Succesful doctoral defense of Andrey Demidov

The thesis inquires into the logic and patterns of the contestation over the partnership principle for Structural Funds in the new member states. It departs form the observation of a multiplicity of actors' understandings and interpretations of this EU policy requirement and investigates how these interpretations are shaped and structured. To answer this question the thesis brings in the theoretical and methodological potential of the critical constructivist research on norms in international relations for the study of partnership.  The latter analyses contestation as the process of re/enactment of meanings-in-use and proposes cultural backgrounds as reservoirs of these meanings. This framework is adopted and adapted to the complex context of the partnership principle in the new member states by adding professional backgrounds  as alternative 'shapers' of actors' interpretations of partnership. Through interpretive engagement with actors' conceptualizations of partnership traced and analyzed during 90 interviews with representatives of three groups of actors (state officials, civil society organizations and economic and social partners) and across four groups of countries (Hungary, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia) the thesis concludes that 1) there is convergence of meanings of partnership across countries yet divergence across groups of actors which proves the role of professional backgrounds in structuring actors' understandings, 2) the diffusion pattern when both logics are at play is found in relation to the second group of actors, namely civil society organizations. The findings contribute to a number of on-going discussions about the logic of Europeanization, implementation of the EU policies in the member states as well as the role of European civil society in democratization of the EU.

Supervisor: Uwe Puetter
External examiner: Stijn Smismans (Cardiff University)
Internal examiner: Violetta Zentai

Chair: Marie-Pierre Granger

The defense was held on June 11, Wednesday

Congratulations, Dr. Demidov!