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We live in an era where the university system is undergoing great changes owing to developments in financing policies and research priorities, as well as changes in the society in which this system is embedded. This change toward a more market-oriented university, which also has immediate effects in academic peripheries such as the Balkans, the Middle East, or South-East Asia, is of great influence for the pedagogical practice of "less profitable" academic areas such as the Humanities: philosophy, languages, sociology, anthropology, history. Because of the absence of a historically grounded establishment of the Humanities, academic peripheries, usually accompanied by a weak civil society infrastructure, seem to offer the most fertile ground for rethinking the Humanities, their pedagogical practice, and their politics, as well as the greatest threats, such as the ongoing capitalization of research, and profitability as the norm of educational achievement. The sprawling presence of for-profit universities and in academic peripheries such as Albania and Kosovo is indicative of this problematic, as are consistent underfunding of universities and the relentless budget cuts in American and English, and to a lesser extent European, universities. Motivations for this ongoing attack on the university are often driven by a political system or a politics with an aggressive stance to critical thought.

Project title: Gender Quotas and the Democratic Quality of Local Decision-Making Processes in Clientelistic Regimes Project Acronym: GenderQuotas Country: Albania The text file titled "Council Transcripts 2016" refers to the transcripts of council meetings held during August - December 2016. The text file "Council Transcripts 2018" refers to the transcripts of council meetings held during August - December 2018. The study was conducted in the councils of Durrës, Fier, Korçë, Kukës, Librazhd, Malësi e Madhe, Mat, Pukë, Sarandë, Tiranë, Ura Vajgurore. Language: Albanian Organization supporting fieldwork: Women's Network Equality in Decision-Making (http://www.platformagjinore.al/) The first wave of data collection (August - December 2016) was funded by United Nations Development Programme – Albania, contract number ALB-092-2016. The second round of data collection (August - December 2018) was funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 792969.