Governing Difference. A Challenge for New Democracies in Central and South Eastern European Countries

Governing Difference is a project within University of Vienna's research priority area European Integration and Southeastern/ Eastern Europe. We are interested in state mechanisms and legal regulations dealing with Otherness, with differences of gender, nationality, ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation. A focus of our project is devoted to the analysis of gender differences and here especially the legal provisions and political discourses concerning gender based violence. The project will realize a comparative analysis and look at the developments in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia and Bulgaria during the last two decades. We will examine under which circumstances law making processes take place in the chosen countries.

We are particularly interested to find out how NGOs and the EU influence legal changes and law making processes on the national level. We decided to look at the policy of protection from gender based violence because it is the area striking women's concerns most severely. We choose the comparative perspective to learn about impact and consequences as regards the European Integration:

(1) legal changes;
(2) NGOs' capacities and
(3) the development of feminist networks in the region.

Project management
Department of Political Science:
Birgit Sauer
Sieglinde Rosenberger

Department of Legal Philosophy, Law of Religion and Culture:
Elisabeth Holzleithner Jürgen Wallner

Research team
Maja Sticker (Slovenia)
Phone: +43-1-4277-494 50
Email: maja.sticker@univie.ac.at

Sanin Hasibović (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria)
Phone: +43-1-4277-494 48
Email: sanin.hasibovic@univie.ac.at

Manja Nickel (Croatia, Bulgaria)
Phone: +43-1-4277-494 51
Email: manja.nickel@univie.ac.at

Postal address & Fax

Faculty of Social Sciences
Department of Political Science
University of Vienna
Universitätsstraße 7, NIG
A-1010 Vienna, Austria
Fax: +43-1-4277-9477