EEGA Colloquium: Erika Nagy – Municipal agency in a changing multilevel polity. Diverse pathways in Central and Eastern Europe

Within the framework of the EEGA colloquium EEGA fellow Erika Nagy (Research Area 3) is going to present her research project “Municipal agency in a changing multilevel polity. Diverse pathways in Central and Eastern Europe“.

The series of current crises, i.e. the financial and economic meltdown, the migration crisis, the pandemics and the war in Ukraine have undermined the pre-crises constellations of power, challenged institutional systems and also created possibilities for alternative narratives and agencies for development. Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) was hit by the above processes severely exhibiting the structural weaknesses of pre-crisis economic trajectories and the deficits of national institutional systems in managing the unfolding, spatially uneven social crises, and entailing substantial changes in the political arenas (e.g. the rise of populism) and the reorganisation of state power. This paper aims to grasp the above processes through a local lens, placing municipalities in the focus as the agents of place-based development which mobilise resources in times of shocks to cope with the unfolding crises in the local economy and society, as the manifestations of state power and its spatial organisation, and as the bodies representing the interests of local communities hence, a source of citizenship. The questions to be addressed:

(1) How did the subsequent crises (since 2008) impacted the position of municipalities in the multilevel polity in CEE?
(2) What did the spatial reorganization of state power entail to local agency shaping (changing/maintaining/recovering) local and regional development paths?
(3) Although, CEE countries took different paths in state devolution, could we identify processes and drivers of the spatial organisation of power which are rooted in the shared structural (semi-peripheral) position of CEE?

The paper rests on a comparative desk research on the municipal scope in development policies, the distribution of public funds, organisation public services, the legitimacy of local leadership moreover, on the political struggles shaping the variegated paths of de/re/municipalization in CEE, conducted at the IfL, Leipzig in October 2023-January 2024.

Date: 17 April 2024, 2.00-3.30 pm (CEST)

Venue: Online via ZOOM (please register here)

The meeting will take place online via ZOOM. Please register under the following link:https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAuf-GorD8rE9IBpc-2Tfq0GHrigvoAWsdg. After registration you will receive a confirmation email with information about your participation in the meeting.

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