The EU and Civil Society in the Georgian-Abkhaz Conflict
This paper deals with the role of the EU in supporting civil society in the case of the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict. It analyses the patterns of development of civil society actors that played a direct or indirect role in the development of the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict. In the case of Georgia the paper focuses on NGOs representing the interests of internally displaced persons and civil society players involved in promoting dialogue with the Abkhaz. In the case of Abkhazia, the paper focuses on the development of Abkhaz civil society, the relative strength of which is a mini-phenomenon in itself, as well as the Abkhaz approaches to dialogue with Georgia. The paper then outlines the main EU activities vis-a-vis the civil society actors on both sides of the conflict. The paper concludes that in the absence of strong EU political engagement in conflict-resolution, EU assistance to civil society could not prevent the re-escalation of the conflict and the radicalisation of the Abkhaz and Georgian societies. However EU assistance to civil society contributed to the (parallel and separate) strengthening of civil society on both sides of the conflict lines, which can be considered an achievement in itself, however modest.
Family-member migration and the psychosocial health outcomes of children in Moldova and Georgia
This dissertation examined the relationship between family-member migration and the psychosocial health of children remaining in the origin country. Using survey data collected in Moldova and Georgia, analyses revealed that child-migrant separation does not correspond to universally negative child emotional health outcomes. In Georgia, no form of family-member migration corresponded to unfavourable psychosocial health outcomes; in Moldova, only the migration of a father corresponded to worse outcomes, and only among boys. These results suggest that the potential impacts of migration on child psychosocial health are heterogeneous and shaped by factors such as the gender of the migrant and child.
Art and Value: Art’s Economic Exceptionalism in Classical, Neoclassical and Marxist Economics
Art and Value is the first comprehensive analysis of art's political economy to be found in classical, neoclassical and Marxist economics. It provides a critical-historical survey of the theories of art's economic exceptionalism, of art as a merit good, and of the theories of art's commodification, the culture industry and real subsumption. Through an exacting critique of mainstream and Marxist theories of art's economics, the book arrives at a new and highly original Marxist theory of art's economic exceptionalism.