Subject: enquiry about academic contacts
From: Bo Petersson (Bo.Petersson@svet.lu.se)
Date: Wed Apr 12 2000 - 05:17:39 EDT
Together with two other colleagues from Sweden (Dr. Catarina Kinnvall at
Lund University and Director of Studies Farid Abbaszadegan of Uppsala
University) I am planning to launch a research project, funded by the
Swedish International Development Agency on "Democratic development and
stability in multicultural states". We aim to focus specifically on
conditions in the Ferghana Valley, and would therefore need to identify
cooperation partners in universities within the Ferghana Valley area in all
three countries concerned. One particular field of interest concerns
traditional practices of local government, such as mahalla structures and
kinship-based patterns of influence. While these may not always be in
conformity with ideals of democracy as spelled out in Western textbooks, we
recognise that they may still have positive effects on societal stability
and performance. We also plan to study existing projects aimed at promoting
inter-ethnic dialogue in the Valley and to assess what factors may impede or
promote their successful realisation.
There are two major reasons for issuing this call for cooperation. First, we
would need to identify academic milieus where it would be possible to
arrange seminar-sized workshops on the above-mentioned problematique during
the first part of 2001. Secondly, we would need to hire staff to conduct
interviews with representatives of regional political elites during the
period 2001-2002.
If this sounds interesting to you, or if you can give us advice concerning
other colleagues of yours that might be interested, please write a message
to mailto:Bo.Petersson@svet.lu.se preferably not later than 18 April, 2000.
Best regards,
Associate Professor Bo Petersson
Dept of Political Science at Lund University
PO Box 52
SE-221 00 Lund
Sweden
mailto:Bo.Petersson@svet.lu.se
fax: +46-(0)46-2224006
phone: +46-(0)46-2220343
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