scholarly journals Activism and Dissent under State Socialism: Coalitions and Campaigns in the 1970s and 1980s

2021 ◽  
Vol 86 (3) ◽  
pp. 295-311
Author(s):  
Daniel Laqua ◽  
Charlotte Alston

This article introduces a special Labour History Review issue on the subject of Challenges to State Socialism in Central and Eastern Europe: Activists, Movements and Alliances in the 1970s and 1980s. Our piece highlights different stimuli for dissent and opposition in the Eastern bloc, drawing attention to three strands that helped to inform political activism. First, it discusses the way in which various forms of dissident Marxism informed critiques of ‘actually existing socialism’ and helped activists to envision alternative ways of organizing society and state. Second, it emphasizes intersections between different actors and motivations, including links between the labour movement and forms of activism that have sometimes been categorized as ‘new social movements’. Third, it notes the relevance of transnational inspirations and alliances, with a particular consideration of those that cut across the two power blocs. As a whole, the essay establishes the broader context for the case studies of activism and dissent that feature in this special journal issue.

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Schimpfössl ◽  
Ilya Yablokov ◽  
Olga Zeveleva ◽  
Taras Fedirko ◽  
Peter Bajomi-Lazar

Bringing together empirical studies of former communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe, this Special Issue explores the relationship between censorship and self-censorship. All the cases under consideration share a history of state-led censorship. Importantly, however, the authors argue that journalism in the former Eastern bloc has developed features similar to those observed in many countries which have never experienced state socialism. This introduction presents the theoretical framework and the historical backgound that provide the backdrop for this Special Issue’s contributions, all of which take a journalist-focused angle.


Author(s):  
Filip Cyuńczyk

The main goal of the article is to conduct case studies of CEE memory policies introduced after the fall of communism and to present them as an interesting field for examining the instrumentalization of law. The primary research question is: Do several case studies of several memory policies implemented in post-communist states help to examine the theoretical concept of the instrumentalization of law? In this paper, I intend to show the hidden potential of such studies. I present some of the specific elements of new constitutionalization attempts in CEE, which included narratives of memory in several constitutions in the region. I also show their relation to the concept of instrumentalization of law. Finally, I describe some political acts of instrumentalization of law in the field of collective memory.


Symmetry ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paweł Ziemba ◽  
Jarosław Becker

In the countries of the former Eastern Bloc (Central and Eastern Europe) belonging to the European Union, a gradual elimination of the technological gap, greater expenditures, competitiveness and productivity can be noticed. In this context, analysis and forecast of the level of accessibility and use of ICT (information and communication technologies) by households in these countries has become interesting. It allows for the selection of digitally excluded regions, or those threatened with this phenomenon in the coming years (2018–2020). To carry out the analysis, a framework based on fuzzy numbers and the NEAT F-PROMETHEE (New Easy Approach To Fuzzy-PROMETHEE) method was developed. The potential of the fuzzy outranking approach taking into account the uncertainty of input data (criteria and preferences) has been demonstrated as an alternative to the IDI (ICT Development Index) methodology widely used in research on regional ICT development based on composite indices. Research has shown that Estonia is the leader in the area of ICT expansion among households, and in the next three years will definitely maintain its dominant position. Slovenia follows shortly after, followed by Latvia. At the end of the ranking were the countries with the largest percentage in Central and Eastern Europe of population excluded digitally or threatened with this phenomenon; these are: Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria and, in last place, Romania. Within this framework, the robustness of the obtained rankings to change in the degree of uncertainty of preferences was also examined. It turned out that eliminating the uncertainty of preferences resulted in an increase in the uncertainty of the aggregate, fuzzy grades obtained at the output.


2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 89-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aija Lulle

The Eastern European political and para-political responses to the ‘refugee crisis’ demonstrate a schism between the ‘old’ and the ‘new Europe’. Hostile attitudes reveal how unresolved post-imperial pasts currently manifest themselves in a seeming inability to show solidarity and empathy for the human suffering of others. To address this question critically, I utilize the notion of ‘independence’ to disentangle the specific neoliberal political mentality that has developed in the Central and Eastern European region, along with a variety of ethno-nationalisms which relive their own past wounds. In countries which have wiped away almost all reminders of their socialist past, solidarity and collectivity are not widely subscribed-to values. Apart from the immediate need to act alongside other European countries and help to accommodate current refugee flows, the Eastern Bloc has a long and necessary journey ahead. This is to negotiate and address their own social and cultural pluralities, which have been deliberately ignored in the rush to join the club of the worlds’ wealthiest democracies in the EU. During this formally accelerated political process, insufficient attention has been paid to social transformations in these new EU countries, including their reluctance to take in and accommodate new migrants and refugees.


2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 385-397
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Gawlicz ◽  
Marcin Starnawski

The article introduces a special issue of Policy Futures in Education on changes and challenges in educational policies and systems of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The countries in the region share some characteristics, such as their historical experience with the authoritarian–socialist or communist rule and its impact on education policies, as well as their long-lasting economic semi-peripherality. Differences within the region are also discussed in the article: from macro-level economic gaps to relative dissimilarities of education systems’ structures, as well as international assessment benchmarks. The articles in this issue present analyses of educational policies in Belarus, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Russia and Ukraine. A theme that emerges most clearly across these texts is the complexity of East–West relationships. Read together, the contributions serve as a call for a more nuanced and contextualized look at CEE. Transformation of educational systems that entails the interplay of past legacies and borrowed policies can bring about troubling outcomes, exacerbated by the entanglement of education in a wider agenda.


Author(s):  
Katarzyna Lidia Babulewicz

Musical Representations of the Past in Animations for Children Produced in Central and Eastern Europe in Times of Communism The subject of the article is the composition strategies of presenting the bygone time in animated films produced in the integrated cultural space that was, during the communist era, Central and Eastern Europe. Productions made in two countries – in the Soviet Union and in Poland – are considered. The discussion of film examples is conducted in an approximate chronological order, according to the time of production of individual pictures. The presentation of specific productions is not intended to exhaustively analyse these audiovisual works, but to review thematic threads related to the past and in their context compositional ideas and tendencies.


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