< Back to previous page

Project

From the Third to the Second World? Western European Social Movement and NGOs towards the opening of the East, 1988-1998

The end of the Cold War and the fall of state Socialism in Eastern Europe in 1989-1991 inspired a lot of reactions in Western European societies. More specifically, the opening of the East attracted hundreds of Western European NGOs, development workers, and experts to Central and Eastern Europe. This research project seeks to analyze how social movements and NGOs in Western Europe interacted with these dramatic and unforeseen changes in the 'other Europe', how they entered with internal competition into these new societies, and how they aimed to 'modernize' and 'develop' the region through development projects. It analyzes if and how they contributed to East-West contacts, capitalized on earlier collaboration, and embarked on new lines of exchange and cooperation. The project will focus on three internationally developed social movements that turned to post-communist Europe in the late 1980s and 1990s and focused on three important themes: labour, environment, and humanitarian aid. The activities of the social movements that are central in this project were not limited to exchanges between Western and Eastern Europe, but also involved global connections in real and imagined terms, especially with the Third World or Global South. In the previous decades and up until the late 1980s, organizations within these three social movement sectors devoted substantial attention to questions in the Third World that they now encountered in Europe’s 'Second World'. This research project will devote special attention to the entanglement between the so-called First, Second and Third World, aiming to contribute to the growing literature on a ‘global 1989’.

Date:25 Sep 2018 →  6 Apr 2021
Keywords:Eastern Europe, Social Movements, Aid
Disciplines:History, Archaeology, Theory and methodology of archaeology, Other history and archaeology, Theology and religious studies, Architectural engineering, Architecture, Interior architecture, Architectural design, Art studies and sciences, Soil sciences, challenges and pollution, Agriculture, land and farm management, Urban and regional design, development and planning, Anthropology, Language studies, Literary studies
Project type:PhD project