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This chapter reviews the theoretical literature about Europeanisation and argues the need for further analysis of post-Soviet Europeanisation. This chapter also connects post-Soviet Europeanisation to the notion of policy learning, which is introduced as a theoretical perspective. The chapter discusses the challenges around the definition of policy learning in relation to other policy processes such as transfer, translation and diffusion. Policy layering does not presuppose mutual exclusion between path-dependence and change, but rather the fruitful mutual development of both. It implies a gradual change of certain policy aspects and the retaining of others. The development of the links between path-dependence and change in layering is a highly messy process. Multiple actors participate in learning, and they create policy as they learn. There are no distinct stages of learning, and the line between policy-makers and practitioners is often blurred.

The difference between policy-making on the European level and the post-Soviet domestic context is significant. The literature about post-Soviet countries recognises the presence of a struggle between Europeanisation and post-Soviet legacies there. Europeanisation in this literature is presented as change; while the influence of the post-Soviet legacies is seen as an obstacle that hinders it. The policy learning concept is key here to frame Europeanisation in the post-Soviet context as an area of enquiry which may develop according to the logic of layering.

This chapter maps the landscape of previous research into the Bologna Process on the international and national scales. This literature shows that Bologna has internationalised higher education in post-Soviet countries, and the Bologna developments have been acknowledged in the literature to be a case of Europeanisation.

This chapter also points out a few major gaps in that research. One of them is the interconnected development of higher education actors and instruments from the perspective of the idea of layering that brings path-dependence and change in a dialogue. The research about Bologna in the national contexts focuses mainly on a more normative, evaluative side of the debate. Prior research on Bologna in post-Soviet countries and specifically in Ukraine also looks primarily at positive and negative effects of the reform on the country's higher education. There have been difficulties ‘fitting’ Bologna ideas into the established conventions in Ukraine. There have been also challenges with interpreting some action lines, such as the student-centred learning or quality assurance. These studies have mainly investigated the change of higher education policies, overlooking the exploration of the change in the system of higher education actors and their roles in the countries. The studies seem not to have placed enough emphasis on the process of the development of higher education actors and their relationships in Bologna. Neither have they looked in detail into the contribution of these actors to the development of the Bologna instruments.

The Bologna reform in the post-Soviet context, just like Europeanisation there, tends to be seen as the implementation of change which is hindered by some past conventions. In contrast, this study about Bologna in Ukraine rests on the idea of layering that brings path-dependence and change into a dialogue.

This is the introductory chapter of the book. This chapter explains the background and relevance of the topic of the book – the process of a national higher education reform in the post-Soviet space such as Ukraine until passing the Law about Higher Education in 2014, and the ways in which this story can inform our understanding of some aspects of the Europeanisation in the post-Soviet context. The Bologna reform is, arguably, one of the expressions of Europeanisation in post-Soviet countries that belong to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). The Bologna Process is an international policy project for the standardisation of higher education structures in the European Higher Education Area. It comprised 29 European countries at the start of the Bologna Process in 1999, and it started incorporating more states later, a lot of which were not part of the EU. Beside the overarching goal to create the EHEA, a number of concrete objectives, called the action lines, were identified, such as the adoption of a common system of credits and cycles of study process, the development of an easily readable diploma supplement issued to graduates, the promotion of student and faculty mobility and the assurance of higher education quality.

This chapter also presents methodological considerations associated with designing the research presented in this book, such as conducting interviews and identifying policy documents – and how thematic analysis was applied to these two types of data. The case of Ukraine is characterised as instrumental because, beside the contribution it makes to how we see the Bologna reform in Ukraine itself, this case study is important for understanding wider Europeanisation issues.

This is the final chapter of the book. It summarises the story in the book and explains the contribution it makes. This book contributes, first and foremost, to the body of literature that investigates Bologna specifically in Ukraine, as well as Bologna in the national contexts of the post-Soviet region more broadly. Crucially, the analysis of the reform process in Ukraine also gives some insight into the literature about wider Europeanisation processes in the post-Soviet context, particularly in the area of higher education and other policy fields. The Ukrainian case has demonstrated that Europeanisation is associated with change as much as it is associated with policy continuity. The pace of post-Soviet change might be related to the interplay of different groups of policy actors who have different motivations – following the past conventions or moving away from them. Change often existed only in discourse because of strongly rooted Soviet legacies of centralisation and established policies. Europeanisation then often served as an object of appropriation by central governing bodies for demonstrating in discourse to the public that change is underway.

The Bologna Process seems to have been widening the borders of Europe further to the east more than any other previous European policy initiative (e.g., the European Union, the European Neighbourhood Policy). Bologna might also be emerging as a source of a new joint image of Europeanisation in the EHEA. Unlike most of the previous initiatives that were focused around Europeanisation in the EU or around the EU, Bologna might become a tool for assimilating different spaces (such as the EU and the post-Soviet area) in their aims for Europeanisation in the future, while at present we may speculate that Europeanisation in the post-Soviet space may be a distinct phenomenon.

Since the collapse of the USSR, former Soviet republics have embarked on public service modernization, in most instances drawing on internationally dominant new public management (NPM) principles. Are post-Soviet republics ready for these administrative prescriptions? The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This paper discusses Kazakhstan’s experience with the implementation of NPM through a qualitative case study of the country’s adoption of the European Bologna higher education reforms.

While implementation of the NPM-inspired Bologna program has produced significant achievements, there are also gaps and shortcomings. These are due to a remnant Soviet administrative practices including strong control by educational ministries, as well as incompatible organizational cultures and a tendency toward superficial formalism in the implementation process.

NPM tends to be introduced in a top-down fashion as a taken-for-granted component of state transformation, without sufficient attention to the capacities, cultures and systems required for effective and accountable performance-driven administrative reform.

Kazakhstan’s experience provides crucial insights into the governance structures, professional cultures and managerial capacities required for successful implementation of NPM in post-Soviet states.

Over the past decades, Islamic finance has expanded its presence to many countries including Muslim-majority post-Soviet Central Asian and Transcaucasian region. Undoubtedly, this expansion has aroused keen interest among the representatives of a range of areas such as science, politics and business. The purpose of this paper is to describe the scope, the key players and the main investment strategies of the Islamic finance market based on the evidence obtained from Kyrgyzstan.

The main empirical corpus was formed from Bureau van Dijk’s databases (Zephyr and Orbis) and includes approximately 80 deals involving Shariah-compliant investments in Kyrgyzstan from 1991 to 2020. The initial corpus was then significantly expanded by means of content analysis of open media sources. Being still insufficient for deeper generalization, these data were further complemented by the analysis of an array of corporate information (press releases, presentations and financial reports) related to the identified deals. To ensure the credibility of the conclusions to be made on the nature of Islamic finance in Kyrgyzstan, the desk analysis was also complemented with field research using qualitative method of in-depth expert interviews.

This paper has shown that despite the yet modest market volumes represented by Islamic bank, Islamic windows, Islamic leasing company and microfinance companies, Islamic finance in Kyrgyz Republic has further growth prospects, which are associated with the arrival of large foreign Islamic banks that bring innovative financial products, the issuance of Islamic securities (sukuk) and launch of Islamic insurance (takaful). Being more open and consistent in the development of Islamic finance industry, the authorities of Kyrgyzstan understand the need for the initial development of the market by their own forces.

This paper is original and up-to-date, as it contains new and significant information. Suggesting a new approach to studying Islamic finance in post-Soviet area, this paper identifies the most active Islamic investors in Kyrgyzstan, classifies them, reveals their investment strategies and assesses the financial performance of Islamic investors as well as the total volume of Shariah-compliant capital in Kyrgyzstan. The findings of this paper can contribute to shaping policies toward Islamic finance in the post-Soviet region and, therefore, may be beneficial to the development of Islamic finance industry.

The low-cost carrier's model made remarkable gains across the globe in the prior decade, although growth was uneven domestically and intraregionally. Within this region, there are significant differences in overall country size, the size of the domestic aviation market, and the number of carriers serving the market. The largest and most developed market is in Russia, but rest of the region also experienced growth in economy airlines' activity as they discovered the power of the model to expand aviation access and lower costs. The success of low-cost carriers, however, has been halting and hampered by government decisions on foreign investment, ownership, and leasing. Still, some carriers have been able to grow and achieve gains over rivals. The recent Russian-Ukrainian war has further complicated the situation.

Over the past decades, Islamic finance has expanded its presence to many countries including post-Soviet region. The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate this phenomenon in Kazakhstan by adopting qualitative sociological approach. The study also aims to provide vital information and propose recommendations for market participants to contribute to the development of Islamic finance industry in Kazakhstan.

Primary data were gathered using the qualitative method of in-depth expert interviews with nine Islamic finance professionals representing Islamic banks, ijarah companies, funds and development institutions in Kazakhstan who occupy senior positions (directors, managers, heads of departments, etc.). Furthermore, the primary data of interviews were analyzed and processed using another qualitative method of cognitive mapping, the essence of which is to graphically display the concepts that are most often used by informants.

The study has shown that first there is a demand for Islamic finance among Kazakh business and population. At the same time, Muslims are not the only consumers of Islamic financial services; therefore, it is affordability rather than religiosity that is an important criterion for choosing Islamic finance. Second, murabaha and ijarah are the two most popular Islamic financial products in Kazakhstan, while equity-based instruments are hardly ever used. Third, Kazakhstan government policy toward Islamic finance received controversial assessments of experts: the state support is declared, but specific actions required by the market participants are not taken. Fourth, key factors that significantly limit the development of the Islamic finance market in Kazakhstan include a shortage of supply, which, in turn, is strongly associated with the second factor – limited funding of local Islamic finance institutions, the absence of insurance (or guaranteeing) system of investment accounts of the local Islamic banks, insufficient economy of scale, lack of convenient service and weak marketing policy of the existing Islamic banks and, finally, lack of educational programs.

The study reveals the potential development of Islamic finance in Kazakhstan which is a rarely studied topic. The findings and recommendations of this study can be used by the regulators, market players and policymakers of Islamic finance industry in Kazakhstan, post-Soviet and other Islamic finance-oriented countries.

This study offers new insights on the future of Islamic finance in Kazakhstan: in long term, the development will be determined by new financial technologies – Islamic FinTech, but in short term – by Islamic windows (currently not allowed by Central Bank) that will help to significantly expand the audience, increase awareness and demand for Islamic finance among local businesses and public. The current study is original, important and up-to-date, as it uses an approach that sources primary data in the form of experts’ point of view instead of relying on literature or document analysis. It is not a mere theoretical study of the literature but an empirical investigation of the problem. Moreover, it seeks to contribute to the Islamic finance literature in the post-Soviet region, particularly from the experts’ perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to explore relatively neglected side of corruption – citizen-initiated bribe offers – to identify the degree to which citizens on the grassroots level are ready to support top-down government anti-corruption policies.

Drawing on Avessalom Podvodny’s framework of modalities, this research analyzes the results of the nationally representative survey of 1,002 respondents, and ten in-depth interviews – both held in Azerbaijan. The author uses both logistic regression and qualitative description to highlight research inferences.

Modalities provide a new way of making sense of the factors affecting corruption, and informality. Bribe offers are associated with imbalance within Local-Global, Symbol-Content, Active-Passive pairs of modalities. All of the relevant independent variables (except for one), drawn from relevant theories and organized around modalities, are statistically significant in predicting bribe offers.

The paper is able to pose and answer fundamental policy questions: why villagers in Azerbaijan prefer to invest in building mosques and cemeteries rather than schools and kindergartens? Why insurance is not perceived as a sphere of business by the Azerbaijani population? On a practical level, the paper shows that governments’ selective focus on bureaucratic graft neglects formidable argument that the problem of corruption is tightly woven into political culture of a post-Soviet society. Simple administrative measures cannot overcome fundamental value orientations within a society.

The paper adds to corruption researchers’ toolkit, by expanding research to factors affecting citizen voluntary choices to bribe. The research shows what specific variables should be considered and which of them are statistically significant in explaining citizen choices.

This chapter seeks to provide insights into a hitherto neglected topic – that of gender segregation among those who have taken part in vocational education and training (VET). In spite of a growing body of work on the link between educational and occupational segregation by gender, relatively little attention has been given to the specific role played by VET in facilitating gender-specific occupational segregation. Using the European Social Survey (ESS) for 20 European countries and comparable macro data from different European sources, the study examines the extent to which cross-national differences in the gender-typical or atypical occupational allocation of vocational graduates aged 20–34 can be attributed to VET-specific institutional differences.

The findings are consistent with earlier research showing the protective role played by VET in reducing non-employment levels. The findings in relation to the gender-typing of work are somewhat surprising, as they indicate that VET system characteristics make relatively little difference to occupational outcomes among women, whether or not they have a VET qualification. Slightly stronger, but still modest, relationships are found between VET system characteristics and occupational outcomes for men. Male VET graduates are more likely to be in a male-typed job in systems with a higher proportion enrolled on vocational courses. In tracked systems, however, they also tend to be more likely to enter female-typed jobs. In systems where VET prepares people for a wider range of occupations, a VET qualification can act as a protective factor against non-employment, at least for men.