Dr Stephen Whitefield and Professor Geoffrey Evans granted £1.2 million award

Dr Stephen Whitefield and Professor Geoffrey Evans have been granted a 1.2 million European Commission Sixth Framework Programme Award

Dr Stephen Whitefield (Project Coordinator) and Professor Geoffrey Evans have been granted a 1.2 million European Commission Sixth Framework Programme Award for their project, Social Inequality and Why it Matters for the Economic and Democratic Development of Europe and its Citizens: Post-Communist Central and Eastern Europe in Comparative Perspective.` They will be joined in their study by a distinguished group of partners in ten countries. The project started on 1 May 2006 and will run for three years. Elena Avetova will act as the Research and Project Officer and has already started work in the department. The project will also support a further research position in its later stages.

As its title implies, the focus of the research is on how social inequality matters to the attitudes and behaviours of individuals and their families and to the democratic and economic development of thirteen post-Communist Central and East European (CEE) states, where the extent and character of social inequality has been dramatically impacted by the transition from controlled economies to (variously successful) forms of markets and democracy. We are particularly concerned with understanding the character of social inequality in post-Communist conditions and its consequences for social cohesion and social conflict, social mobility, economic development, democratic consolidation and international integration. The research will proceed comparatively by examining differences within CEE states (including EU members, Associated States and International Cooperation target states in the FSU) and by looking at changes over time in the character and consequences of social inequality within Central and Eastern Europe. The study will draw on data collected by Stephen and Geoff since 1993 that will be supplemented by new surveys of public opinion, focus groups and an investigation of the stances taken by political parties in the region toward inequality.

The project will maintain a website (which should be up and running in the near future) to provide regularly updated information about our activities and outputs. Visit us soon at: http://eurequal.politics.ox.ac.uk.

Dr Stephen Whitefield is a CUF Lecturer in Politics and Rhodes Pelczynski Tutorial Fellow in Politics at Pembroke College. Some of his recent publications include, Mind the Representation Gap: Explaining Differences in Public Views of Representation in Post-Communist Democracies,` Comparative Political Studies, 40 (6), August 2006, forthcoming; Political Culture and Post-Communism (ed.), Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2005. Support for Foreign Ownership and Integration in Eastern Europe: Economic Interests, Ideological Commitments and Democratic Context (with Robert Rohrschneider),` Comparative Political Studies (2004), Russian Mass Attitudes Toward the Environment, 1993-2001,` Post-Soviet Affairs (2003), 19, 95-113, and Political Cleavages and Post-Communist Politics,` Annual Review of Political Science, 5, 2002, 181-200.

Professor Geoffrey Evans is Official Fellow in Politics, Nuffield College and Director of the Centre for Research Methods in the Social Sciences, DPIR. Some of his recent relevant publications include Endogenizing Social Trust: Democratization in East-Central Europe (with Natalia Letki),` British Journal of Political Science (2005), 35: 515-29, Social Capital and Political Disaffection in the New Post-Communist Democracies,` (with Natalia Letki) in Montero and Torcal eds, Disaffected Citizens: Social Capital, Institutions and Politics,` Routledge (2006), Explaining the Rise and Persistence of Class Voting in Postcommunist Russia, 1993-2001 (with Stephen Whitefield), Political Research Quarterly (2006), 59: 23-34, and The Social Bases of Political Divisions in Post-Communist Eastern Europe`, Annual Review of Sociology, 32 (2006).