Social Movements in Post-Communist Europe and Russia

Social Movements in Post-Communist Europe and Russia PDF

Author: Kerstin Jacobsson

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-12-22

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13: 1317665821

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This volume provides a much needed update on the state of civil society in post-communist Europe and Russia more than two decades after the fall of the communist regimes. The chapters offer new perspectives on social movement strategies in post-communist Central-Eastern Europe and Russia. The chapters illustrate how social movements develop particular repertoires of action and contention, which are better suited for their specific local contexts in the post-communist setting. In Russia and Poland, the most popular and effective choices are using domestic and transnational legal opportunities, judicial activism and litigation that complement the traditional lobbying and mass mobilization. Human rights framing has become important in Hungary and the Czech Republic. The chapters analyse various types of rights-based activism that operate in otherwise prohibitive social and political environments, thereby raising highly contentious issues, such as animal rights, environment and sustainability, human rights, women’s rights, and gay rights activism. The contributions richly illustrate the often surprising and multiple ways in which transnational discourses and norm pressure are received, translated or resisted in the local contexts. Finally, the volume provides a novel reconceptualisation and offers new understandings of the relationships between the state and civil society in the post-communist context. This book is based on a special issue of East European Politics.

Beyond NGO-ization

Beyond NGO-ization PDF

Author: Kerstin Jacobsson

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-04-15

Total Pages: 281

ISBN-13: 1317174615

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The celebrations marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall provoked a debate on the outcomes of the transition process in the post-communist countries, including a debate on the functioning of civil society. This provided a good opportunity for researchers to collect new data and revise the discourse on collective action and the dynamics of civil society in these countries. Jacobsson and Saxonberg's collection of essays looks at social movements, and their forms of mobilization and organization, as well as action repertoires in relation to the social context, and their success or failure. The book meets an important need in the discourse on post-communist social movements by going beyond the usual discourse about the weak and non-participatory civil society in the post-communist context. This book gives a nuanced and updated view of social movements in post-communist Europe, by looking at the cases of relatively successful mobilization, by examining groups that have often been neglected in the discourse on social movements and civil society (including animal-rights groups, racist movements and non-feminist family organizations), and by giving a deeper analysis of the different strategies that civil society organizations and groups can use. Rather than expecting social movements in post-communist Europe to follow the same patterns and operate in the same fashion as in Western Europe, this volume shows that a wider view of contentious action is needed in order to understand the variety of strategies employed by collective actors operating in this context.

Coming Out of Communism

Coming Out of Communism PDF

Author: Conor O'Dwyer

Publisher: NYU Press

Published: 2018-09-11

Total Pages: 348

ISBN-13: 1479851485

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How homophobic backlash unexpectedly strengthened mobilization for LGBT political rights in post-communist Europe While LGBT activism has increased worldwide, there has been strong backlash against LGBT people in Eastern Europe. Although Russia is the most prominent anti-gay regime in the region, LGBT individuals in other post-communist countries also suffer from discriminatory laws and prejudiced social institutions. Combining an historical overview with interviews and case studies in Poland, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic, Conor O’Dwyer analyzes the development and impact of LGBT movements in post-communist Eastern and Central Europe. O’Dwyer argues that backlash against LGBT individuals has had the paradoxical effect of encouraging stronger and more organized activism, significantly impacting the social movement landscape in the region. As these peripheral Eastern and Central European countries vie for inclusion or at least recognition in the increasingly LGBT-friendly European Union, activist groups and organizations have become even more emboldened to push for change. Using fieldwork in five countries and interviews with activists, organizers, and public officials, O’Dwyer explores the intricacies of these LGBT social movements and their structures, functions, and impact. The book provides a unique and engaging exploration of LGBT rights groups in Eastern and Central Europe and their ability to serve as models for future movements attempting to resist backlash. Thorough, theoretically grounded, and empirically sound, Coming Out of Communism is sure to be a significant work in the study of LGBT politics, European politics, and social movements.

Social Movements in Post-Communist Europe and Russia

Social Movements in Post-Communist Europe and Russia PDF

Author: Kerstin Jacobsson

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-12-22

Total Pages: 132

ISBN-13: 131766583X

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This volume provides a much needed update on the state of civil society in post-communist Europe and Russia more than two decades after the fall of the communist regimes. The chapters offer new perspectives on social movement strategies in post-communist Central-Eastern Europe and Russia. The chapters illustrate how social movements develop particular repertoires of action and contention, which are better suited for their specific local contexts in the post-communist setting. In Russia and Poland, the most popular and effective choices are using domestic and transnational legal opportunities, judicial activism and litigation that complement the traditional lobbying and mass mobilization. Human rights framing has become important in Hungary and the Czech Republic. The chapters analyse various types of rights-based activism that operate in otherwise prohibitive social and political environments, thereby raising highly contentious issues, such as animal rights, environment and sustainability, human rights, women’s rights, and gay rights activism. The contributions richly illustrate the often surprising and multiple ways in which transnational discourses and norm pressure are received, translated or resisted in the local contexts. Finally, the volume provides a novel reconceptualisation and offers new understandings of the relationships between the state and civil society in the post-communist context. This book is based on a special issue of East European Politics.

Social Movements and the Change of Economic Elites in Europe after 1945

Social Movements and the Change of Economic Elites in Europe after 1945 PDF

Author: Stefan Berger

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2018-05-29

Total Pages: 316

ISBN-13: 3319771973

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This book explores the changing nature of social movements and economic elites in post-Second World War Europe. In the years following 1945, Europe faced diverse challenges connected by the overriding question of how the reconstruction of the continent should proceed. For the Central Powers, the implementation lay in the hands of the Allied occupying forces who organised the process of denazification and the establishment of a new economic order. In countries without military occupation, there was a deep gap between the new governmental forces and the former collaborators. In both cases, social movements which were formed by anti-fascists on the left of the political spectrum assumed the task of social reorganisation. The chapters in this book explore the discourses about economic systems and their elites which moved to the fore across a range of European countries, uncovering who was involved, what resistance these social movements faced and how these ultimately failed in the West to bring about change, while in Eastern Europe Stalinism forcibly imposed change.

Citizens in the Making in Post-Soviet States

Citizens in the Making in Post-Soviet States PDF

Author: Olena Nikolayenko

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2011-03-02

Total Pages: 177

ISBN-13: 1136824545

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This book, based on extensive original research, including new survey research amongst young people, examines the political attitudes of Russian and Ukrainian adolescents without any firsthand experience with communism.

Post-communist Politics

Post-communist Politics PDF

Author: Karen Henderson

Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 456

ISBN-13:

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This up-to-date book provides chronological information on all of the countries of the formerly communist area of Europe since 1989, including electoral information, basic economics data, and descriptions of party development.

The Communist Party in Post-Soviet Russia

The Communist Party in Post-Soviet Russia PDF

Author: Luke March

Publisher:

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 328

ISBN-13:

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Drawing on extensive research, Luke March details the ideology, organization, and activity of a political phenomenon which has received little in-depth analysis or scholarly consensus. He analyses the Communist Party of the Russian Federation's evolution in the context of post-Soviet political developments to provide detailed and stimulating examination of a party whose role in Russian politics is far more complex and contradictory than is generally understood.

In Marx's Shadow

In Marx's Shadow PDF

Author: Costica Bradatan

Publisher: Lexington Books

Published: 2010-03-19

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 0739136267

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Despite its key role in the intellectual shaping of state socialism, Communist ideas are often dismissed as mere propaganda or as a rhetorical exercise aimed at advancing socialist intellectuals on their way to power. By drawing attention to unknown and unexplored areas, trends and ways of thinking under socialism, the volume examines Eastern Europe and Russian histories of intellectual movements inspired - negatively as well as positively - by Communist arguments and dogmas. Through an interdisciplinary dialogue, the collection demonstrates how various bodies of theoretical knowledge (philosophical, social, political, aesthetic, even theological) were used not only to justify dominant political views, but also to frame oppositional and nonofficial discourses and practices. The examination of the underlying structures of Communism as an intellectual project provides convincing evidence for questioning a dominant approach that routinely frames the post-Communist intellectual development as a 'revival' or, at least, as a 'return' of the repressed intellectual traditions. As the book shows, the logic of a radical break, suggested by this approach, is in contradiction with historical evidence: a significant number of philosophical, theoretical and ideological debates in post-Communist world are in fact the logical continuation of intellectual conversations and confrontations initiated long before 1989.

Post-Soviet Civil Society

Post-Soviet Civil Society PDF

Author: Anders Uhlin

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2006-03-20

Total Pages: 206

ISBN-13: 1134208081

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The development of civil society has varied greatly across the former Soviet Union. The Baltic states have achieved a high level of integration with the West and European Union membership, while some regions in Russia lag far behind. Now for the first time there is a comparative study of civil society and democratization across post-Soviet national borders. Acknowledging the enormous variation throughout the region, the book offers unique data on developments in Russia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Applying an innovative analytical framework derived from theories of democratization, civil society, social movements and transnational relations, the researchers have formulated broader comparisons and generalisations without neglecting the specific post-Soviet context. The book provides a systematic comparison across sectors as well as nations, and includes chapters on NGOs, the state and conflict, and transnationalisation. Quantitative survey data is combined with qualitative interviews and case study research to both confirm previous findings about the weakness of post-communist civil society and to qualify previous research.

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