Transnational Culture and the Political Transformation of East-Central Europe

Abstract

In social scientific studies of Europe's new democracies, there has emerged an analytical approach which transcends the teleology of 'transitology' and, focusing on the impact of culture and history, is sensitive to the contingencies and 'eventfulness' of social transformations. The main thrust of this article is that such a culturo-historical approach may prove useful not only in assessing the different results to which the processes of democratization lead at the national level, but also to assess the general direction of political change after 1989 towards democracy. Building on Eisenstadt's notion of modernity as a cultural and political program, this article therefore attempts to understand the revolutions of 1989 not only as the mere sum of particular national events, but also as part of an 'entangled history', that is, as a common, transnational phenomenon which was based on and articulated a shared cultural understanding. Key words■ cultural history ■ East-Central Europe ■ institutional convergence ■ modernity ■ revolutions of 1989 ■ transnational cultureIn twenty years of in-depth research into the emergence of Europe's new democracies, the social sciences have greatly enhanced our knowledge about how democratic institutions were established and took root in some of the countries of the former communist part of the world. For all its achievements, however, the literature on post-communist societies is increasingly characterized by a sense of disillusionment. Already at the turn of the century, Paul Kubicek (2000) had wondered whether, ten years after the momentous events of 1989, post-communist political studies were not twenty years behind the rest of their discipline in terms of methodology and theory development. With the twentieth anniversary of the annus mirabilis approaching, some of Germany's leading experts on political change in Central and Eastern Europe struck a similarly negative tone. In the early 1990s, they argued, the ability to study rapid social change at first hand had created high

Delete, Restart, or Rewind? Post‐1989 Public Memory Work in East‐Central Europe

“…An expansion of our knowledge of these arenas of collective memory is important not only for memory studies, but to contribute to new directions in the broader research terrain on the post‐1989 transformations. As Brier (2009) has observed, critiques of this terrain are calling for more descriptions than prescriptions; for a de‐emphasis on the concept of ‘transition’, which presumes a simple mimicking of the existing Western capitalist‐democratic model; and for studies of the cultural contingency of each country’s path in restructuring its systems. As the scholarship reviewed here indicates, memory studies research can make promising contributions to these directions.…”

Escape from arbitrariness: Legitimation crisis of real socialism and the imaginary of modernity

“…Following Brier’s (2009) invitation to focus on the cultural histories of post-socialist transitions, we study the imaginaries of socialist and free-market economies as sign systems and political discourses (Smith, 1998). To this end, we employ the neo-Durkheimian approach of Alexander and Smith (Alexander, 2006; Alexander & Smith, 1993; Smith, 1998) which calls our attention to the symbolic codes.…”

“…The economic narrative is no less straightforward: here, the transition is conceptualized as a step from poverty to the capitalist affluence, illustrated by iconic images of full store shelves in the West. As Brier (2009) notes, these two narratives were prevalent also because they were backed by influential epistemic communities of experts and intellectuals. Yet, the experience of those who were locked in the socially oversaturated world of real socialism opens a path for a different narrative: a desire to move from intricacy to simplicity, from exceptions and negotiations to rules and standards, in short – the desire for neutrality, impersonality and objectivity.…”

“…In his analysis of modernity, Wagner (1994) draws on Gellner’s metaphors of the plough , the sword and the book to identify three sets of practices which co-produced Western modernity: practices of material allocation, practices of authoritative power and practices of signification. Looking back at the historical and scholarly accounts of the post-socialist transitions in Central and Eastern Europe, there appears to be an imbalance: the transitions are predominantly narrated as histories of the sword (from totalitarian oppression to freedom and democracy) or as histories of the plough (from poverty to affluence) (see Brier, 2009, p. 346). While both these narratives manage to capture important historical developments, we believe that more emphasis must be placed on the histories of the book : the imaginary significations which provide the various historical configurations of modernity with legitimacy.…”

“…While both these narratives manage to capture important historical developments, we believe that more emphasis must be placed on the histories of the book : the imaginary significations which provide the various historical configurations of modernity with legitimacy. Focusing on the imaginary significations of the post-socialist transitions allows us to speak not only to the historical period in question, but it also opens a path to make a more general point about the political imaginaries of modernity, thus contributing to the project of the ‘historicization’ of the 1989 revolutions (Brier, 2009). We also engage with what Kennedy and Galtz (1996, p. 456) call the ‘lifeworlds of Eastern Europe’ to argue for the embeddedness of political imaginary in everyday life.…”