Neoliberalism, Personhood, and Postsocialism

Makovicky, Nicolette

doi:10.4324/9781315597799

Cited by 16 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…People's lives are resolutely in the present of neoliberal reform (Makovicky 2014b;Chelcea & Druţǎ 2016), precariousness (O'Neill 2017), international migration and mobilities (Burrell & Hörschelmann 2014;Keough 2016), populist authoritarianism and the politics of anger (Ost 2006), and global economic links (Rogers 2015). This is not to say that the experience of socialism no longer plays any role, but rather that socialism is no longer a unifying experience and that other experiences increasingly overwrite it.…”

Section: A Disappearing Objectmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hann dismissed its conceptual value tout court: 'the term has brought no theoretical advance' (Hann 2006, p. 5). It is scholars from postsocialist societies in particular who have raised their voices to interrogate a term that they had little agency in shaping (Červinková 2012;Makovicky 2014a;Horvat & Štiks 2015;Chelcea & Druţǎ 2016;Tlostanova 2017;Gentile 2018).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Goodbye, Postsocialism!

Müller¹

2019

Europe-Asia Studies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article assesses the trajectory of postsocialism as a concept and mounts a fivefold critique of postsocialism as: referring to a vanishing object; emphasising rupture over continuity; falling into a territorial trap; issuing from orientalising knowledge construction; and constraining political futures. This critique serves to sketch the contours of an alternative project that still recognises difference but foregrounds links and continuities, develops a political edge, and theorises not just about but with and from this part of the world. EAST BERLIN IN 1989. A SINGLE MOTHER OF TWO AND FERVENT SOCIALIST falls into a coma just before the Berlin Wall comes down. When she wakes up again, Germany has been reunified and the socialist regime toppled. But because her condition is so unstable, her family decide not to confront her with the truth. Instead, they start to enact a charade that keeps up the semblance that socialism is still alive. The plot of Goodbye, Lenin! (2003), a poignant film about the force and demise of socialism as a regime, could equally well be a parable for the concept that described what came after: postsocialism. Socialism, the regime, and postsocialism, the concept, both started with the expectation of epochal change, lost touch with people's lives on the ground, disappointed the emancipatory hopes attached to them and then kept on going as though nothing had happened, because no alternative was in sight. When the socialist regimes collapsed in sequence between 1989 and 1992, it took the world by surprise. Observers had diagnosed the malaise of socialist economies since at least the 1970s, but few had expected an imminent implosion in quick succession (Kotkin 2008, pp. 4-5; Leon 2011). Uncertainty reigned as to what would follow in the wake of socialism. Would market reforms bring about capitalism triumphant, in a further expansion of global neoliberalism? That is certainly what Gayatri Spivak saw in the 1990s when she wrote in her Critique of Postcolonial Reason that 'today in the post-Soviet world, privatization is the

show abstract

Section: A Disappearing Objectmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Goodbye, Postsocialism!

Müller¹

2019

Europe-Asia Studies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…'Made in Kyrgyzstan' thus also denotes the idea that lifestyles, identities and personhood depend on one's personal effort in self-actualization. This ethos resonates a great deal with perceptions about western conceptions of individualism (Schröder, 2013, p 243) and entrepreneurial personhood (Makovicky, 2014). Relatedly, Kirmse finds that cultural globalization has made multiple media and lifestyle consumption portfolios available and created a 'market place for identities' in Kyrgyzstan (Kirmse, 2010, pp 389ff).…”

Section: 'Made In Kyrgyzstan'mentioning

confidence: 89%

Post-Liberal Statebuilding in Central Asia

Lottholz

2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

To Polina, with all my love vii Contents List of Figures and Tables viii Notes on Transliteration and Language ix Acknowledgements x 1The people to be thanked first are the protagonists of this research: research participants, conversation partners, interlocutors and all those ready to invite me to get to know their initiatives, projects, organizations and points of view. I am most grateful for your openness and trust and hope that the dialogue that has unfolded will continue further to new horizons. The research experience was especially enriching thanks to Alexey, Timur, and further unnamed people who patiently answered my questions, read multiple draft documents and enabled key insights. The research assistance and translation skills of Gulniza Taalaibekova and Meerim Saipova helped to broaden the perspective of the project, and the hospitality and supportive atmosphere at the American University of Central Asia in Bishkek was a backbone during the fieldwork period.Second most important are the fellow travellers and comrades who have helped shape this work and made it possible to endure the institutionalized injustice of academia while remaining defiant and hoping for a better future.

show abstract

“…One of the most effective ways of understanding migrant workers is to study them via the concept of personhood. Since the process of personal becoming has been identified as one of the critical dimensions for understanding the rise of market and neoliberalism in post-socialist CEE (Dunn, 2004: 20; Kalb, 2014: 198; Makovicky, 2014: 2), it provides a conceptual tool for research on drinking patterns where persons become what they are in relation to others. Drinking provides an arena for exploring tensions between different forms of personhood because there is no single way to construct a person.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drinking and dreaming in the dormitories: Workers struggle in times of economic development

Sosna

Brunclíková

2018

Journal of Material Culture

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article focuses on alcohol consumption among the migrant workers living in the dormitories in the Pilsen region, Czech Republic, to understand different notions of personhood in the changing and uncertain environment of multinational industrial companies. The authors combined garbological analysis of waste with interaction with the inhabitants of two dormitories to account for potential bias in exploring a sensitive topic such as alcohol consumption. They argue that drinking provides an arena for becoming a person embedded in social relations, acting and experiencing the world in a way that contrasts with the neoliberal emphasis on individuality and flexibility. It is a strategy that pursues stability and mutuality in uncertain times. Also, drinking helps to temporarily escape inequality and dissatisfaction with the living conditions of those who became doomed to the symbolic bottom of the social hierarchy.

show abstract

Neoliberalism, Personhood, and Postsocialism

Cited by 16 publications

References 0 publications

Goodbye, Postsocialism!

Goodbye, Postsocialism!

Post-Liberal Statebuilding in Central Asia

Drinking and dreaming in the dormitories: Workers struggle in times of economic development

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About