The Routledge Handbook of 1989 and the Great Transformation by Johnston, Rosamund; Panagiotidis, Jannis; Baran-Szołtys, Magdalena;

Short description:

This cutting-edge collection of essays analyses the pivotal year of 1989 andtakes the events of that momentous year as a pivot to explore longer-term processes of economic, social, political, and cultural transformation linked to the rise of neoliberalism and globalization since the 1970s and enduring until now.

Long description:

This cutting-edge collection of essays analyzes the pivotal year of 1989 and the transformation processes that resulted from a historical perspective. It takes the events of that momentous year as a pivot to explore longer-term processes of economic, social, political, and cultural transformation linked to the rise of neoliberalism and globalization since the 1970s and enduring until now.

Referencing the work of Karl Polanyi, the handbook advances four main arguments: that the “great transformation” presented here started earlier than 1989; that its legacies linger in spaces, practices, and objects; that in order to grasp the scale of what happened around 1989, it is important to bring Eastern and Central Europe into conversation with other global regions; and that the former Eastern Bloc served as an important node in a larger, global transformation. Insisting on the “Second World’s” place in the global history of the past five decades, this handbook challenges straightforward core-periphery dichotomies. The contributions to this volume provide different case studies—some national, some comparative, some international or global—each illustrating particular trends and developments.

The handbook is directed at students and scholars of contemporary history of East Central Europe, of global and economic history, and at scholars of sociology, anthropology, and political science interested in post-1989 transformation, neoliberalism, and globalization.

"The Routledge Handbook of 1989 and the Great Transformation brings together different strands of research and a wide range of scalar and temporal perspectives to offer a multifaceted view of post-1989 transformations in Eastern Europe and beyond. Moving between global frameworks and local experiences, the volume explores how the political, economic, social, and cultural changes unleashed in 1989 have reshaped the world we live in today. Interdisciplinary in scope and accessible in style, it provides students and researchers with fresh insights into the lasting legacies of the end of state socialism."

- Joanna Wawrzyniak, University of Warsaw

"The transformations of 1989 and their aftermath continue to attract broad scholarly and popular attention, in part because their pasts have not passed and are very much alive today in many different forms. This well-conceived and timely volume offers the most up to date research and analysis of 1989's shifting legacy for our time, both for Europe and the wider world, and will be of great interest to anyone concerned about the roots of our present political moment."

- Paul Betts, University of Oxford

Table of Contents:

Introduction: 1989 and the Great Transformation (Rosamund Johnston & Jannis Panagiotidis), 1. A Brief Begriffsgeschichte of Transformation since 1989 (Philipp Ther), 2. How the Concepts of Transformation and Transition in East Central Europe Parted Ways (Marta Bucholc & Emilia Sieczka), 3. Globalization and Transformation: Ideas, Practices, and Lifeworlds (Besnik Pula), Section 1: The Year 1989 (Sheng Peng), 4. A Global Turning Point? The Event 1989 in a Long and International Perspective (Frank Bösch), 5. Western Responses to 1989: Launching the EU’s Eastward Enlargement Amidst Inner Complexity and Outer Fragmentation (Cristina Blanco Sío-López), 6. Domestic and Global Dimensions of 1989: Was it a Transformative Event for China? (Rosemary Foot), 7. 1989 in East Asia: Economic Development, Political Transformation, and Historical Reconciliation (Sheng Peng & Fumitaka Cho), 8. The Ideological Effect of the Soviet Demise in Cuba and the “Rewriting” of History (Rafael Pedemonte), 9. The Dawn of a New Age: 1989 and the Transformation of India’s Foreign and Security Policy (Ivan Lidarev), Section 2: Economic Transformations (Anna Calori), 10. Neoliberalism and Transformation (Tobias Rupprecht), 11. Marketization from Below: The Socialist Roots of Postsocialist Entrepreneurship (Lars Fredrik Stöcker), 12. The Great Sale: Privatization in East and West (Dominik Stegmayer), 13. From the Council to the Union: The Transformation of Central and Eastern Europe’s Experience of Regional Integration (Angela Romano), Section 3: Social Transformations (Rosamund Johnston), 14. Gender as an Analytical Lens for Research on Social Transformations (Claudia Kraft), 15. Civil Society and Its Transformation in East Central Europe (Mojmír Stránský), 16. Conceptualizing Labor in (Post)Socialism (Goran Musić), 17. What is the (Post)Socialist City Today? (Agata Zysiak), 18. Globalization from Below (Rosamund Johnston), Section 4: Cultural Transformations (Magdalena Baran-Szołtys), 19. Adapting to Capitalism: The Changing Role of Writers, Literary Production, and Gendered Perspectives in Post-1989 Central and Eastern Europe (Magdalena Baran-Szołtys), 20. Film Industries and Filmmakers between State Patronage and the Free Market (Veronika Pehe), 21. Computer Games in the Eastern Bloc (Jaroslav Švelch), 22. From the Memory of Socialism to the Memory of Postsocialism: Mnemonic Transformations in Postsocialist Central and Eastern Europe Since 1989 (Mischa Gabowitsch), 23. Sniffing Out Transformation: Sensory Experiences of Cold War Europe and its Aftermath (Stephanie Weismann), Section 5: Intellectual Transformations (Anastassiya Schacht), 24. Democracy, National Identity and Post-Dissident Historical Cultures in East Central Europe, 1970s-2020s (Michal Kopeček), 25. The Transformation of Cultural Diplomacy (Florence Klauda), 26. Sovietization and Desovietization of East and Central Europe’s Universities (Anastassiya Schacht), 27. Sexuality and Science (Kateřina Lišková), 28. From Politics of Religion to Religious Policies: 1989 and the Roman Catholic Church in Poland (Hubert Czyżewski), Section 6: Political Transformations (Rosamund Johnston & Jannis Panagiotidis), 29. 1989 and the Transformation of Human Rights (Felix A. Jiménez Botta & Ned Richardson-Little), 30. Transformations of Democracy (Matej Ivančík), 31. Collapsed or Transformed? The Welfare State and Poverty in the Czech Republic during Transition (Jakub Rákosník & Radka Šustrová), 32. Changing Roma Policies in the European Transnational Space (Balázs Majtényi & György Majtényi), 33. Postsocialist Memory Politics (Jelena Đureinović), Section 7: Migration, Mobility, and Transformation (Thục Linh Nguyễn Vũ), 34. “New” East-West Migrations: Movements from and within the Global East (Nino Aivazishvili-Gehne & Ilona Grabmaier), 35. Beyond Yugoslavia: Labor Migration, Transnationalism, and the Mobilities Paradigm in the Post-Yugoslav Space (Mišo Kapetanović), 36. 1989 and the Old-New Racialization of East Europeans (Jannis Panagiotidis), 37. Not Just Numbers: Mobility and The Making of the Early 1990s in Poland (Thục Linh Nguyễn Vũ), Section 8: Rereading Transformation (Jannis Pangiotidis), 38. Why There Was No Populist Right in 1989 (David Ost), 39. Patriarchy after Sexmission: The Origin, the Core Idea, the Blind Spots, and the Impact (Agnieszka Graff), 40. The Mistake that Women can Make (Slavenka Drakulić), 41. Who Believes in the Resurrection? Myth and History in the Reception of Revolution with a Human Face (James Krapfl), Index