Summer Schools

Due to two last minute cancellations the School had 24 instead of 26 participants.

School Organisers and Staff

The School was organised by the Anglo-Serbian Society, Belgrade, The Centre for the Study of Democracy of the University of Westminster, London and the Heinrich Boell Foundation, Belgrade.

In academic terms the School was managed by its Director, Prof. Vukasin Pavlovic, Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Political Science, Belgrade. In organisational terms the School was managed by Dr. Slobodan Markovich, Executive Director of the School. Secretary of the School was Ms. Milica Bogdanovic.

Co-operation with the Heinrich Boell Foundation

This year the School was for the first time co-organised by the Heinrich Boell Foundation. In co-operation with this Foundation the School organised a two-day sub-seminar dealing with the problems of ethnicity in former Yugoslavia. Lecturers were from the University of Belgrade: Prof. Vojislav Stanovcic, Member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Prof. Vucina Vasovic and Prof. Vukasin Pavlovic, Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Political Science, Belgrade.

The Foundation has covered directly the costs of the School for the two days dedicated to the analysis of the ethnic conflicts in former Yugoslvia.

The School as a Regional (South-East European) Project

During the previous seven years the School has persistently endeavoured to gather prominent young specialists and activists from the region of South-East Europe. Even under very difficult political circumstances prior to the downfall of the regime of Slobodan Milosevic (in 1998, 1999 and 2000), the School was able to gather young specialists from the region.
Each summer school for democracy gathered up to 30 participants (up to 15 from Serbia and Montenegro, and the equal number from the region of South-East Europe). This means that during the previous seven years almost 100 young scholars and activists from the region and the equal number from Serbia and Montenegro participated in the project.

In this way the School has been able to create a network of young specialists dealing with the problems of democratisation of the region and to establish mutual links between them. A practical result of the School is that there are many web-groups created by School’s alumni enabling constant contact between scholars from the region. Alumni stay in touch and continue to co-operate and invite other alumni to the conferences that they organise.  

An important aspect of the School is that it serves as a forum where young scholars from the region can exchange their views and learn to view social problems through regional perspectives. In this way the School offers its contribution to the democratisation of the region and to overcoming national preconceptions and stereotypes. For this sole purpose afternoon workshops were introduced three years ago.

Publication of the Proceedings of the International Summer School for Democracy

The Anglo-Serbian Society plans to publish Proceedings of the Eight International Summer School No. 2 which will be dedicated mainly to the problems of identity in Europe and in the Balkans. The Proceedings willinclude papers or reflections of the Schools' lecturers related to this year's topic. Several participants who demonstrated very high motivation for this topic during afternoon workshop have also been asked to send their contributions. Deadline for submission of the articles is the end of December 2005 and the Proceedings are likely to be published in May 2006. The circulation will be in 600 copies (100 in hard back and 500 in paper back edition). Editors will be Prof. Vukasin Pavlovic, Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Political Science, Mr. Eric Becket Weaver, DPhil candidate at the University of Oxford, and Dr. Slobodan Markovich, Assistant Professor at the University of Belgrade.

School's Programme

The School lasted thirteen days of which ten were working days while one day was given for the consultation of groups. Sundays were free for participants. Each of the eleven days had three morning lectures (lasting one hour each) and an additional session dedicated to Afternoon Discussions.
Seven sessions of the Afternoon Discussion were held during the School. At these sessions country reports were presented dealing either with problems of particular ethnic groups/minorities in various Balkan countries or with current changing patterns of identity.   

Participants from the following countries prepared country profiles dealing with the changing patterns of identity in their countries: Romania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Albania, Serbia and Montenegro, the Hellenic Republic and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Participants from France and Germany enriched this debate with examples from their countries.

Lecturers at the School:

• Prof. Margaret Blunden, Centre for the Study of Democracy, London
• Prof. Christopher Coker, London School for Economics
• Dr. David Chandler, Centre for the Study of Democracy, London
• Amanda Machin, Centre for the Study of Democracy, London
• Dr. Slobodan Markovich, Institute for European Studies and FPS, Belgrade
• Prof. Vukasin Pavlovic, Vice-Dean at the Faculty of Political Science, Belgrade
• Prof. Milan Podunavac, Dean of the Faculty of Political Science, Belgrade
• Prof. Vojislav Stanovcic, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
• Dr. Georg Thurn, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin
• Prof. Vucina Vasovic, Faculty of Political Science, Belgrade

Afternoon Worshops’ Co-ordinators

• Prof. Vukasin Pavlovic, Vice-Dean at the Faculty of Political Science, Belgrade 
• Dr. Slobodan Markovich, Institute for European Studies and FPS, Belgrade

Reader

All the students were given prepared readings that included articles related to identity issues and debates. The reader was compiled by Mr. Eric Weaver, DPhil candidate at the University of Oxford.
Participants were also given a limited number of the Proceedings No. 1 of the School, entitled Challenges to New Democracies in the Balkans. Dr, Georg Thurn of Wissenschaftszentrum, Berlin supplied participants with various brochures of his Centre.
Students were also given brochures, notation materials and pencils.
The reader entitled “Identity and Cultures” included the following items:

• Bernard Williams, “Identity and Identities”, in Henry Harris (ed.), Identity (Oxford: Clarendon, 1995).
• Clifford Geertz, “Thick Description: Toward an interpretive theory of culture”, in Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures (New York, Basic Books, 1973).
• John C. Turner, “Social Identification and Psychological Group Formation”, in Henri Tajfel (ed.), The Social Dimension, vol 2 (Cambridge: CUP, 1984).
• Jean-Claude Deschamps, “The Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations and Categorical Differentiation”, in Henri Tajfel (ed.), The Social Dimension, vol 2 (Cambridge: CUP, 1984).
• Anthony D. Smith, “The Formation of National Identity”, in Henry Harris (ed.), Identity (Oxford: Clarendon, 1995).
• David Landes, “Culture Makes Almost All the Difference”, in Lawrence Harrison and Samuel P. Huntington (eds.), Culture Matters (New York: Basic Books, 2000).
• Arjun Appadurai, “Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy”, in Mike Featherstone (ed.), Global Culture: Nationalism, Globalization and Modernity (London: Sage, 1990).
• Ronald Inglehart, “Culture and Democracy”, in Lawrence Harrison and Samuel P. Huntington (eds.), Culture Matters (New York: Basic Books, 2000).
• Immanuel Wallerstein, “Culture as an Ideological Battleground of the Modern World-System”, in Mike Featherstone (ed.), Global Culture: Nationalism, Globalization and Modernity (London: Sage, 1990).
• Zygmunt Bauman, “From Pilgrim to Tourist – or a Short History of Identity”, in Stuart Hall and Paul Du Gay (eds.), Question of Cultural Identity (London: Sage, 1996).
• Wolfgang Welsch, “Transculturality: The puzzling form of cultures today”, in Mike Featherstone and Scott Lash (eds.), Spaces of Culture: City-nation-world (London: Sage, 1999).
• Derek Parfit, “The Unimportance of Identity”, in Henry Harris (ed.)., Identity (Oxford: Clarendon, 1995).
• Italo Calvino, “Cosmicomics”, in Italo Calvino, Cosmicomics, translated by William Weaver(New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1968).
• Christopher Coker, “The (De)Construction of Europe”, in Christopher Coker, Twilight of the West (Boulder Co.: Westview Press, 1998).

Special events

Outgoing Counsellor for Public Affairs of the US Embassy in Belgrade, Mr. Allen Docal, organised a cocktail party in Hotel Admiral Club, for the participants of the School on their arrival day, September 1, 2005. The  next day Mr. Docal delivered a lecture on his experiences during his diplomatic career in the Balkans.

On September 7, 2005, Mr. David McIlroy, Deputy Head of Mission and H.M. Consul-General of the UK to SaM, spoke on Euro-Atlantic Integrations and Britain and also about priorities of the British EU presidency. All the students received before the lecture of Mr. McIlroy promotional materials dedicated to the UK’s EU Presidency,

Special events

Outgoing Counsellor for Public Affairs of the US Embassy in Belgrade, Mr. Allen Docal, organised a cocktail party in Hotel Admiral Club, for the participants of the School on their arrival day, September 1, 2005. The  next day Mr. Docal delivered a lecture on his experiences during his diplomatic career in the Balkans.

On September 7, 2005, Mr. David McIlroy, Deputy Head of Mission and H.M. Consul-General of the UK to SaM, spoke on Euro-Atlantic Integrations and Britain and also about priorities of the British EU presidency. All the students received before the lecture of Mr. McIlroy promotional materials dedicated to the UK’s EU Presidency,

EVALUATION 2005

INTERNATIONAL SUMMER SCHOOL FOR DEMOCRACY

All the participants filled in questionnaires and evaluated all the lecturers according to five criteria: 1. Preparedness, 2. Clarity, 3. Inter-Activity, 4. Interest, 5. General Impression. Marks were between 1 (the lowest mark), and 5 (the highest mark).

General Impression
	Coker		4.90
	Markovich		4.90
	Pavlovic		4.76
	Blunden		4.61
	Chandler		4.43
	Stanovcic		4,19
	Podunavac		3.58
	Vasovic		3.48
	Machin		3.38
Preparedness
	Markovich		5.00
	Blunden		4,95
	Coker		4.95
	Pavlovic		4.67
	Podunavac		4.60
	Stanovcic		4.52
	Chandler		4.29
	Machin		3.90
	Vasovic		3.86
Clarity
		Markovich	5.00
		Coker	4.90
		Blunden	4.86
		Pavlovic	4.71
		Chandler	4.38
		Stanovcic	4.33
		Machin	3.57
		Vasovic	3.52
		Podunavac	3.05
Inter-Activity
		Pavlovic	5
		Coker	4.76
		Markovich	4.67
		Chandler	4.52
		Blunden	4.48
		Stanovcic	3.67
		Podunavac	3.10
		Vasovic	2.86
		Machin	2.71
Interest
		Coker	4.95
		Markovich	4.76
		Pavlovic	4.67
		Blunden	4.57
		Chandler	4.29
		Stanovcic	4.00
		Podunavac	3.70
		Machin	3.62
		Vasovic	3.19

The participants also evaluated afternoon discussions where participants presented problems of identities and national minorities in their native countries.

Afternoon discussions
Preparedness	4.29
Usefulness	4.26
General Impression	4.29

Comparison of the average marks for the last four summer schools demonstrates that the Summer School 2005 has achieved the best average of the compared four years in terms of clarity, interest and general impression, and the second best result in terms of preparedness of the lecturers. However, in terms of inter-activity it got the lowest average which means that this is the aspect that should be dedicated more attention in the preparation of the next summer school.

AVERAGE FOR ALL LECTURERS (including comparison with the previous three years)
	Budva 2005	Budva 2004	Budva 2003	Petrovac 2002
Preparedness	4.53	4.32	4.43	4.69
Usefulness/Clarity	4.31	4.17	4.12	4.26
Interactive Approach	3.97	4.04	4.19	4.50
Interest	4,20	4.20	4.15	4.10
General Impression	4.25	4.18	4.21	4.23

Organisation of the School has traditionally been one of the best evaluated aspects of the School and this year has demonstrated the same results. Food has also been evaluated rather well.

Accommodation has been the weakest point of this summer school. The Villas Avala, and Hotel Avala in general proved to be very bad accommodation for the participants. This year the average for the accommodation is the lowest in School’s history which means that finding a new and adequate hotel will be priority in the preparations of the next summer school.

	Petrovac 2002	Budva 2003	Budva 2004	Budva 2005
Organisation	4.46	4,57	4.85	4.76
Accommodation	4.31	3,38	3.47	2.67
Food	3.15	3,69	4.80	4.43

All participants were asked on whether they would recommend the school to other potential participants. Five replies were offered:

1. Would highly recommend
2. Would recommend
3. I am not sure
4. Would not recommend

Would not recommend at all