Thursday, May 13th, 2010
12:00pm – 1:00pm EST
Dr. Maciej Bartkowski, Senior Director for Education and Research at the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict presents on the long term impact of civil resistance after a nonviolent struggle ends and a democratic transition is launched. Does civil resistance create a long lasting effect on the society and politics? Do earlier practices of civil resistance have an impact on later processes of democratic transformation? How exactly is a propitious effect of civil resistance on democratization and democratic consolidation generated and visible in practice? What analytical tools can be used to study the residual impact of civil resistance?
All the above inquiries will direct our conversation to the very essence of what civil resistance is, what kind of social capital it might help to create, and how a long-lasting effect of civil resistance is evident in a concrete case of a major nonviolent struggle. Accordingly, the presentation will focus on civil resistance and the Solidarity movement in communist Poland. The talk will illustrate a residual effect of civil resistance-generated social capital on Polish society and politics in the immediate and long-term following the 1989 changes.