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Report 2006

The Annual Report of the WG "Transformations in the World System - Comparative Studies in Development" (2006)

The total number of the active WG participants is 17, including 14 formal members of EADI, six of them representing their institutions.
The 2005 General Conference gave a good opportunity to attract new participants and to consolidate the WG. Three new participants joined the WG, and two members left it (one institutional member - the Centre for Studies of Post-industrial Societies, Moscow, and one individual member, Katharina Müller, Germany, on reason of change of the research field). At the same time, such prominent scholars as Prof. Kunibert Raffer (University of Vienna) and Prof. Pablo Bustelo (Royal Institute of International Relations and University Complutense, Madrid) have expressed desire to join the Working Group.
The current list of the WG participants is the following:

Convener:

Victor Krasilshchikov (Krassilchtchikov)
Centre for Development Studies
Institute of World Economy and International Relations (Russian Academy of Sciences)
23, Profsoyuznaya str., Moscow GSP-7, 117997
Russia
Phone: (+7)-(495)-1208232
Fax: (+7)-(495)-1206575
E-mail: f1victor(AT)mtu-net.ru or victor_ias2004(AT)yahoo.co.in

Imre Levai
Institute for Political Science (Hungarian Academy of Sciences)
PF 694/115
1399 Budapest
Hungary
Phone: (36)-(1)-2246732
Fax: (36)-(1)-2246733
E-mail: hl3695lev(AT)ella.hu or levai(AT)mtapti.hu

The main efforts of the conveners were aimed at organising two workshops

1. "EU - India: The problems of strategic partnership and its significance for transformations in the world system";
2. "The East Asian 'Tigers' in the World: Ten Years after the Crisis"

The former workshop was previously projected to be held in Schengen and to be hosted by the Institute of European and International Studies (Luxembourg) with participation of Indian scholars (including Dr. Dasgupta, former Indian ambassador to the EU). However, after five months negotiations, Dr. A. Clesse, director of the above mentioned institute, had to give up organising the workshop because of financial difficulties. Efforts aimed at organising the latter ("East Asian") workshop are maintained.
As regards the academic issues, the activity of WG members was mainly focused on the following problems:
Position of developing and East/Central European countries in the world system, particularly, under the conditions of globalisation (B. Despiney, I. Lévai);

• Regional development in Eastern Europe and its prospects after EU enlargement (S. Bukowski, B. Despiney) (in particular, B.

• Despiney focuses on the Polish agricultural development);

• Cycles of modernisation, 'modernisation trap' and drift of some countries towards the world periphery with focus on Eastern Europe (A. Komlosy), East and Southeast Asia after the 1997 crisis (V. Krasilshchikov). A. Tausch proposed to apply the conception of associated-dependent development by Cardoso and Faletto to analysing the EU as a whole;

• Global instability and its humanitarian/social aspects (J. D. Schmidt), the rise of new forms of civil society in the conditions of globalisation (O. Castel);

• The problems of East Asia (including China) in the recent period, financial as well organisational restructuring of economies in China and South Korea, relations between EU and East Asian countries (P. Bustelo);

• The problem of the poor countries' indebtedness, financial globalisation, financial instruments to reach the millennium development goals (K. Raffer).

Simultaneously, some training courses proceeded by several WG members over the ultimate academic year could be considered as contribution to EADI 'development courses cellar'. These are, namely, a seminary course on "Mainstream ('Dogmengeschichte') economics and practical problems of development policy" and a lecture course on "Internal development blocked" by K. Raffer and also a lecture course by V. Krasilshchikov on "The rise and decline of catching up development" (delivered at the University of Vienna in framework of Erasmus Mundus programme).
The enlightening activity of the WG has started this year. In particular, three papers by the WG and EADI members are translated in Russian for publication in the "World Economy and International Relations" journal that has been published in Moscow and widespread in East European and the CIS countries, former republics of the USSR. These are papers by L. Rebmann (about ALCA in Latin America), by A. Tausch (about the EU from the point of view of Cardoso-Faletto conception), and by A. Komlosy (about the modernisation cycles in Eastern Europe). The first two papers will be published in December 2006 and February 2007, respectively, and the paper by Komlosy will be published later. Their publication will enable CIS scholars (who are obliged to exist in the conditions of an 'intellectual vacuum') to be informed about some important tendencies and achievements of development studies.

Prospects and tasks of the working group

1. Prospectively (we speak about the term of three-four years), our WG would be capable to proceed a series of seminars on the large developing regions with focus on each region's development in the context of the world system evolution. For example, it would be relevant to consider opportunities to proceed the following workshops:

   • EU - China: rivalry and collaboration in the world system;
   • Latin America in the world system: two decades of modernisation or two lost decades?
   • Eastern Europe and the CIS: the rise of new periphery?
   • Africa in the world: the continent left out of development?

   However, a realisation of these plans will be possible only after the two above mentioned workshops will have been held.

2. It seems relevant to divide the WG into sub-groups, specialising in particular regions with reference to the general global context.

On behalf of the Working Group,
Victor Krasilshchikov, Imre Lévai, conveners.

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