Flex Actors and Philanthropy in (Post)Conflict Arenas (presentation)

8/13/2019 Flex Actors and Philanthropy in (Post)Conflict Arenas (presentation)

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Paul StubbsEkonomski institut, Zagreb

FPZG, 13.02.2014.


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The author rejects the mainstreampolitical science conceptual apparatusand approaches what seems to be an oldand well-researched topic from arelatively rarely employed socio-anthropological perspective much betterpositioned to capture the complexgeometry of social practices andrelations operating in between, on theedge and across borders


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I like your analysis, since it is rich,historically accurate and a contribution tothe understanding of a specialphenomenon in the history offoundations. I am sure it will helpresearchers in the future.


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Already the first pages are full ofmisunderstandings, or even mistakes ...Can't read more, really. Sorry.


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! Ultra-nimble players in global governancearenas

! Personalize bureaucracy, privatize

information & juggle roles/ representations! Blur official and private roles! Mix ideological and material agendas! Facilitated by NPM-sub-contracting/ ICT/

Sparsely governed spaces! Often marked by performative truthiness

and rhetorical tactics


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1. The reproduction of neo-liberal hegemonyand/or governmentality

2. Hagiography heroic philanthropy3. Insider gossip

Using interview and documentary sources to explore divergent understandings and

interpretations in the mess of everyday micro-politics, new organisational forms,and interpersonal disagreements


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The prescriptions, practices, andinterventions of the Soros flexians in thepost-Yugoslav space cannot be reducedto a single imperative or motivation, buthave to be seen as themselvesgenerating, occupying andtransforming new and emergentspaces of power involving thepossibility of spaces of agency and ofpolitics


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! the break-up of Yugoslavia and the warsin the early 1990s;

! changes in Croatia and Serbia under(and after) Tu man and Milo ! evi in1999-2000;

! austerity, new movement activism, andthe crisis of the EU in the periphery andsemi-periphery.


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! 1968 -> Praxis -> UJDI -> OSI linkages andinterruptions

! High degree of autonomy to local Boards +Soros direct involvement in political issues

! Jazz structure improvisation andflexibility in rapidly changing environments

! High profile support for independentmedia

! Complex and changing relation to dominantregimes


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So-called Croatian patriots took money out of the country and wewent abroad to get money to bring in to Croatia. I remember in a

bank near Graz where I went a few times to get money and once Iwas in a line with then Prime Minister Mate ! a and from one bag hedeposited a lot of money and I took a similar amount back. And ofcourse it was a situation which was open to abuse. But the fact is thatthe standards for accounting for expenditure were completelydifferent. It would be like I would say Stubbs wants to do research onthis and that. He needs 5,000 USD and you would get it and youwould sign something. And lots of intellectuals did this. And they

made research that no one read, and that was that. We were all one family and we all knew each other. I give you, you give me and so on. And as far as I can estimate with most people it worked fine. All of itwas more or less with people giving their word


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! Intermestic flex nets donors NGOs anti-regime intellectuals new think tankpartnerships (Croatian Legal Centre)

! Slovakia Croatia Serbia Georgia Getout the vote campaigns (USAID)

! Global OSF policy as the new magic word!

New managerialism and fiscal discipline! New strategic partnerhips (UNDP, WorldBank, ...)


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The turn to policy, coinciding as it did with a turn to moreordered managerialist practices actually expanded the

political opportunity structures for the Open Society flexians. Emerging think tanks performed policy work which has beenwidely recognised to have been both materially well

rewarded and generally ineffective in terms of real change. In many ways the Foundations were key players in acontradictory intermestic modernisation project at onceemphasising the backwardness of the region, or at least its

political leadership, in relation to an imagined West and, at the same time, arguing that only domestic intellectual elites could

understand the context and translate the (universal) values of modernity into locally or nationally implementable schemes.


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in the Soros geography this East-West line ofthinking within Europe is becoming more and

more irrelevant and people are thinking more interms of North-South, core-periphery, periphery of

the periphery, creditor-debtor. It is moving towardsan understanding that on the socio-political level,there is this new energy developing, and that theorganisation is trying to engage with that in a

meaningful way. And how that will play out is aquestion mark, but this is something that is no longer just something that is being mentioned by a

few radicals but is becoming a principle


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! A shared critique of NGOization?! New left sensibility and new

partnerships? (HBS, Rosa Luxemburgstiftung, ...)

! More than a reworking of liberalism?! Legacy in radical cultural politics,

alternative social programmes?! Impact on narratives, actors and rights?! OSIFE ...


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! Into the archives and/or across the region?! Historical sociology of activism scripts

that develop during a time of formative social

action tend to be relatively resilient, even inthe face of changing political, institutionaland historical conditions

! Study of new flexible assemblages of

governance! New action research for new movements

and new times?

Flex Actors and Philanthropy in (Post)Conflict Arenas (presentation)

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