| Twenty years after Lithuania achieved its independence from the Soviet Union, concerns about the nation's future are once again at the forefront of political discussions and everyday conversations. Lithuania, a peripheral member state of the European Union, is remote from its centers of power yet entangled in its political procedures and economic processes. Graffiti on some building walls in Vilnius may proclaim that "Soviet Union = European Union," but individuals remain puzzled about EU as a novel political entity and Lithuania's place within it. I argue that one important way in which EU operates is through "projects." I focus on a particular manifestation of this emergent mode of governmentality - projects targeting young people. Projects engender and sustain a variety of actors, such as grant-givers, organization directors, grant writers and social workers, who define their social roles through their participation in the system of project work. Youth-focused projects, financed by EU, state and foreign grant-giving institutions, endeavor to shape Lithuania's young people into modern "active" and tolerant citizens. However, projects that target particular social groups, such as "delinquents" or "Russian minorities," often help to bring these social positions into being. Far from producing active neoliberal citizens, projects frequently re-inscribe the very differences that they seek to eradicate, contributing to socio-economic and ethno-linguistic reproduction. Project effects cannot be reduced to reproduction, since social actors come to inhabit their new roles and adapt some of the narratives, categories, and methods of the grant-giving institutions into their own cultural frameworks. I argue that project-based governmentality radically differs from traditional policy articulation and implementation. In effect, EU and state institutions articulate social and political problems and outsource their solutions to local organization. Political economy of project work is particularly volatile since it is characterized by short-term initiatives, multiple grant-giving institutions, and shifting social priorities. In this emergent mode of governmentality narratives, backed by financial and social resources, constantly reshape the landscape of social and political action. |
