Discussion “Sociology amid the Political Crisis in Belarus and the War in Ukraine”

1 June 2022, 15:00, ZOOM.

Participants: Aleh Alampiyeu, Henadz Korshunau, Aksana Shelest.

Moderators: Andrei Kazakevich, Aliaksei Lastouski.

To register for the discussion, please fill out the following form (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1-2TWNRNBc6_YlwUbIPOsNIlTMKzeMtLXU6VJ6JCwXb8/edit)
The discussion is being held as part of preparations for the jubilee 10th International Congress of Belarusian Studies and is included in a series of discussions on the state of the social sciences and humanities amid the political crisis in Belarus and the war in Ukraine.

In recent years, Belarus and Central and Eastern Europe have experienced revolutionary changes that have significantly increased interest in Belarusian studies and, at the same time, created new challenges.

Large-scale political protests, repression against activists and civil society, sanctions against Belarus, Russia’s war in Ukraine — the pace of change is astonishing and requires reflection, as well as a new level of responsibility.

This has also led to enormous demand for reliable sociological data, which has itself become a serious problem, mainly because of extremely strict state control in this area.

The discussion proposes to address the following issues:
– Even before autumn 2020, some experts and politicians argued that sociology in Belarus was impossible.

Is there still space for sociological surveys, and how can the “spiral of silence” and the “fear factor” be overcome?
– What new opportunities do online surveys provide, and how can sampling limitations be overcome?
– How should one treat surveys conducted by state services, and what has happened to the Institute of Sociology?
– If not surveys, then what?

What other research opportunities do Belarusian sociologists have?