The Journal of Power Institutions in Post-Soviet Societies #9, December 2008
An electronic journal of social sciences
www.pipss.org
CALL FOR CONTRIBUTORS: “Relations between Russian & post-Soviet NGOs and the Power Ministries”
Pipss.org is a new electronic journal of social sciences devoted to the armed forces and power institutions of post-Soviet societies. Pipss.org is a multi-disciplinary journal, which addresses issues across a broad field of disciplines including sociology, anthropology, political science, psychology, economics, history, legal science. Its main objective is to study changes and their underlying mechanisms in post-Soviet republics, through the analysis of the institutions that remain most hidden from the public eye: armies and power institutions. As an electronic journal,
pipss.org also aims to promote scholarly debate across as broad an audience as possible, and make CIS research available to Western scholars. Thanks to its international scientific board drawn from a large pool of leading academics and experts in their respective fields, it is in a position to become a leading source of analysis on post-Soviet societies. Pipss.org is a principal partner of the International Security Network (www.isn.ethz. ch ) and a member of the CNRS/EHESS scientific journals network Revues.org.
NINTH ISSUE: “Relations between Russian & post-Soviet NGOs and the Power Ministries”
The aim of this issue is to shed new light on the relations between Russian & Post-Soviet NGOs and what are known as the “power ministries” – the Defence and Interior Ministries, the Ministry of Justice, etc. – in areas such as justice (prisons, prisoners, judiciary reform, etc), the police (police brutality, etc.), the army (violence, veterans and post-military service care, etc.) border checks (immigration, etc.) and others.
During the Soviet era there were no independent associations and the only independent reports concerning the power ministries came from dissidents, victims of their strategies. After the fall of the USSR, two concomitant changes occurred: the power administrations opened onto society, claiming “civil control” of the army, for example, (a theme very popular at the end of the 1980s), and many independent associations wishing to work in cooperation with the power ministries were created. Today, 20 years after Perestroika, what has become of these relations? How have they evolved? Our main interest is the empirical analysis of the actual content of the work of these associations, but also the interactions themselves between the NGOs
and the power ministries. These are two themes we would like to explore in this issue.
Another subject of interest will be the NGOs that were to varying degrees “encouraged” to be set up and whose work can thus be “oriented” by the
administrations themselves, in particular by reactivating the notion of “civil control” over the army or the police, for example, but also more generally over matters concerning human rights.
Pipss.org therefore requests researchers in the social sciences to submit articles and in-depth interviews of NGO members, as well as their partners in the power ministries (members of various administrations: heads of police, prison directors, for example), in particular concerning the work they do in common and on their attitude towards this cooperation.
The editor of this issue would be particularly interested in a comparison between the work of NGOs in the big cities and those in provincial cities (for example, a comparison of Moscow/St. Petersburg NGOs with provincial ones such as in Nizhni-Novgorod, Ekaterinburg, etc.) – in the sense that in theory, smaller associations have less latitude and lesser means than large ones.
The editor would very much appreciate an introductory article on NGOs’ work in Russia in general.
Articles and interviews can cover the following subjects (among others):
The question of NGO access to power ministries
As mentioned above, working conditions are becoming more difficult for NGOs, with attacks taking various forms. A new regulatory law came into force in April 2006 which imposes the re-registering of all existing Russian and international associations and the tightening of administrative controls. NGOs are therefore faced with an overall law in their regard, which is becoming tougher. What is the situation for NGOs working with the power ministries? Are they liable to suffer from this law more than associations not working in these areas? Or on the contrary, are they protected by the civil servants they frequent? We observe that if they are tenacious enough, NGOs manage to be registered and to exist. A number of western countries might envy their work, which depends on the maintenance of a sizeable
network of personal relations. As a result, one wonders whether the access or non access of NGOs to power ministries does or doesn’t reflect the policy of the Russian state towards associations.
Relations of NGOs with the administration: the nature of their ties / rethinking these ties
The activities carried out by independent NGOs with power ministries take on various forms (training seminars, distribution of publications, information exchanges, etc.). We will study the very different levels of cooperation put in place with the administrations concerned (prisons, armed forces, police, etc.). Rationales of approach, of circumvention and cooperation will be taken into account. The aim will be to compare discourse and practice and to see whether the success of these relations does or does not depend on interpersonal relations.
Analysis of NGO discourse concerning their role
What types of discourse do NGOs produce concerning their activities? How do they define their practical aims, the relationship between those aims and the overall values they defend? What vision do they promote of their impact on political change? What are the possible conflicts between NGOs? Are they due to ideological differences, differences of approach, interpersonal rivalries? Does the past play a role in the legitimation of NGOs? How does the reference to modes of protest that appeared at the end of the Soviet period operate? Is reference to the past reflected in the presence of witnesses and actors, in the expression of an anti-establishment tradition, in specific modes of action, a specific reading of the political context?
Who are considered to be the founding fathers? Or on the contrary, is there a rejection of this period, is it simply brushed aside as something simply “comical”?
Transnational links
What kind of links exists between Russian and international NGOs in the field of cooperation with Russian power ministries? To what extent does the specificity of such cooperation give rise to tension with foreign partners? How do the subsidiaries of transnational NGOs function, and how do they adapt global aims to the reality of a specific context? How do we characterize the interactions between Russian NGOs linked to transnational ones, and Russian NGOs without these contacts: cooperation / conflict, equality / hierarchy?
Reasons behind power ministries’ cooperation with NGOs
We will also explore the reasons why representatives of the power ministries cooperate with local and international NGOs (trips abroad, modernity, chances of promotion?)
Institutional forms of cooperation with the power ministries
Finally, we will look at attempts on the part of the state to put in place institutionalized forms of cooperation with power ministries, with the creation of social platforms, the social chamber (Obshchestvennaia Palata), the reactivation of pro-governmental associations replacing “transmission belts” between the power ministries and society (GONGOs such as the Council of Soldiers’ Parents). We will analyze to what extent these new governmental institutions use Soviet practices and to what extent they modernize them.
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Guidelines for article submission
The journal will be published in four languages (French, English, Russian, and German with a 100-word abstract in English) thanks to which most authors will be able to write in their mother tongue. This will ensure greater precision in the articles and avoid a decrease in scientific quality. But we draw your attention to the fact that most pipss.org readers are essentially English speakers, therefore we do encourage articles in English in order to reach an audience as broad as possible.
The articles submitted to pipss.org for publication should be original contributions and should not be under consideration for any other publication at the same time. Manuscripts should be attached as Microsoft Word format. References should be given in footnotes. (For more details about the guidelines for article submission please check www.pipss.org or contact the Editorial Board). There should be a cover page stating the author's background and affiliation, full address.
If you wish to submit an article, please first contact the editorial board and send a 100-word abstract in English. The deadline for article submission is June 15, 2008, with publication in December 2008. Final decisions on publication will be made by the Editorial Board.
Please send your contributions or inquiries to:
Elisabeth Sieca-Kozlowski, Chief Editor, contact@pipss. org
Elisabeth Sieca-Kozlowski (9th Issue Editor)
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Papers dealing with other issues related to armies and power institutions in
the CIS, as well as book review proposals are also welcome.
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REVIEWS
Publishers interested in publicizing their editions, please send review
copies to:
Elisabeth Sieca-Kozlowski
15 rue Charlot
75003 Paris, France
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Elisabeth Sieca-Kozlowski
Chief Editor
The Journal of Power Institutions in Post-Soviet Societies
www.pipss.org
contact@pipss. org
Editorial Board: Eden Cole, Anna Colin Lebedev, Françoise Dauce, Gilles Favarel-Garrigues, Anne Le Huerou, Erica Marat, Laurent Rucker, Elisabeth Sieca-Kozlowski, Joris Van Bladel
Scientific Board: Adrian Beck (UK), Alexander Belkin (Russia), Frederic Charillon (France), Stephen Cimbala (USA), Julian Cooper (UK), Roger Mc Dermott (UK), Isabelle Facon (France), Mark Galeotti (UK), Aleksandr Gol'ts (Russia), Dale Herspring (USA), Philippe Manigart (Belgium), Kimberly Zisk Marten (USA), Michael Orr (UK), Michael Parrish (USA), Nikolay Petrov (Russia), Eduard Ponarin (Russia), Jean-Christophe Romer (France), Jacques Sapir (France), Manfred Sapper (Germany), Louise Shelley (USA), Richard Staar (USA), Brian Taylor (USA), Mikhail Tsypkin (USA), Stephen Webber (UK), Elena Zdravomyslova (Russia).
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