Lessons of Protest Wave in Europe

About this grant

The project goal is to better understand the causes and implications for civil society development of recent citizen protests, demonstrations, and discontent in Europe generally and, in particular, Central and Eastern Europe. To this end, the Bulgaria-based Centre for Liberal Strategies Foundation will coordinate an international team of experienced researchers and practitioners, who will reflect on the wave of massive, peaceful citizen protests that engulfed Europe in 2010-2013 and will assess the long-term effects of these protests on societies and nonprofit sectors in Europe. The project will focus on four countries — Bulgaria, Russia, Spain, and Turkey — where the experiences of recent, strong protest movements provide valuable parallels and contrasts for the researchers. The grantee will host three workshops, during which the key research questions will be debated. The discussions will be summarized in a final report, which will be widely publicized. Established in 1994, the grantee is an independent think tank whose mission is to carry out activities which promote public debate and exercise influence over decisionmaking processes. It is an internationally recognized source of expertise concerning issues of transition in the Central and Eastern Europe and Russia region and contributes actively to the European debate on political, economic, social, and foreign policy issues.