Paul Blokker

is a postdoctoral fellow at the department of Sociology, University of Trento, Italy. In 2007-2008, he was a Marie Curie Post-Doctoral Fellow at the School of Social and Cultural Studies, University of Sussex. His current research is on constitutional crisis, constitutional anomy, and participatory constitutionalism in new member states of the EU. Recent publications include: Multiple Democracies in Europe. Political Culture in New Member States, Routledge 2009. Further details may be found on his website.

Articles

Confrontations with modernity

Openness and closure in the other Europe

Modernity in eastern Europe tends to be seen either as the partial opening up of a region characterized by traditional forms of societal self-understanding, or as a disfigured and radicalized adaptation of western modernity that prioritizes closure. Paul Blokker, in an article focusing on Czechoslovakia, Romania, Poland and Hungary, argues that both views need to be combined.