Vesna Malenica, Head of Research from think tank Populari participated in the first Regional School of Policy Analysis organized by Gong Research Center in Zadar, Croatia, between 29 September and 4 October 2013. The lectures and workshops addressed interpretive policy analysis, different research strategies and specific methodologies for the analysis of texts, narratives and the entire policy and political discourse. Particular attention was focused on the analysis of media texts and the ways in which we could detect and analyze both (seemingly apolitical) technocratic discourses and their opposites, which are increasingly more widespread, populist, with a large mobilization potential. The participants were organizations of the civil society engaged in the advocacy in…

On August 23, 2013, ACIPS (Association Alumni of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Studies) organised a presentation and discussion about Civil Society Organization Sustainability Index (CSOSI) for Bosnia and Herzegovina for 2012, which was attended by Populari’s representatives, Aldijana Okerić intern and Katarina Cvikl, researcher. The presentation and discussion were led by Anes Makul, President of ACIPS, Darko Brkan, President of Citizens’ Association ‘Zašto ne?‘ and Damir Banović, Executive Director of Center for Political Studies. The Index represents a mechanism used by USAID to follow the progress of civil society organizations’ sustainability in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and Eurasia. During this presentation Anes Makul outlined some of the focal issues…

Alida Vračić, Populari’s executive director participated at the Expert Meeting “Civil Society and State in the Process of Social Transformation” held on January 19-20, 2009 in Zagreb, Croatia. The objective of the project entitled „Civil Society and State in the Process of Social Transformation” of the International Centre for Democratic Transition is to measure the relations between state and civil sphere in two regions: Central and Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans. As a first event of this project, ICDT organised a two-day expert meeting, co-ordinated by István Sebestyén and Péter Nizák, Hungarian civil society experts. The aim of this event was to analyse the relationship between state and the civil sphere in…