

This article examines the Pamiri Tajik population in China at the southwesternmost corner of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Prefecture and their struggles during numerous local natural and human-made disasters over the past decade. It explores, from the local point of view, the disaster recovery policies that function as a disguise for homogenization-oriented state-building initiatives. It examines how the local Tajik people have been reacting to and coping with natural disasters and the related relocation policy initiatives and how the disaster they are increasingly facing is the desecration of their homeland and the destruction of their traditional livelihood. The fieldwork findings reported are based on 12 years of fieldwork throughout Xinjiang, the Pamiri borderlands (both in the Pamiri region in Tajikistan and Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County in Xinjiang, China) as well as in the lowland relocation and sedentarization area in the Rabot resettlement township and the Tajik Abat resettlement township on the edge of the Taklimakan desert.

Open Access March 8, 2023

How Local Communities Overcome Disaster and Crisis

Mila Maeva

Page range: 96-118

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Abstract

The study considers disaster as a social phenomenon that affects individuals, communities, and societies. It focuses on a specific technological catastrophe—a train explosion in the village of Hitrino in Shumen region, Bulgaria, that killed seven, left 23 injured, and demolished 23 houses. The article describes and analyses the local community’s reactions based on fieldwork, i.e. ethnographic and sociological surveys conducted in 2018 to 2019. Attention is paid to the behaviour, management, and methods of coping with the short-term and long-term consequences of the disaster on individual, group, and institutional levels, as well as to the changes in social and ethnic relations. Hitrino is defined as a community in crisis in relation to the degree of its ability to develop a local strategy in advance, and due to the experience it accumulated. The study shows that disaster recovery strategies must include work with local communities which play a key role in reducing the negative impact of catastrophe.

Policy Analysis

Open Access March 8, 2023

Energy Security Challenges and Opportunities for the Country of Georgia

Norberto Pignatti

Page range: 119-133

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Abstract

Georgia is a small, open, developing economy, situated in a key geopolitical area at the crossroads between Europe and Asia, striving to achieve greater energy and national security. Achieving energy security, however, can be challenging for a country poorly endowed with fossil fuels and with limited interactions with broader international energy markets. Georgia, luckily, has the potential to dramatically increase its energy security in the coming decades by means of greater integration with its neighbours and European energy markets, and building on the current emphasis on (and support for) energy transition and decarbonisation initiatives to fight climate change, leveraging its endowment of renewable energy sources and its strategic location between Europe and Asia.

Book Reviews

Open Access March 8, 2023

Lea Ypi: Free: Coming of Age at the End of History / Margo Rejmer: Mud Sweeter than Honey. Voices of Communist Albania

Christian Voß

Page range: 134-137

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Open Access March 8, 2023

Hikmet Karčić: Torture, Humiliate, Kill. Inside the Bosnian Serb Camp System

Iva Vukušić

Page range: 138-140

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Open Access March 8, 2023

Carsten Stahn, Carmel Agius, Serge Brammertz and Colleen Rohan: Legacies of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia: A Multidisciplinary Approach

Mina Radončić

Page range: 141-144

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Open Access March 8, 2023

Danilo Mandić: Gangsters and Other Statesmen. Mafias, Separatists and Torn States in a Globalized World

Věra Stojarová

Page range: 145-146

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Volume 71 (2023)

Issue 1 Tackling and Regulating Disasters; Guest Editor: Elya Tzaneva

Volume 70 (2022)

Volume 69 (2021)

Volume 68 (2020)

Volume 67 (2019)

Volume 66 (2018)

Volume 65 (2017)

Volume 64 (2016)

Volume 63 (2015)

Volume 62 (2014)

Volume 61 (2013)

Volume 60 (2012)

Volume 59 (2011)

Volume 58 (2010)

Volume 57 (2009)

Volume 56 (2008)

Volume 55 (2007)

Volume 54 (2006)

Volume 53 (2005)

Volume 52 (2003)

Volume 51 (2002)

Volume 50 (2001)

Volume 49 (2000)

Volume 48 (1999)

Volume 47 (1998)

Volume 46 (1997)

Volume 45 (1996)

Issue 6-7

Volume 44 (1995)

Volume 43 (1994)

Volume 42 (1993)

Volume 41 (1992)

Volume 40 (1991)

Volume 39 (1990)

Volume 38 (1989)

Volume 37 (1988)

Volume 36 (1987)

Volume 35 (1986)

Volume 34 (1985)

Volume 33 (1984)

Volume 32 (1983)

Volume 31 (1982)

Volume 30 (1981)

Volume 29 (1980)

Volume 28 (1979)

Volume 27 (1978)

Volume 26 (1977)

Volume 25 (1976)

Volume 24 (1975)

Volume 23 (1974)

Volume 22 (1973)

Volume 21 (1972)

Volume 20 (1971)

Volume 19 (1970)

Volume 18 (1969)

Volume 17 (1968)

Volume 16 (1967)

Volume 15 (1966)

Volume 14 (1965)

Volume 13 (1964)

Volume 12 (1963)

Volume 11 (1962)

Volume 10 (1961)

Volume 9 (1960)

Volume 8 (1959)

Volume 7 (1958)

Volume 6 (1957)

Volume 4 (1955)

Volume 3 (1954)

Volume 2 (1953)

Volume 1 (1952)

CiteScore	0.6
Journal Citation Indicator	0.28

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Editorial

Editors

Sabine Rutar (Editor-in-Chief, Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies, Regensburg, Germany)
Ger Duijzings (Co-Editor, University of Regensburg, Germany)
Wim van Meurs (Co-Editor, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands)

Editorial Board

Heinz-Jürgen Axt (University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany), Dimitar Bechev (European Policy Institute, Sofia, Bulgaria), Florian Bieber (Centre for Southeast European Studies, Graz, Austria), Johanna Bockman (George Mason University, Fairfax/VA, USA), Xavier Bougarel (EHESS - CETOBAC, Paris), Ulf Brunnbauer (Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies, Regensburg, Germany), Marie-Janine Calic (Ludwig-Maximlians-University Munich, Germany), Nina Caspersen (University of York, Great Britain), András Inotai (Institute for World Economics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary), Stef Jansen (University of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina), Jürgen Jerger (University of Regensburg, Germany), Deema Kaneff (University of Birmingham, Great Britain), Petya Kabakchieva (Sofia University, Bulgaria), Denisa Kostovicova (London School of Economics and Political Science, London, Great Britain), Mladen Lazić (University of Belgrade, Serbia), Hartmut Lehmann (Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies, Regensburg, Germany), Joseph Marko (Karl-Franzens-University of Graz, Austria), Vjeran Pavlaković (University of Rijeka, Croatia), Marjan Petreski (University American College Skopje, North Macedonia), Nadège Ragaru (SciencesPo, Paris, France), Sabrina P. Ramet (Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway), Solveig Richter (University of Erfurt, Germany), Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers (Bournemouth University, Great Britain), Milica Uvalic (University of Perugia, Italy)

Published on behalf of the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies, Regensburg.

Editorial Office

Sabine Rutar (Managing Editor)
Olga Popova (Economics Editor)
Ivana Dinić (Assistant)

Email address of the Editorial Office: compsees@ios-regensburg.de

(Deutsch)

Print ISSN: 2701-8199
Type: Journal
Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter Oldenbourg
First published: September 30, 1952
Publication Frequency: 4 Issues per Year