Cultures of Indebtedness: Displacements of Value in Eastern Europe
New Europe College (NEC)
Bucharest, January 22-23, 2010

Friday, January 22

9.30-9.45         Welcome and opening remarks

9.45-10.35       Keynote address:

Jane GUYER, Johns Hopkins University, Department of Anthropology
Debt Economies, Cash Economies: Time, Debt-Discipline and Theories of Money

10.35-11:15     Discussions
                       
11.15-11.45     Coffee break

11.45-12.45     Panel 1: Debts and Moralities

Larisa JASAREVICI, University of Chicago
The Gift Market: Moral Economy of Debt Exchange in Bosnia

Mikołaj LEWICKI, Mateusz HALAWA, Warsaw University
Living with Debt in Contemporary Poland: Knowledge, (Un)certainty and the Temporality of Indebtedness

Daniel LĂŢEA, New Europe College
Deception as Method: Debt and Duty in Romania

12.45-13.15     Discussions (discussant: Keith HART)

13.15-14.45     Lunch break

14.45-15.35     Keynote address:

Barbara GRIMPE, University of Constance, Department of Sociology
Making National Economies Visible: Scopic Systems in Transnational Debt Management

15.35-16:15     Discussions

16.15-16.45     Coffee break

16.45-18.05     Panel 2: The Politics of Monetary Categories

Boris GUROV, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
Endogenous Risk in the Bulgarian Household Crediting System

Balázs VÁRADI, Central European University
Can Institutions Cure the Severe Propensity of a Country to Indebtedness? The Case of the             Hungarian Budget

Andreea MURARU, Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies
Sectoral and Historical Perspectives on Money Demand Developments

Mihaela Irène COSTELIAN, Université Montesquieu-Bordeaux IV
The Post-Communist Romanian Leader: A Model for Citizen Debt

18.05-18:45     Discussions (discussant: Alya GUSEVA)

Saturday, January 23

9.30-10.50       Panel 3: Cultural and Social Meanings of Money

Victor Alexandru STOICHIŢĂ, New Europe College
Singing the Bakchich: The Aesthetics of Prestige in the Practice of Gypsy Popular Musicians

Luciana AENĂSOAIE, University of Michigan
Old Friends, New Debt: Analyzing Banking Practices in Contemporary Romania

Ioana MACREA-TOMA, New Europe College
The Paradoxes of Indebting Culture: Privileges and Literary Practices in Communist Romania

Narcis TULBURE, University of Pittsburgh
Friends, Aquintances, Relatives: Life Insurance and Social Networks in Postsocialist Romania

10.50-11:30     Discussions (discussant: Barbara GRIMPE)

11.30-12.00     Coffee break

12.00-12.50     Keynote address:

Alya GUSEVA, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University
Complicated Birth: Emergence of Credit Card Markets in Postcommunism

12.50-13.30     Discussions

13.30-15.00     Lunch break

15.00-16.00     Panel 4: Money, Materiality and Value

Milena IAKIMOVA, Sofia University, Bulgaria
Urban Outlook of Indebtedness: On the Case of Sofia

Charlotte JOHNSON, Newcastle University
Materialising the Property Market in Belgrade: Practicing Post-Socialist     Entrepreneurialism     at a Time of ‘Global Economic Crisis’

Oana MATEESCU, University of Michigan
Flexible Numbers: Mathematics and Memory in Romanian Communal Forests

16.00-16-30     Discussions (discussant: Jane GUYER)

16.30-17.00     Coffee break

17.00-19.00     Concluding session, moderated by Keith HART, Goldsmiths College, University of                      London