Grzegorz Ekiert

Last updated

Grzegorz Ekiert is Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Government at Harvard University, former Director of Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (2012-2024), former Chair of undergraduate concentration in Social Studies (2000-2006) and Senior Scholar at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies. His teaching and research interests focus on comparative politics, regime change and democratization, civil society and social movements, and East European politics and societies.

Contents

Career

Ekiert is a native of Poland. He graduated with an MA in sociology from Uniwersytet Jagiellonski in Kraków in 1980. He completed his PhD in sociology at Harvard University in 1991. He was a lecturer in sociology at Uniwersytet Jagiellonski (1980–1984). Since 1991, he has been a member of the faculty at Harvard's Department of Government. He was Robert Schuman Fellow at the European University Institute (2020 and 2022), Resident Fellow in Metaforum Institute, University of Leuven, Belgium (2019), member of the Advisory Board Wissenschftszentrum Berlin fur Sozialforschung (2016-2024), External Examiner in Politics, Public Administration and Global Studies at University of Hong Kong (2012-2018), Jean Monet Fellow at the European University Institute (2001–2002), The 21st Century COE Program Fellow at Hokkaido University (2007), Fernand Braudel Senior Fellow at European University Institute (2009–2010) and a visiting fellow at Collegio Carlo Alberto (2010 and 2014).

Publications

He is the author of Ruling by Other Means: State-Mobilized Movements (co-edited with Elizabeth J. Perry and Yan Xiaojun (2020), The State Against Society: Political Crises and Their Aftermath in East Central Europe (1996), Rebellious Civil Society: Popular Protest and Democratic Consolidation in Poland, with (Jan Kubik 1999) that was awarded the Orbis Book prize by the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies and Capitalism and Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe: Assessing the Legacy of Communist Rule, (co-edited with Stephen Hanson 2003). He edited special issues of East European Politics and Societies on the EU Eastward Enlargement (with Jan Zielonka) 2003 and on Democracy in Postcommunist World (2007) and special issue of Taiwan Journal of Democracy (2012). Over 100 of his papers appeared in numerous social science journals in the US, Europe and Asia and in many edited volumes. He is a member of several advisory boards in social sciences research institutions and NGOs.

Ekiert is also Senior Faculty Associate at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Ukrainian Research Institute, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovations at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. He is also a member of the Club of Madrid Advisory Committee and funding member of the Concilium Civitas and Collegium Civitas in Warsaw, Poland.

Education

M.A. Jagiellonian University, Poland, Institute of Sociology (1980); M.A. Harvard University, Department of Sociology (1987); Ph.D. Harvard University, Department of Sociology (1991)

Research interests

Comparative politics, regime change and democratization, civil society, collective action and social movements, and East European politics and society.

Current projects

His current projects explore patterns of civil society development in new democracies in Central Europe and East Asia, the state of democracy in postcommunist world, the EU membership impact on post-communist democracies, and state mobilized contention in authoritarian and hybrid regimes.

Selected publications

Ruling by Other Means: State-Mobilized Movements, (co-editors Elizabeth J. Perry and Yan Xiaojun), Cambridge University Press 2020

Democracy and Authoritarianism in the Twenty-First Century,” in: Post-Pandemic Features: Sociology of Crisis Experience in Central and Eastern Europe, edited by Kaja Gadowska and Anna Giza, Brill Publishers 2024, 215-230.

Civil Society as a Threat do Democracy,” in: The Power of Populism and People, edited by Nathan Stoltzfus and Chris Osmar, Bloomsbury Academic, London 2021, pp, 53-71.

Civil Society Approach,” Handbook of Political, Social, and Economic Transformations, edited by Wolfgang Merkel, Raj Kollmorgen and Hans-Jurgen Wagener, Oxford University Press 2019, pp. 151-160

The Study of Protest Politics in Eastern and Central Europe in the Search of Theory (co-author Jan Kubik) in: Routledge Handbook of East European Politics, edited by Adam Fagan and Petr Kopecky, Routledge 2018, pp. 197-211.

Civil Society and Three Dimensions of Inequality in Post-1989 Poland (co-authors Jan Kubik and Michal Wenzel) Comparative Politics, Special Issue on Civil Society in an Era of Inequality, (April 2017) Vol. 49, No. 3, pp. 331-350

Capitalism and Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe: Assessing the Legacy of Communist Rule, (co-editor Stephen Hanson), Cambridge University Press, 2003

Rebellious Civil Society. Popular Protest and Democratic Consolidation in Poland, (co-author Jan Kubik, Rutgers University) University of Michigan Press 1999

The State Against Society: Political Crises and Their Aftermath in East Central Europe, Princeton University Press 1996

“Three Generations of Research on Post-Communist Politics – A Sketch,” in: East European Politics and Societies (May 2015) Vol. 29, No. 2, pp. 323–337.

“Myths and Realities of Civil Society,” (co-author Jan Kubik) Journal of Democracy (January 2014) Vol. 25, No. 1, pp. 46–58.

“Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe 100 years On,” (co-author Daniel Ziblatt) in: East European Politics and Societies (February 2013) Vol. 27, No. 1, pp. 88–105

“The End of Communism in Central and Eastern Europe: The Last Middle Class Revolution?” in: Political Power and Social Theory, Vol. 21, 2010, pp. 99–123.

“Dilemmas of Europeanization: Eastern and Central Europe after the EU Enlargement, Acta Slavica Iaponica 2008, vol. 25, pp. 1–28

“Democracy in Postcommunist World: An Unending Quest,” co-authors Jan Kubik and Milada Anna Vachudova), East European Politics and Societies, Vol. 21: 1, 2007, pp. 1–24.

"Introduction: Academic Boundaries and Path Dependencies Facing The EU's Eastward Enlargement," (co-author Jan Zielonka) special issue of East European Politics and Societies, 2003, pp. 2–19.

"The State after State Socialism: Poland in Comparative Perspective," in: The Nation-State in Question, edited by John Hall and John Ikenberry, Princeton University Press 2003, pp. 291–320.

"Contentious Politics in New Democracies: Hungary, the former East Germany, Poland and Slovakia," (co-author Jan Kubik), World Politics (July 1998) 50, 4, pp. 547–581

Notes

    Related Research Articles

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Barrington Moore Jr.</span> American sociologist (1913–2005)

    Barrington Moore Jr. was an American political sociologist, and the son of forester Barrington Moore.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Seymour Martin Lipset</span> American sociologist (1922–2006)

    Seymour Martin Lipset was an American sociologist and political scientist. His major work was in the fields of political sociology, trade union organization, social stratification, public opinion, and the sociology of intellectual life. He also wrote extensively about the conditions for democracy in comparative perspective. He was president of both the American Political Science Association (1979–1980) and the American Sociological Association (1992–1993). A socialist in his early life, Lipset later moved to the right, and was considered to be one of the first neoconservatives.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Tilly</span> American sociologist (1929–2008)

    Charles Tilly was an American sociologist, political scientist, and historian who wrote on the relationship between politics and society. He was a professor of history, sociology, and social science at the University of Michigan from 1969 to 1984 before becoming the Joseph L. Buttenwieser Professor of Social Science at Columbia University.

    Saïd Amir Arjomand is an Iranian-American scholar and Distinguished Service Professor of Sociology at Stony Brook University, Long Island, and Director of the Stony Brook Institute for Global Studies. He received his Ph.D. in 1980 from the University of Chicago.

    Alfred C. Stepan was an American political scientist specializing in comparative politics and Latin American politics. He was the Wallace S. Sayre Professor of Government at Columbia University, where he was also director of the Center for the Study of Democracy, Toleration and Religion. He is known for his comparative politics research on the military, state institutions, democratization, and democracy.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew A. Michta</span> American political scientist

    Andrew Alexander Michta is an American political scientist. He is Director and Senior Fellow of the Atlantic Council's Scowcroft Strategy Initiative. From 2016-2023 he was Dean of the College of International and Security Studies at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Germany. Previously he was Professor of National Security Affairs at the US Naval War College. He was also an affiliate of the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, an Adjunct Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies – Europe Program, and an adjunct political scientist at the RAND Corporation.

    Nayereh Esfahlani Tohidi is an Iranian-born American professor, researcher, and academic administrator. Tohidi is a professor emerita and former chair of gender and women’s studies, and the founding director of the Middle Eastern and Islamic studies at California State University, Northridge.

    Andrew Arato is a professor of Political and Social Theory in the Department of Sociology at The New School, best known for his influential book Civil Society and Political Theory, coauthored with Jean L. Cohen. He is also known for his work on critical theory and constitutions and was from 1994 to 2014 co-editor of the journal Constellations with Nancy Fraser and Nadia Urbinati.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Oleg Manaev</span> Belarusian sociologist

    Oleg Manaev is a well-known Belarusian sociologist and public person.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Tanja Börzel</span> German political scientist (born 1970)

    Tanja A. Börzel is a German political scientist. Her research and teaching focus on the fields of European Integration, Governance, and Diffusion. She is professor of Political Science at the Otto-Suhr-Institute of Political Science of Freie Universität Berlin, director of the Center for European Integration, and holder of the Jean Monnet Chair for European Integration from 2006 until 2009. Currently, she is department chair of the Otto-Suhr-Institute of Political Science.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Welfare in Poland</span> Overview of welfare in Poland

    Welfare in Poland is part of the social security system in Poland. It constitutes about 20% of government spending, and has been roughly stable in the past several decades. The Constitution of Poland states that all citizens have the right to social security in case of being unable to find a job, reaching the retirement age, or suffering from inability to work due to illness or disability. In detail, the law on welfare in Poland is covered by a 2003 law, updated several times, including in 2012.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Moha Ennaji</span>

    Moha Ennaji ; is a Moroccan linguist, author, political critic, and civil society activist. He is a university professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University at Fes, where he has worked for over 30 years. In addition to his publications in linguistics, he has written on language, education, migration, politics, and gender, and is the author or editor of over 20 books.

    Mark R. Thompson is an academic whose comparative politics research focuses on Southeast Asia, with particular interest in the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. He is currently studying autocratization and opposition to it, presidentialism, and dynastic leadership. He is chair professor of politics in the Department of Public and International Affairs at the City University of Hong Kong, where he is also director of the Southeast Asia Research Centre (SEARC).

    Raymond Taras is a Canadian political scientist. His interests include issues of Central and Eastern Europe and Russia, multiculturalism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, ethnic conflicts, and response to refugee crisis and immigration in the receiving countries. During the 2014–15 academic year Ray Taras was a Leverhulme Visiting Professor at the Centre for Migration Research, University of Sussex. In 2018-19 he is Fulbright Distinguished Chair at the Australian National University in Canberra.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Chan Kin-man</span> Hong Kong academic and activist (born 1959)

    Chan Kin-man is a former associate professor of Sociology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is one of the founders of the Occupy Central with Love and Peace campaign that strove for universal suffrage for the Hong Kong Chief Executive Election in 2017.

    Maria Renata Márkus was a Polish sociologist and philosopher. She was educated in philosophy at the Lomonosov University in Moscow from 1952 to 1957 and was awarded her master's degree in Poland in 1957. She moved to Hungary in 1957 and became a research fellow at the Institute of Philosophy of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and was a founding member of the Institute of Sociology at the Academy where she worked closely with András Hegedüs. In 2010, a Festschrift was published in her honour. The journal Thesis Eleven published an issue to commemorate her in 2019.

    Jan Pakulski is a Polish-born Australian sociologist.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Wojciech Sadurski</span> Polish/Australian constitutional law scholar

    Wojciech Sadurski is a Polish and Australian scholar of constitutional law. As of 2023, he is Challis Professor in Jurisprudence at the University of Sydney and Professor in the Centre for Europe in the University of Warsaw.

    Daniel Chirot is an American historian and writer on Russia. He is the Herbert J. Ellison Professor of Russian and Eurasian Studies at the University of Washington. Chirot is also the founder of the journal East European Politics and Societies, and has written and edited many books and articles.

    This is a select bibliography of English language books and journal articles about the history of Poland. A brief selection of English translations of primary sources is included. Book entries have references to journal articles and reviews about them when helpful. Additional bibliographies can be found in many of the book-length works listed below; see Further reading for several book and chapter-length bibliographies. The External links section contains entries for publicly available select bibliographies from universities and national libraries. This bibliography specifically excludes non-history related works and self-published books.

    References