MACMILLAN The Political Economy of Eastern Europe 30 years into the ‘Transition’: New Left Perspectives from the Region (International Political Economy Series)

From the Back Cover By the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, in most parts of Eastern Europe, high expectations associated with postsocialist transition have been substituted by disillusionment. After 1990, Eastern Europe has been internationally treated with a low-interest acknowledgement of what was understood as a slow and erratic, but unquestionable process of integration in a Western-dominated world order. In the context of today’s geopolitical reorganization, East European examples of authoritarian politics once again become discussed as significant reference points for Western and global politics. This book represents a contribution to this debate from a distinctive East European perspective: that of new left scholars and activists from the region, whose lifetime largely corresponds to the transformations of the postsocialist period, and who came to develop an understanding of their environment in terms of its relations to global capitalist processes. A both theoretical and empirical contribution, the book provides essential insights on topics conventionally associated with East European transition from privatization to the politicized slogans of corruption or civil society, and analyzes their connection to the newest reconfigurations of postsocialist capitalist regimes. As a contribution to contemporary debates on the present global socio-political transformation, this collection does not only seek to debate analytical statements, but also to change the field where analytical stakes are set, by adding perspectives that think Eastern Europe’s global relations from within the regional context and its political stakes. Agnes Gagyi works on East European politics and social movements from the perspective of the region’s long-term global integration. She is researcher on East European social movements at the University of Gothenburg, and member of the Working Group for Public Sociology “Helyzet” in Budapest. Ondřej Slačálek is a political scientist and journalist, he focuses on East European politics, nationalism and social movements. He works at Charles University, Prague. He is a regular collaborator of Czech new left journal A2/A2larm. Product Description About the Author Agnes Gagyi is a sociologist. She works on East European politics and social movements from the perspective of the region’s long-term world-economic and geopolitical integration. Presently she is employed as a researcher on East European social movements at the Department of Sociology and Work Science, University of Gothenburg. She is a founding member of the regional English language forum LeftEast, and of the Working Group for Public Sociology “Helyzet” in Budapest. Besides scholarly publications on East European new left movements, she has been actively involved in organizing meetings and discussions across East European new left scenes. The present book project grew out from regional meetings she organized with the Transnational Institute as part of the New Politics project. Ondřej Slačálek is a political scientist and journalist, he focuses on East European politics, nationalist discourses and social movements from various analytical perspectives. He works at the Department of Political Science, Charles University, Prague. Besides articles in scholarly journals (Patterns of Prejudice, Slavic Review) on nationalism, social movements and musical subcultures of youth, he is a regular collaborator of Czech new left journal A2/A2larm, he was regular collaborator of left-wing daily Právo and editor of streetpaper Nový Prostor and active participant in international debates on post-socialism (Eurozine, LeftEast).