Our starting premise is that in every cycle of important changes in these societies, in the course of time there comes about a specific intertwining of formal and informal institutions (which are defined in relation to formal institutions), which henceforth regulate social life jointly. We can, therefore, say that in the widest sense, the object of our study is social life which has come about as a result of this most recent merging of formal institutions created in the process of neo-liberal transition and European integration of Southeast European societies and of informal institutions shaped in part by cultural tradition, in part by experiences from the socialist period, and mostly by adjusting to, confronting, and evading the formal rules of the emerging game.<\/p>\n
Most of the papers in this book were presented at the international conference held in Skopje (Macedonia) in July 2013, organized by the Institute for Democracy \u201cSocietas Civilis\u201c and the Department of Political Science of the Iustinianus Primus Faculty of Law, Sts \u201cCyril and Methodius\u201d University. The conference was a part of the project \u201cResistance to Socio-Economic Changes in Western Balkan Societies. Testing Two Theories of Social Development\u201d, carried out by the Centre for Empirical Cultural Studies of South-East Europe (Serbia), Institute for Democracy \u201cSocietas Civilis\u201d Skopje (Macedonia), Social Research Kosova (Kosovo) and Centre for Social Research \u201cAnalitika\u201d(Bosnia-Herzegovina). This project was realized in 2012-2013 within the framework of the Regional Research Promotion Programme in the Western Balkans (RRPP), run by the University of Fribourg upon a mandate of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, SDC, Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. Following the conference, an open call for papers was put out to other authors who study the social, political, economic, legal, cultural, religious, demographic, educational, and media changes in the societies of Southeast Europe in the transition period.<\/p>\n
The full document can be found here:<\/p>\n