Postsocialism

Successful Icons of Failed Time. Rethinking Post-communist Nostalgia

by Dominik Bartmanski

published in Acta Sociologica 2011

Under what cultural conditions can the relics of symbolically polluted time re-emerge as its purified signifiers and... more Under what cultural conditions can the relics of symbolically polluted time re-emerge as its purified signifiers and culturally successful icons within new circumstances? What does it mean when people articulate ‘nostalgic’ commitments to social reality they have themselves recently jettisoned? Drawing on the ideas of the iconic turn and American cultural sociology, the article offers a new framework for understanding post-communist nostalgia. Specifically, it provides a comparative reinterpretation of the phenomenon of so-called Ostalgie as manifest in the streetscapes of Berlin and its counterpart in Warsaw. One of the key arguments holds that ‘nostalgic’ icons are successful because they play the cultural role of mnemonic bridges to rather than tokens of longing for the failed communist past. In this capacity they forge a communal sense of continuity in the liquid times of systemic transformation. As such, the article contributes to broader debates about meanings of material objects and urban space in relation to collective memory destabilized by liminal temporality.

Iconspicuous Revolutions of 1989. Culture and Contingency in the Making of Political Icons

by Dominik Bartmanski

A Chapter in the Book "Iconic Power"

Published in 2012 by Palgrave Macmillan

Sociological interpretation of news images inevitably take us beyond the surface of pictures to the surfaces and... more Sociological interpretation of news images inevitably take us beyond the surface of pictures to the surfaces and depths of events, to singular bodies and powerful crowds, sights and sites, built structures, and symbolically constructed narratives. It is precisely the new prism of iconicity through which the effects of shocking and euphoric events that seem well known can be explained in full. If icons are indeed stars of the social universe, then sociological analysis provides lenses through which we can better see them. With the theory of iconic power, we can make use of the light of “social stars” to learn new things about the social universe as such.

In his chapter “Iconspicuous Revolution: Culture and Contingency in the Making of Political Icons,” Dominik Bartmański revisits the European icons of the euphoric year of 1989 and asks what constitutes a powerful iconic fact. Specifically, he explains why the fall of the Berlin Wall emerged as the icon of 1989 and has retained this symbolic status ever since. The answer is not obvious. 1989 was full of epochal events and important figures busy making history. Especially the earlier, politically unprecedented changes in Hungary and Poland had opened up a revolutionary space in which such events like the fall of the wall became possible. And yet they have not attained the same lasting influence on the international audiences. To reconstruct this phenomenon is to tell a story about how the iconic can trump the political. By demonstrating what counts in public perception as “revolutionary,” “political signal,” and “beginning” and “end” of a social process, Bartmański shows the role that iconicity plays in constituting these key categories and thus in structuring our ability to notice, understand, and remember events. He argues that it is precisely the iconic power of events that turns them into “objective,” temporal markers of history.

Drinking with Vova: SME in Ukraine between informality and illegality

by Abel Polese

This is going to be a chapter in a collection Jeremy Morris and myself are editing on informal economic practices in post-socialism

This chapter is intended to illustrate practices on the boundary between legality and illegality in order
to shed... more This chapter is intended to illustrate practices on the boundary between legality and illegality in order
to shed a different light on some of those engaging in diverse transactions. Challenging the vision of a "culture of corruption" (Miller et al 2001) and that “no discount” should be applied to corrupt practices (Papava and Khaduri 2001), the starting question of this chapter is: what makes a practice “corrupt” or
illegal? In this respect I suggest the need to contextualise and de-normativise illegal practices, since they depend on both social and legal norms. From a juridical standpoint a law is a law, but the value and applicability of a law is ultimately decided by people in social practice. What if there is a law and
the state is unable to enforce control or punish anyone because a substantial number of citizens do not follow it? There is a growing body of literature challenging the very significance of a written law in a context where other rules may apply. For instance, Wanner has remarked how a new moral order may
be applied to some spheres of Ukrainian life where the state’s protection is felt to be lacking. How illegal or immoral is it to try to bribe a court if the same court is issuing an order on the basis of false evidence produced against you? (Wanner 2005)

The present chapter raises questions about the validity of international reports and policy analysis on Ukraine, and possibly on the rest of the former Soviet world, that see illegal practices only as a social evil to eradicate. This is the position of a number of strands of developmentalist thought which
uncritically reject possible alternatives (Nederveen Pieterse 2006), positing that it is only a matter of time before transitional countries will adopt a functioning neoliberal model. In contrast to this, it has been argued that that monetary transactions do not encompass or explain economic activity – this is evident from the work of the growing school of diverse economies (Community Economies Collective 2001, Gibson Graham 1996, 2008). In addition, economic effectiveness might not mean the end of non-market oriented transactions (Williams 2005), which may also serve to partially challenge the de-personalisation of power relations in the labour market and the separation between the social and economic sphere predicted by Polanyi (1946, see also Hann and Hart 2009). Empirical evidence has showed that ‘success’ may also be measured by satisfaction of spiritual obligations, being active in social life (Pardo 1996) and that even the meaning of money differs depending on the social and
economic norms of a society (Parry and Bloch 1989).

Postmodernism in Estonian Literary Culture. Extract

by Piret Viires

Published by Peter Lang Verlag http://www.peterlang.com/index.cfm?event=cmp.ccc.seitenstruktur.detailseiten&seitentyp=produkt&pk=57928&cid=448&concordeid=260521

Postmodernism in Estonian Literary Culture explores the influence of postmodernism on Estonian culture, more precisely... more Postmodernism in Estonian Literary Culture explores the influence of postmodernism on Estonian culture, more precisely its literature. The author takes a look at how postmodernism arrived in the Estonian literary culture and how it took root there, both on a theoretical level and in cultural practices. Obvious parallels emerge with radical cultural changes in post-socialist East-European countries in the early 1990s, which were caused by social transformations. Examples of Estonian postmodernist literary texts are analysed, following the manifestations of
postmodernism from the 1950s until the beginning of the 21st century; the book also tackles ethnofuturism, popular and digital literature, and introduces a universal model which enables to determine postmodernist texts in literature.

Postmodernism in Estonian Literary Culture. Datasheet

by Piret Viires

Published by Peter Lang Verlag
http://www.peterlang.com/index.cfm?event=cmp.ccc.seitenstruktur.detailseiten&seitentyp=produkt&pk=57928&cid=448&concordeid=260521

Postmodernism in Estonian Literary Culture explores the influence of postmodernism on Estonian culture, more precisely... more Postmodernism in Estonian Literary Culture explores the influence of postmodernism on Estonian culture, more precisely its literature. The author takes a look at how postmodernism arrived in the Estonian literary culture and how it took root there, both on a theoretical level and in cultural practices. Obvious parallels emerge with radical cultural changes in post-socialist East-European countries in the early 1990s, which were caused by social transformations. Examples of Estonian postmodernist literary texts are analysed, following the manifestations of postmodernism from the 1950s until the beginning of the 21st century; the book also tackles ethnofuturism, popular and digital literature, and introduces a universa model which enables to determine postmodernist texts in literature.

Atzoko eta gaurko harresiak

by Asier Blas Mendoza

Blas Mendoza, Asier (2004): Atzoko eta gaurko harresiak. Bilbo: Txalaparta.

Utopiez mintzo da liburu hau: mundua aldatu nahi zuten komunisten utopiaz; hauen buruzagiek sortutako utopia errealaz;... more Utopiez mintzo da liburu hau: mundua aldatu nahi zuten komunisten utopiaz; hauen buruzagiek sortutako utopia errealaz; stalinisten iruzurra eta hilketak borrokatu zituztenen utopiaz; eta, estatuek baztertutako nazio eta hizkuntza gutxituen utopiaz. Horiek guztiak, eta bat gehiago azaltzen da. Idazleak bere nortasunaren inguruko zalantzak argitzeko duen nahia. Horregatik, utopia horien bila joaten da. Berlingo harresia erori, eta hamar urte beranduago burututako bidaia da honakoa. Baina ez da bidaia fisikoa bakarrik, izan ere, honen kontakizuna aitzakia bihurtzen da Europa Ekialdeko zenbait atal historiko gogora ekartzeko, eta alde honetako herri eta hizkuntzak ezagutzeko. Tartean, egungo egoera soziala eta politikoa ditu hizpide. Bereziki, Demokrazia berriak sortu duen etsipena eta frustrazioa tratatzen ditu bertakoen ahotik.

Harmony, Olympic Manners and Morals Chinese Television and the'New Propaganda'of Public Service Advertising (Abstract)

by Stefan Landsberger

European Journal of East Asian Studies 8.2 (2009) 331-355

Propaganda Posters in the Reform Era: Promoting Patriotism Or Providing Public Information? (Abstract)

by Stefan Landsberger

in: Frank Columbus (ed.), Asian Economic and Political Issues vol. 10 New York: Nova Science Publishers Inc., 2004), 27-57

The 1989 Student Demonstrations in Beijing: a Chronology of Events

by Stefan Landsberger

China Information, Vol. iv, No. 1 (Summer 1989), 37-56

Learning by what example? Educational propaganda in twenty-first-century China (Abstract)

by Stefan Landsberger

Critical Asian Studies, vol. 33, No. 4 (December 2001), 541-571

Designing Propaganda: The Business of Politics

by Stefan Landsberger

in H.X. Zhang & L. Parker (Eds.), China Design Now (London: V&A Publishing, 2008), 53-56

Exchange of Sacrifices: Symbolizing an Unpopular War in Post-Soviet Russia.

by Serguei Alex. Oushakine (Сергей Ушакин)

In: Fighting Words and Images: Representing War across the Disciplines. Ed. by Elena V. Baraban, Stephan Jaeger, and Adam Muller. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012, pp. 185-208.

Rhetoric of Transformation. The Case of the Kyrgyz Constitutional Reform

by Judith Beyer

2012 “Of Camps, Gulags & Extraordinary Renditions: Infrastructural Violence in Romania,” Ethnography, 13(4): Forthcoming.

by Bruce O'Neill

Paper prepared for a special issue of Ethnography (13/4) on “Infrastructural Violence" edited by Bruce O'Neill and Dennis Rodgers.

From fascist prisons to Communist-era gulags, Romania does not simply have a history of torture, but also an existing... more From fascist prisons to Communist-era gulags, Romania does not simply have a history of torture, but also an existing infrastructure conducive to its practice. Romania, human rights organizations have made clear, hosted a number of “secret detention centers” used by the U.S. Government in its program of “extraordinary rendition,” whereby intelligence agents illegally rendered, detained and tortured suspected terrorists. Both Romania’s gulags and its secret detention centers call to mind Giorgio Agamben’s notion of “the camp” – an extra-juridical space where human life is reduced to its bare form – which is why this article pivots on a historical comparison between the two. While both gulags and extraordinary rendition share material infrastructure, and both were organized around the production and management of “bare life,” this article shows that rendition operates through a very different spatial logic than a gulag. As a result, survivors of these different spatial iterations of “the camp” offer qualitatively different accounts of bare life. This observation allows ethnographers to extend Agamben’s analytical reach by spatially contextualizing the form, relations and kinds of violence taking shape inside “camps,” allowing theorists to think about bare life as a historically specific phenomenon.

Dispossessing the Common Good: Rule of Law Promotion and Post-Socialist Capital Accumulation

by Irina Ceric

Working Paper, presented at the TWAIL Conference at the University of Oregon in October, 2011

Review Maria Todorova, Zsusza Gille eds. Post-Communist Nostalgia, in: ZfB 47, 11

by Eckehard Pistrick

The charge of the “Right Brigade”: Transnational social forces and Poland’s neoliberal transition

by Stuart Shields

New Political Economy, 2003, Vol. 8, No. 2

2010 “Down & Then Out in Bucharest: Urban Poverty, Governance & the Politics of Place in the Post-Socialist City,” Environment & Planning D, 28(2): 254-269.

by Bruce O'Neill

This paper analyzes at the level of space the invention and management of homelessness in postsocialist cities. Based... more This paper analyzes at the level of space the invention and management of homelessness in postsocialist cities. Based on more than a year of ethnographic fieldwork in a nongovernmental organization (NGO) that provides shelter space in Bucharest, Romania, this paper foregrounds the political significance of placing homeless populations to better understand neoliberal governance as a set of spatially minded practices, arguing (ultimately) that space is a key domain through which homeless populations become managed. This paper, in the end, focuses on ‘the place’ of homelessness to bring the dynamics of postsocialist liberalization into clearer relief.

Synopsis POLYPHONIA-ALBANIA'S FORGOTTEN VOICES Björn Reinhardt/Eckehard Pistrick (2011)

by Eckehard Pistrick

Film Synopsis “Polyphonia – Albania’s forgotten voices”
Björn Reinhardt/Eckehard Pistrick,
Germany/Romania... more Film Synopsis “Polyphonia – Albania’s forgotten voices”
Björn Reinhardt/Eckehard Pistrick,
Germany/Romania 2011, 90’

Two shepherds in the Albanian mountains, Arif, a Muslim, and Anastas, an orthodox Christian, have been friends for years in spite of religious barriers. Their profound friendship is constantly strengthened by a local musical tradition, the polyphony. In 2005 this vocal tradition has been declared UNESCO-World Heritage.

The film sets up unforgettable images for the severe poetry, the harsh fates and the almost magical power of the human voice, which helps people in the mountains to master their surreal daily routine at a contradictory stage of post-socialist change. On another level, the film gives an example of how music – even in the Balkans – can build bridges between people and religions.

Kollektives Gedächtnis und nationale Textgemeinschaft im postsowjetischen Estland: Ein Beispiel über die intertextuelle Verwendung des Nationalepos “Kalevipoeg” in den estnischen Lebensgeschichten. H.-H. Bartens, K. Röhrborn, K. Sagaster, E. Winkler (Hrsg.). Ural-Altaische Jahrbücher. Internationale Zeitschrift für uralische und altaische Forschung. Neue Folge (101 - 124). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 2006.

by Ene Kõresaar