Joint Seminar of CASI and Sociology Department: "Promoting sustainable development through civil society: a case study on the EU engagement in Kyrgyzstan"

September 22, 2017

SPEAKER: Dr. Chiara Pierobon, University Magdeburg

Abstract: The lecture is focused on the contribution of the European Union in promoting sustainable development through the involvement of civil society in third countries. More specifically, it analyzes main features and outcomes of the projects that were carried out with the financial support of the EU in the framework of the thematic program Non-State Actors and Local Authorities in Development (NSA/LA) in Kyrgyzstan. The presentation investigates the main features of the projects conducted by EU-funded organizations by considering two major fields of operation of NSAs in the development process: i.e., as service providers and as advocates. Concrete examples are provided that describe the contribution of the EU-funded organizations and projects in, on the one hand, the provision of services in terms of fulfillment of basic needs, capacity building activities and support to community-level initiatives and, on the other hand, advocacy looking at the reforming vs. abolitionist approaches employed. In addition, the paper delves into the societal, political, and economic dynamics that were generated by the NSA/LA initiatives and evaluates their ability to produce change by considering the “Big-D” and “little-d” approaches to development. Drawing on the lessons learned in Kyrgyzstan, at the end of the lecture some recommendations are provided to improve the EU’s strategy to sustainable development when engaging with civil society in third countries.

BIO:

Dr. Chiara Pierobon is currently Visiting Professor at the University Magdeburg. In 2012, she completed a bi-national PhD program in sociology at Bielefeld University (Germany) and Trento University (Italy). In the past five years, she worked as post-doctoral researcher and project manager at the St. Petersburg / Bielefeld Center for German and European Studies (CGES/ZDES).

Between 2013 and 2016, Dr. Pierobon was manager of the collaborative research project "Exploring Patterns of Regional and Interregional Cooperation: Central Asia, its Neighboring Countries and Europe" funded by Volkswagen Foundation. Since 2017, Dr. Pierobon has been co-director of the research professionalization project entitled “Between Stability and Transformation: Regional and Transnational Cooperation in Central Asia and between Central Asia and Europe?” funded by Volkswagen Foundation.

Dr. Pierobon is former Visiting Scholar at University of California/Berkeley (USA), University of California/San Diego (USA), St. Petersburg State University (Russia), German Kazakh-University (Kazakhstan), and American University of Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan). In addition, in the past years, she was inter alia research intern at the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) in Nuremberg (Germany) and at the Delegation of the European Union in Astana (Kazakhstan).

Her research interests include: Civil Society Studies with emphasis on State-Civil Society Relations, Development and Social Capital; Evaluation of Development Cooperation in the field of Democracy, Human Rights and Good Governance; European and Post-Soviet Studies.

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