Central Europe Explained

Sarajevo's first rainbow march in 2019

Promoting empowerment, dignity and equality of the LGBTQIA* community, pride honours queer history.  

In 2019, Sarajevo celebrated its first rainbow march. Bosnia and Herzegovina was the last country in the Western Balkans to organise a parade but it gathered 3 000 participants and took place without violence. The event marked a turning point in the democratic path of the Balkan state. 

Why did it take so long for Sarajevo? Was the city ready for such an event? Have actual improvements been made for the LGBTQIA* community in Bosnia and Herzegovina?  

Emma Hontebeyrie (IDM) talks to Emina Bošnjak the Executive Director of the Sarajevo Open Center and Co-Chair of ILGA Europe.  

Our guest recommendation:  

Pojmovnik LGBT Kulture (Lexicon of Queer Culture), published by Sarajevo Open Center in 2012, is only available in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian. 

Neizgovoreno (Unspoken) (2016), a documentary constructed from relationships of several Bosnian gays, bisexuals and lesbians with their parents. Reach out to Emina Bošnjak at [email protected] for the download link. 

References mentioned in the program:  

Let There Be Colour (2020), a documentary directed by Ado Hasanovic about Sarajevo’s first rainbow march in 2019 

Guest: Emina Bošnjak is the Executive Director of the Sarajevo Open Center and Co-Chair of ILGA Europe. 

Host: Emma Hontebeyrie, Research Associate at IDM 

Production and editing: Emma Hontebeyrie, Research Associate at IDM 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When a crisis hits, schools are a safe space for children as a driver for hope and dreams.  

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, every school had to introduce remote learning.  And when the war hit Europe two years later, Ukrainian students and teachers had to adapt again.   

In times of war, classrooms remain a place where children find a sense of stability and process trauma. However, disparities have long existed regarding education. Depending on financial status, location and country of residence, not every child has access to schooling equally.      

How have Ukrainian pupils and teachers been adapting to both the pandemic and the war? 

Lana Chubakha, an English primary school teacher from Kyiv, shares her experience with Emma Honteberie (IDM). 

Our guest’s recommendation:  

The Harry Potter novel series by J.K Rowling and the Harry Potter film series.  

CEE - Central Europe Explained is a podcast series produced by the Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe, powered by Erste Group.     

Guest: Lana Chubakha, Primary English School Teacher and Founder of the volunteer project Pan Ravlenko. 

Host: Emma Hontebeyrie,  Research Associate IDM  

Production and editing: Emma Hontebeyrie, Research Associate IDM 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Four days after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed an official application for EU membership. Fast-tracking the application was discussed in certain circles, however such a procedure does not exist. Facing this impossibility, questions arose regarding the regional future of Ukraine and the recovery of the country after the war will finally end.   

Which challenges must we consider when it comes to Ukrainian accession to the EU? How can macro-regional strategies such as the EUSDR strengthen short-term perspective for regional future in post-war Ukraine?  

Sebastian Schäffer (IDM) and Nadija Afanasieva (UIIP), discuss amongst others these questions following their co-written policy paper about the European regional future of Ukraine. 

Our Policy Paper: 

A European (Regional) Future for Ukraine, Nadija Afanasieva and Sebastian Schäffer, April 2022. 

Our guest recommandations:  

Hey Hey Rise Up, Pink Floyd’s and Andriy Khlyvnyuk of Boombox, April 2022. 

CEE - Central Europe Explained is a podcast series produced by the Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe, powered by Erste Group.     

Guest: Nadija Afanasieva, Director of the Ukrainian Institute for International Politics (UIIP)

Host: Sebastian Schäffer, Managing Director IDM 

Production and editing: Emma Hontebeyrie, Research Associate IDM 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Covid-19 has been part of our everyday life for more than 2 years now. Although young people have been less threatened by Covid-19 in terms of physical well-being, they were more likely than older groups to experience financial and housing insecurity, unemployment and mental health problems. Now as states are trying to recover from the pandemic, we want to take a closer look at the role of young people in this process.

Are they spectators or stakeholders? Are their needs and voices included in national strategies and policy-making processes? 

Malwina Talik (IDM) discusses those questions with her guest Milena Stosic from the OSCE Mission to Serbia.  

Our guest recommandations:

The book: The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell

The painting: What Freedom! by Ilya Repin

Reference(s) mentioned in the program: 

Research Summary: The Influence of the Covid-19 Pandemic on the Life of Young People in Serbia - KOMS

European Council of Foreign Relations: Europe's Invisible Divides

Eurofound: Impact of Covid-19 on Young People in the EU 

LinkedIn Group: Fostering more inclusive societies: youth engagement in policies, processes and programmes 

CEE - Central Europe Explained is a podcast series produced by the Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe, powered by Erste Group.    

Guest: Milena Stosic from the OSCE Mission to Serbia - once a youth activist and representative, psychologist, #youthmainstreaming pioneer and feminist.

Host: Malwina Talik, Research Associate IDM   

Production and editing: Emma Hontebeyrie, Research Associate IDM 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“Ursula von der Leyen said very pointedly: This is our family. The Ukrainian people are the European family.”  

 According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, since the Russian invasion of Ukraine and by the end of march 2022, more than 4 million refugees have left the country while about 6 million people have been displaced internally within Ukraine.   

Europe is experiencing the largest mass migration crisis since the end of WWII, the first of its kind since the war in ex-Yugoslavia. A situation that is sadly not without precedent...  

Daniel Martinek (IDM) discusses with Almina Besic, Assistant Professor at the Department of International Management of Johannes Kepler University in Linz.    

Our guest recommendation:   

Located in Sarajevo and Kyiv, The War Childhood Museum exposes children's memories of contemporary conflict, post-conflict, and resettlement zones. With projects held in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Lebanon, Ukraine and the United States, the museum gives voice to current and former war children.  

CEE - Central Europe Explained is a podcast series produced by the Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe, powered by Erste Group.    

Guest: Almina Besic, Assistant Professor at the Department of International Management of Johannes Kepler University, Linz.  

Host: Daniel Martinek, Research Associate IDM    

Production and editing: Emma Hontebeyrie, Research Associate IDM  

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When presidents become TikTok stars, influencers report live from bomb shelters and photographers capture the unimaginable, we find ourselves in March 2022 and a war is raging in Europe.  

 Today, the power of images is a decisive factor in the development of wars.  During the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine their power is used by very different actors with various intentions. Spreading disinformation and manipulating visual media for propaganda is one of them. So is the need to inform people outside of Ukraine and call for awareness and empathy. Therefore, it is time to analyze the power of images and discuss the responsibilities that comes with their production, consumption and sharing. 

How do we handle images of war in Social Media, and how much reality can a photograph catch after all? 

Daniela Apaydin (IDM) talks to Daniela Ingruber, war researcher and media theorist at the Austrian Democracy Lab, University of Continuing Education Krems. 

Our guest recommendation: 

The works of the Hungarian-American war photographer Robert Capa, and from the German photojournalist Gerda Taro. 

Find more here: https://www.magnumphotos.com/photographer/robert-capa/ 

References mentioned in the program: 

One of the first modern war correspondent William Howard Russell. 

One of the first war photographer Roger Fenton. 

The Falling Man from Richard Drew, picture of a man falling from the World Trade Center during the 09/11 attacks in New York.

The French sociologist, philosopher and cultural theorist Jean Baudrillard. 

The song Taro, from English indie-rock band Alt-J. 

Guest: Dr. Daniela Ingruber is a war researcher and political philosopher, media theorist and a consulter for film productions and film festivals. She currently works at the University for Continuing Education Krems (UWK).

Host: Daniela Apaydin, Research Associate at IDM 

Production and editing: Emma Hontebeyrie, Research Associate at IDM 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Independent journalism is the backbone of every functioning democracy. Yet for the countries of the Western Balkan, the free spaces for reporting have been shrinking. Journalists often find themselves in a hostile atmosphere, often labelled by as traitors of the nation or as foreign agents. Resilient independent media is a precondition for the rising threats of disinformation and fake news.

How do we tackle the current deficiencies of the media system and public sphere in the region? What concrete measures improve resilience of independent journalists?  

Daniela Apaydin, research associate at the IDM, spoke with Hana Ćopić from the cross-border journalism network n-ost, about her experiences with capacity building in the Western Balkans. 

Our guest recommandation:

Local Journalism and European Perspectives's publications in English and in Bosnian/Croatian/Montenegrin/Serbian.

References mentioned in the program:

N-ost Cross-Boarder Playbook. 

CEE - Central Europe Explained is a podcast series produced by the Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe, powered by Erste Group.   

Guest: Hana Ćopić, Project Manager for “Local Journalism – European Perspectives”  a project co-organized by BIRN (Balkan Investigative Reporting Network) and n-ost

Host: Daniela Apaydin, Research Associate at IDM

Production and editing: Emma Hontebeyrie, Research Associate at IDM

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Every year Estonia saves more than 1400 years of working time and 2% of GDP. How? Through its digital public services. Until 1991, Estonia was a Soviet republic, but since regaining its independence, it has succeeded in becoming a “digital republic”: a frontrunner in digitalization in CEE and in the world.   

Since the pandemic hit, the demand for digital solutions have risen unprecedently. What can CEE and the EU learn from Estonia? Can this small Baltic country provide answers to the digital challenges that we are facing today?  And isn’t an e-state particularly vulnerable to cyber-attacks in the times of an increased hybrid warfare and cybercrime? Those are some of the topics that Malwina Talik (IDM) discusses with Erika Piirmets (E-Estonia Briefing Centre) 

Our guest recommandation: e-Estonia podcast: The Art of Digitalisation 

CEE - Central Europe Explained is a podcast series produced by the Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe, powered by Erste Group.    

Guest: Erika Piirmets, Digital Transformation Adviser at the e-Estonia Briefing Centre

Host: Malwina Talik, Research Associate IDM   

Production and editing: Emma Hontebeyrie, Research Associate IDM 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"The problem in the pandemic is that the individual has been so much highlighted that we have forgotten about society."   

The Covid-19 pandemic happened to be a fertile ground for nationalist and protectionist political forces. By bringing national politics to the forefront, European integration suffered fundamentally. With the restoration of nation-territorial borders as well as “vaccine nationalism”, the European nation-states have acted as active competitive managers in opposition to a coordinated inclusive pan-European approach.   

What were the reasons for this national individualism and can such policies be prevented in future crises? What consequences has the pandemic on the perception of European integration and which narratives have been strengthened within the societies across Europe?  

Daniel Martinek (IDM) discusses with Anna Durnová, Professor of Political Sociology at the Department of Sociology of the University of Vienna, whose research focus lies among others on the interface between expertise, culture and politics or social polarization in times of crisis.     

Artwork recommended by the guest: Camus, Albert, The Plague, Paris, Gallimard, 1947  

Read more on the sociological consequences of the pandemic or policy discourses in Czechia in Anna Durnová's articles. 

CEE - Central Europe Explained is a podcast series produced by the Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe, powered by Erste Group.    

Guest: Anna Durnová, Professor of Political Sociology at the Department of Sociology of the University of Vienna   

Host: Daniel Martinek, Research Associate IDM   

Production and editing: Emma Hontebeyrie, Research Associate IDM 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

" [The question] is now: how to finance, how to make a fair distribution, and how to prepare a system in a way which is resilient, that brings life quality and fairness to all of us." 

In 2019 the CAF2020 was launched, aiming to help and improve public sector organizations’ performances from a national to a local level. The CAF (Common Assessment Framework) is a total quality management model for self-assessment developed by the public sector for the public sector. Recently, it has been intended to strengthen the focus on digitization, agility, sustainability, innovation, collaboration (participation) and diversity.  

Can this model help in a financial recovery? Could it be the solution for alleviating the strain that has been put on public finances, especially on the local level since the start of the pandemic?  

Sebastian Schäffer (IDM) discusses this with Thomas Prorok, Managing Director of the KDZ-Centre for Public Administration Research and Head of the CAF Center.    

Artwork recommended by the guest: Houellebecq, Michel, Serotonin, Paris, Flammarion, 2019  

Find more about the CAF2020 here and KDZ-Centre for Public Administration Research here.  

CEE - Central Europe Explained is a podcast series produced by the Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe, powered by Erste Group.   

Guest: Thomas Prorok, Managing Director of the KDZ-Centre for Public Administration Research and Head of the CAF Center.    

Host: Sebastian Schäffer, Managing Director IDM  

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.