This program investigates the relationship between social and demographic change in Eastern Europe during the post-socialist transformation. In general, we are interested in how population dynamics interact with social transformation, and how they are interrelated with changes in the political, economic and cultural structures. While both the demographic dynamics of the region and the political changes have already been examined in details separately, relatively little work has been done connecting these changes in the post-socialist Eastern European context.

Although both the post-socialist transformation and the contemporary Eastern European population dynamics show certain common characteristics and patterns, their actual course is different in various Eastern European countries. Local characteristics, such as historic legacies, institutional variations, political and demographic regimes and other components alter the general social and population trends by which Eastern Europe slowly converges to the European mainstream. Accordingly, this working group has determined to study a number of Eastern European countries from a comparative perspective.

This program is built up from several independent research projects. Besides the particular projects, additional purposes of the program are to bring together demographers working on Eastern Europe, and to disseminate information about population dynamics in the region.

Past research projects

Suicide patterns in post-socialist Eastern Europe

Between cohabitation and marriage: First union formation in Hungary

Active projects

Aging in place in rural Romania and Bulgaria

Social and demographic impact of the Northern Transylvanian Highway Project in Romania

Romanian emigration and the dynamics of the Southeast European migration system

Projects in planning phase

Eastern European academic emigration patterns

General program activities

Disseminating information about social change and population dynamics in Eastern Europe. Under the resources section, there are articles and books written about population changes in Eastern Europe. There are also basic population data, and also a list of databases where researchers can find Eastern European statistics.

Developing and maintaining a research network of scholars working on the social demography of Eastern Europe, and creating a registry for related research projects.

Writing and distributing short research reports on various research projects hosted by this program, and publishing working papers on various topics related to the general program focus.