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(Cyber) Bullying by Faceless Bureaucracy in Research Funding: A Case Study from the Balkans (extended version)

The paper presents first findings on the phenomenology and aetiology of (cyber) bullying by faceless bureaucracy in the domain of public research funding in Croatia. It presents a criminological case study on (cyber) bullying by faceless bureaucracy. The case study itself follows two lines of research. First, it deals with the issue of capturing and measuring cyber bullying by faceless bureaucracy in the sector of public research funding, termed “bureaucratic cybullying”, while presenting findings from an exploratory victimisation survey conducted among project managers whose research is (co)founded by the Croatian Science Foundation. Second, the case study provides a first analytical overview of the survey’s implications and the impact these have so far had on the Croatian and European research community. In addition to that, it will be argued that Croatia’s failure to adopt appropriate legislative, administrative and other measures towards the full realisation of academic freedom in the domain of public research funding constitutes a breach of its obligation to ensure academic freedom by actively creating, establishing and maintain the conditions for its optimal realisation. This will not only be based on an overall analysis of the relevant normative, judicial and administrative vacuums in Croatia, but also be discussed within the framework of the actual case study. The detected vacuums thus indicate a high potential for (criminal) tycoonisation of Croatian public research funds.

cyber bullying ; cyber harassment ; violence ; research funding

A slightly shortened version of this paper, lacking the extensive case study descriptions in Sect. 2.2, is published in: Haferkamp, R., Kilchling, M., Kinzig, J., Oberwittler, D. & Wößner, G. (Eds.) Unterwegs in Kriminologie und Strafrecht – Exploring the World of Crime and Criminology. Festschrift für Hans-Jörg Albrecht. Berlin ; Zagreb, Duncker & Humblot in coop. with Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften e.V., pp. 499-531.