Postsocialist politics and the ends of revolution

Abstract

The introduction to this special issue offers a theorization of postsocialism as an analytic that connects the 'afters' of the capitalist-socialist dynamic to think about how political action need not take shape in ways that are familiar as revolutionary, or oppositional. We argue that postsocialism marks a queer temporality, one that does not reproduce its social order even as its revolutionary antithesis. Resisting the revolutionary teleology of what was before, postsocialism creates space to work through ongoing legacies of socialisms in the present. Secondly, we assert the need for pluralizing postsocialisms as a method, which brings to the fore current practices, imaginaries, and actions that insist on political change at a variety of scales, including local, state, and transnational ones. Pluralizing postsocialisms as a method and considering it necessary for analysis of a global postsocialist condition can provide a crucial analytic through which to assess ongoing socialist legacies in new ethical collectivities and networks of dissent opposing state-and corporate-based military, economic, and cultural expansionism since the end of the Cold War.

A post‐socialist legacy in transnational families: Russian and Polish women in Finland

“…Accordingly, one can regard Finland as a place where different socialist legacies meet, as a place where globalizing post-socialism extends beyond the former Soviet Union and its satellites (Atanasoski and Vora 2018;Tulbure 2009). Accordingly, one can regard Finland as a place where different socialist legacies meet, as a place where globalizing post-socialism extends beyond the former Soviet Union and its satellites (Atanasoski and Vora 2018;Tulbure 2009).…”

“…Accordingly, one can regard Finland as a place where different socialist legacies meet, as a place where globalizing post-socialism extends beyond the former Soviet Union and its satellites (Atanasoski and Vora 2018;Tulbure 2009). However, as a result of our research, we align with the proponents of post-socialist theorizing (Atanasoski and Vora 2018;Tulbure 2009), for we recognize its potential to achieve social justice and equality while simultaneously discarding Soviet state socialism. However, as a result of our research, we align with the proponents of post-socialist theorizing (Atanasoski and Vora 2018;Tulbure 2009), for we recognize its potential to achieve social justice and equality while simultaneously discarding Soviet state socialism.…”

“…Finally, our transnational anthropological approach also enables us to decentre the category of post-socialism itself, for a post-socialist legacy can be found in host countries in the West, as the case of Finland well illustrates. Accordingly, one can regard Finland as a place where different socialist legacies meet, as a place where globalizing post-socialism extends beyond the former Soviet Union and its satellites (Atanasoski and Vora 2018;Tulbure 2009). Critics of the concept of post-socialism point to its potential analytical exhaustion alongside the demise of the Soviet socialist generation (Kideckel 2014).…”

Academic Feminisms: Between Disidentification, Messy Everyday Utopianism, and Cruel Optimism

“…But it is also important to recognize that transgressions of these limited and problematic outlooks are already on the agenda of some current strands of theorizing and analysing, including both converging and differing feminist ones, such as decolonial feminisms (Tlostanova and Mignolo 2012), postcolonial feminisms (Mohanty 1988) transnational feminisms (Kaplan, Alarcón, and Moallem 1999), postsocialist feminisms (Atanasoski and Vora 2017), and subaltern theories (Spivak 1988).…”

Complete Issue

“…But it is also important to recognize that transgressions of these limited and problematic outlooks are already on the agenda of some current strands of theorizing and analysing, including both converging and differing feminist ones, such as decolonial feminisms (Tlostanova and Mignolo 2012), postcolonial feminisms (Mohanty 1988) transnational feminisms (Kaplan, Alarcón, and Moallem 1999), postsocialist feminisms (Atanasoski and Vora 2017), and subaltern theories .…”