Henry Rammelt
Henry P. Rammelt holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Lyon and a M.A. from the University of Technology Dresden in political science and sociology. He is a research assistant at Science Po (Paris) and visiting professor at SNSPA Bucharest. During his Ph.D. he obtained two research fellowships (Romanian Academy and University of Bucharest) and one individual research grant (Romanian Cultural Institute). Currently, he is working in his second major EU funded European research projects at Sciences Po (Paris). He spent August 2015 through September 2017 researching youth resilience in times of crisis within the framework of the comparative European research project “LIVEWHAT —Living with Hard Times: How Citizens React to Economic Crises and Their Social and Political Consequences” (financed by the EU’s Seventh Framework Program for research, technological development and demonstration). Since August 2018, he has been working on the cross-national research project “EURYKA - Reinventing Democracy in Europe: Youth Doing Politics in Times of Increasing Inequalities” (financed under the EU’s Horizon 2020 program) on the impact of inequalities on youth political participation. His research is dedicated to societal transformations, political participation, social movements, and civil society (mainly Central and Eastern Europe). His latest book, Activistes Protestataires en Hongrie et Roumanie, was published by l’Harmattan (Paris) in 2018. He also is the co-director of the documentary film Portavoce – The Romanian Culture of Protest.
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Books by Henry Rammelt
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“This important book offers a detailed tapestry of protest and struggle in Central and Eastern Europe on issues ranging from the rights of women and minorities, the environment, social justice, and, above all, resistance to authoritarian drift and democratic backsliding. Essential reading for students of Central and Eastern Europe and of social movements.” (Mary Kaldor, Professor Emeritus of Global Governance, LSE)
“A compelling and exhaustive presentation of the most recent research on contentious politics in Central and Eastern Europe. An excellent cast of authors examine protest politics in the region. An indispensable source for every comparativist interested in the role of protest in politics, particularly in democratisation and de-democratisation.” (Jan Kubik, Distinguished Professor of Comparative Politics, Rutgers University)
“This comprehensive volume contributes to filling a wide gap in research. It analyses the role of protest movements in the power configurations of Central and Eastern Europe during the last three decades. Moreover, it sheds light on similarities and differences regarding challenges to democracy, socio-economic transformations, and conditions and effects of protest mobilisation.” (Dieter Rucht, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, WZB)
Abstract: In Eastern Europe the financial crisis of 2008 highlighted the gap between expectations concerning the new configuration of liberal and capitalist states on the one hand, and the social realities on the other. Waves of contention followed, which were provoked especially by austerity measures implemented by the respective governments. These were in their majority directed against the post-communist elites, which were held responsible for the perceived slow progress regarding economic performance and the democratization process in the years before. With the purpose of analyzing new forms of collective action and protests that appeared following this crisis, this dissertation analyzed, in a comparative manner, activist networks in Hungary and Romania between 2008 and 2014. The analysis of social movements is becoming a multicentric subfield of social sciences. Hence, the present study draws, on a diversity of analytical angles, not only stemming from approaches to investigate social movements and regime change, but also including additional theoretical avenues, in order to answer these main questions. Taking into account the transformation background of Romania and Hungary seems the appropriate perspective to understand recent mobilizations. For this purpose, this study analyzes processes of the accumulation of cognitive and relational social capital, shaping a new generation of activists. By doing so, the emphasis could be put on observing the effects of protests on subsequent mobilizations and the spillover/ interaction between activist networks over time. As a result, I was able to highlight the significance of protest-specific experiences for future mobilizations. Online social networks appear to play a key role in this dynamic in contemporary social movements, mainly through their capacity of generating a collective identity and transforming personal indignation into collective action. The nature and the intensity of this dynamic vary in the two countries. While I observed a growth of, what I called “recreational activism” in Romania, resulting from the concomitance of patterns of cultural consumption and civic involvement, a certain protest fatigue can be attested for the first years after the crisis in Hungary. Confronted with stable political configurations and a government that is widely supported by the electorate, movements contesting the power of Fidesz were not able to destabilize existing power structures in Hungary. Hence, this study shows that a longstanding culture of protest and of civic engagement does not necessarily lead, in different circumstances, to high levels of political activism of challengers to political power. Furthermore, the Romanian case suggests that rather the absence of such a culture, combined with a lack of precedent and experiences for both, engaged citizens and authorities can open spaces for renegotiating rules and provoke (lasting) political and cultural changes.
Keywords: Social Movements, Political Participation, Activism, Protests, Civil Society, Social Capital, Eastern Europe, Romania, Hungary
Papers by Henry Rammelt
Reviews
“This important book offers a detailed tapestry of protest and struggle in Central and Eastern Europe on issues ranging from the rights of women and minorities, the environment, social justice, and, above all, resistance to authoritarian drift and democratic backsliding. Essential reading for students of Central and Eastern Europe and of social movements.” (Mary Kaldor, Professor Emeritus of Global Governance, LSE)
“A compelling and exhaustive presentation of the most recent research on contentious politics in Central and Eastern Europe. An excellent cast of authors examine protest politics in the region. An indispensable source for every comparativist interested in the role of protest in politics, particularly in democratisation and de-democratisation.” (Jan Kubik, Distinguished Professor of Comparative Politics, Rutgers University)
“This comprehensive volume contributes to filling a wide gap in research. It analyses the role of protest movements in the power configurations of Central and Eastern Europe during the last three decades. Moreover, it sheds light on similarities and differences regarding challenges to democracy, socio-economic transformations, and conditions and effects of protest mobilisation.” (Dieter Rucht, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, WZB)
Abstract: In Eastern Europe the financial crisis of 2008 highlighted the gap between expectations concerning the new configuration of liberal and capitalist states on the one hand, and the social realities on the other. Waves of contention followed, which were provoked especially by austerity measures implemented by the respective governments. These were in their majority directed against the post-communist elites, which were held responsible for the perceived slow progress regarding economic performance and the democratization process in the years before. With the purpose of analyzing new forms of collective action and protests that appeared following this crisis, this dissertation analyzed, in a comparative manner, activist networks in Hungary and Romania between 2008 and 2014. The analysis of social movements is becoming a multicentric subfield of social sciences. Hence, the present study draws, on a diversity of analytical angles, not only stemming from approaches to investigate social movements and regime change, but also including additional theoretical avenues, in order to answer these main questions. Taking into account the transformation background of Romania and Hungary seems the appropriate perspective to understand recent mobilizations. For this purpose, this study analyzes processes of the accumulation of cognitive and relational social capital, shaping a new generation of activists. By doing so, the emphasis could be put on observing the effects of protests on subsequent mobilizations and the spillover/ interaction between activist networks over time. As a result, I was able to highlight the significance of protest-specific experiences for future mobilizations. Online social networks appear to play a key role in this dynamic in contemporary social movements, mainly through their capacity of generating a collective identity and transforming personal indignation into collective action. The nature and the intensity of this dynamic vary in the two countries. While I observed a growth of, what I called “recreational activism” in Romania, resulting from the concomitance of patterns of cultural consumption and civic involvement, a certain protest fatigue can be attested for the first years after the crisis in Hungary. Confronted with stable political configurations and a government that is widely supported by the electorate, movements contesting the power of Fidesz were not able to destabilize existing power structures in Hungary. Hence, this study shows that a longstanding culture of protest and of civic engagement does not necessarily lead, in different circumstances, to high levels of political activism of challengers to political power. Furthermore, the Romanian case suggests that rather the absence of such a culture, combined with a lack of precedent and experiences for both, engaged citizens and authorities can open spaces for renegotiating rules and provoke (lasting) political and cultural changes.
Keywords: Social Movements, Political Participation, Activism, Protests, Civil Society, Social Capital, Eastern Europe, Romania, Hungary
Keywords: Social Movements, Political Participation, Activism, Protests, Scene, Culture and Protest, Eastern Europe, Romania
An increasing number of studies dealing with democratic transitions in Eastern Europe, especially those dedicated to aspects of social capital and political culture, stress their comparative component. The newly democratic countries in this region, used as unit of analysis, are often treated as being monolithic blocks. Even though they are not as homogeneous as they appear, their regional diversity does not pass through the lenses of the majority of those comparative studies. Furthermore, the studies usually do not include considerations on social mobilization or social movements and their relationship to the regime change. The purpose of this article is, therefore, to analyze the impact of historical legacies on differences of social mobilization in post-communist Romania. Following reports on regional discrepancies – mainly concerning ethnic composition, distribution of indicators of social capital and political participation – this paper focuses on patterns of social mobilization in two regions, with a common communist, but a divergent pre-communist history – Transylvania, part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the rest of the country, part of the Ottoman Empire. Using two different time-series, monitoring protest activities throughout the two regions, we found relevant proof of dissimilar protest behavior within Romania.
Zusammenfassung:
Ein Großteil der wissenschaftlichen Beiträge über demokratische Transitionen in Osteuropa hat einen komparatistischen Charakter, handelt aber die einzelnen Staaten und die Region immer wieder als monolithische Blöcke ab. Eine Differenzierung mit Blick auf den Raum als auch auf die jeweiligen Staaten findet insbesondere bei Studien, die Aspekte politischer Kultur und sozialen Kapitals untersuchen, nur bedingt statt. Darüber hinaus fehlt es oftmals an einer disziplinübergreifenden Debatte über die Beziehung zwischen Regimewechsel und sozialer Mobilisierung. Die Absicht dieser Studie liegt darin, den Einfluss des historischen Erbes (‘historical legacy’) auf soziale Mobilisierung im post-kommunistischen Rumänien zu prüfen. Während regionale Unterschiede in Rumänien in zahlreichen Arbeiten untersucht wurden, hauptsächlich mit einem Fokus auf Aspekte sozialen Kapitals, ethnischer Zusammensetzung und/oder politischer Partizipation, bleibt soziale Mobilisierung unterbeleuchtet. Im vorliegenden Artikel werden, unter Zuhilfenahme zweier verschiedener post-1989 Zeitserien, zwei Regionen Rumäniens, mit unterschiedlicher prä-kommunistischer/imperialer Geschichte untersucht und regionale Differenzen, Muster sozialer Mobilisierung betreffend, sichtbar gemacht.