The recent history of post-Soviet societies is heavily shaped by the successor nations’ efforts to geopolitically re-identify themselves and to reify certain majorities in them. As a result of these fascinating processes, various new ideologies have appeared. Some are specific to the post-Soviet space while others are comparable to ideational processes in other parts of the world. In this collected volume, an international group of contributors delves deeper into recent theoretical constru...

Special Section: Issues in the History and Memory of the OUN IV; and Special Section: A Debate on “Ustashism,” Generic Fascism, and the OUN I Guest editors: Andreas Umland and Yuliya Yurchuk This issue features the fourth installment in a series of special sections on the memory of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the OUN-Bandera-wing’s military arm, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (Ukrainian abbreviation: UPA). Within this series, historians and social scientists detail f...

Why do some violent conflicts endure across the centuries, while others become dimly remembered ancient struggles among forgotten peoples? Is nationalism really the powerful force that it appeared to be in the 1990s? This wide-ranging work examines the conceptual intersection of nationalist ideology, social violence, and the political transformation of Europe and Eurasia over the last two decades. The end of communism seemed to usher in a period of radical change-an era of "extreme politic...

Sixteen essays "apply the intersectional theory in an inspiring way in the analysis of gender issues in the past and in contemporary Czech society" ( Aspasia).In this wide-ranging study of women's and gender issues in the pre- and post-1989 Czech Republic, contributors engage with current feminist debates and theories of nation and identity to examine the historical and cultural transformations of Czech feminism. This collection of essays by leading scholar...

Using a human rights approach, the book analyses the dynamics in the application of minority policies for the preservation of cultural and linguistic diversity in Russia. Despite Russia’s legacy of ethno-cultural and linguistic pluralism, the book argues that the Putin leadership’s overwhelming statism and promotion of Russian patriotism are inexorably leading to a reduction of Russia’s diversity. Using scores of interviews with representatives of national minorities, civil society, public...

Despite a quarter-century of constructivist theorizing in the social sciences and humanities, ethnic groups continue to be conceived as entities and cast as actors. Journalists, policymakers, and researchers routinely frame accounts of ethnic, racial, and national conflict as the struggles of internally homogeneous, externally bounded ethnic groups, races, and nations. In doing so, they unwittingly adopt the language of participants in such struggles, and contribute to the reification of e...

Autobiographies of Transformation is a completely unique history of sociology in Central and Eastern Europe in the post-Communist era.Through the autobiographies of ten key sociological witnesses from the region, the sociological imagination is turned upon itself, resulting in a compelling and revealing account of the struggles, triumphs, and continuing challenges faced. The sociologists examined fall into three cohorts: early, mid and late career.As participants, ...

An all-star cast of radical intellectuals discuss the continued importance of communist principlesIn 2009 Slavoj iek brought together an acclaimed group of intellectuals to discuss the continued relevance of communism. Unexpectedly the conference attracted an audience of over 1,000 people.The discussion has continued across the world and this book gathers responses from the conference in Seoul. It includes the interventions of regular contributors Alain B...

These essays consider the implications for Chinese socialism of the repudiation of the Cultural Revolution and the legacy of Mao Zedong as well as the meaning of the new definition and direction Mao's successors have given socialism. The themes have been selected for conceptual coherence within a socialist problematic of social change. Representing anthropology, art history, economics, history, literature and politics, various inquiries point in a twofold direction - the meaning of sociali...

Through careful historical and ethnographic research and extensive use of local scholarly works, this book provides a persuasive and careful analysis of the production of knowledge in Central Asia. The author demonstrates that classical theories of science and society are inadequate for understanding the science project in Central Asia. Instead, a critical understanding of local science is more appropriate.In the region, the professional and political ethos of Marxism-Leninism was ...

Pushing postcolonial studies and constructivist International Relations towards an uneasy dialogue, this book looks at Russia as a subaltern empire. It demonstrates how the dialectic of the subaltern and the imperial has produced a radically anti-Western regime, which nevertheless remains locked in a Eurocentric outlook.

This book seeks to understand how Russia’s multifaceted rejection of American unipolarity and de-territorialised neo-liberal capitalism has contributed to the gestation of the present multipolar moment in the global political economy. Analysing Western world order precepts via the actions of a powerful, albeit precarious, national political economy and state structure situated on the periphery of Western world order, Silvius explores the manner in which culture and ideas are mobilised for ...