photo: Isaac Smith
Expert Analytical Club session. VIDEO
The demand for sociology has increased during the Belarusian socio-political crisis as various actors perceive it as a way to understand the ongoing changes within the Belarusian society and possibly to influence these changes. Amidst the repressive Belarusian laws which de facto forbid opinion surveys by the traditional sociological institutions, many new surveys using various online methods have appeared (by People’s Voice, the Voice, Chatham House, Centre for Eastern Studies in Warsaw).
Earlier, the Belarusian regime got rid of the sociological service of the presidential Information-Analytical Centre when it founded the Belarusian Institute of Strategic Research (BISR). Now, however, the regime pays more attention to sociology as it announced a large-scale study before the ‘All-Belarusian People’s Assembly’.
Among the speakers on these issues were:
● Andrei Vardomatski - PhD in Sociology, founder and director of NOVAK laboratory;
● Oksana Shelest - PhD in Sociology, senior analyst at the Centre for European Transformation, head of Voice of the Streets project;
● Henadz Korshunau – former head of the Institute of Sociology of Belarus’ National Academy of Sciences, research associate of the faculty of the social sciences of the European Humanities University;
● Wojciech Konończuk - Deputy Director of the Center for Eastern Studies (OSW), Warsaw.
Watch VIDEO (Russian, English) available below
