Revolution From Within: Experts, Managers and Technocrats in the Long Transformation of 1989
The programme for our collaborative conference with Imre Kertész Kolleg Jena is now available.
The conference will form Imre Kertész Kolleg Jena’s annual conference and will take place on the 14-15 June 2018 at Friedrich-Sschiller-Universitat Jena. A number of papers will be given by members of 1989 after 1989 and the University of Exeter, including Tobias Rupprecht on Pinochet in Prague: Latin American Neoliberalism and (Post-) Socialist Eastern Europe; James Mark on Europe and its Others:
Re-imagining a Continental Space in Late Socialism; and Ned Richardson-Little on Lawyers, Human Rights and Democratization in Eastern Europe.
The conference will combine perspectives of intellectual and conceptual history, social history of expert cultures, new institutionalist studies, cultural anthropology, history of sciences etc., the focus of the conference is on the creation of expert knowledge, its political implications as well as direct influences during late State Socialism and the liberal democratic regimes after 1989. It will also concentrates on concepts of social management and social control formulated by scientists and experts, political applications of expert knowledge, and interactions between the technocratic, managerial and expert elites, both at home and internationally, as well as the entanglements of political rule and scientific knowledge and expert skills in dynamically changing social contexts.
More information on the conference can be found on the Revolution From Within conference page
New Chapter from Nelly Bekus: Historical Reckoning in Belarus
“Historical Reckoning in Belarus” is the latest chapter published by Dr Nelly Bekus. This forms part of the edited volume Transitional Justice and the Former Soviet Union: Reviewing the Past, Looking Toward the Future published by Cambridge University Press, February 2018. It is considered the most comprehensive account to date of post-Soviet efforts to address, distort, ignore, or recast the past through the use, manipulation, and obstruction of transitional justice measures and memory politics initiatives. Editors Cynthia M. Horne and Lavinia Stan have gathered contributions by top scholars in the field, allowing the disparate post-communist studies and transitional justice scholarly communities to come together and reflect on the past and its implications for the future of the region.
Bekus’ chapter takes an alternative view to most scholars of post-communist transitional justice, who primarily consider the reckoning programs adopted by various former Soviet republics after they declared their independence in 1991. Instead she examines initiatives passed as a result of Mikhail Gorbachev’s glasnost and perestroika in 1987–91, measures introduced in 1990–4, and more recent
efforts under Lukashenka. She also focuses on the transitional justice initiatives promoted by the Soviet and post-Soviet governments, as well as those proposed since 1991 by the opposition to Lukashenka, formed from the nationalist Belarusian People’s Front (BPF) and civil society organisations, such as the Association of Victims of Political Repression, the Saving Kurapaty organization, Memorial, and others.
→ Download the chapter: Historical Reckoning in Belarus
[Top]Would you like to work on 1989 after 1989 and Socialism Goes Global? Vacancies for Postdoctoral Research Associates available – apply now!
Supporting the work of Professor James Mark, 1989 after 1989 and the AHRC Socialism Goes Global, we have 3 vacancies for Postdoctoral Research Associates with immediate start.
The 12 month fixed term post with 1989 after 1989 and based in Exeter, UK will focus on the fall of state socialism in Eastern Europe in global perspective, focusing on political, economic and cultural themes.
Socialism Goes Global, supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, have two Postdoctoral Research Associate vacancies (fixed term for 9 months, based in Exeter), the first addressing themes of gender and labour and the second focusing on the themes of war, peace and authoritarianism.
Deadline for applications is 17 January 2018
Interviews anticipated late January 2018
About Exeter University
We are a Russell Group university boasting a vibrant academic community with over 21,000 students. Ranked in the top 1% of universities in the world, 98% of our research is rated as being of international quality and focuses on some of the most fundamental issues facing the world today. We encourage proactive engagement with industry, business and community partners to enhance the impact of research and education and improve the employability of our students.
The Posts
The College of Humanities wishes to recruit for three posts
- Postdoctoral Research Associate to support the work of the project 1989 after 1989: Rethinking the Fall of State Socialism in Global Perspective
http://1989after1989.exeter.ac.uk/This full-time Leverhulme Trust-funded post is available immediately on a fixed term basis for 12 months. The research will address the fall of state socialism in Eastern Europe in global perspective, focussing on political, economic and cultural themes. - Postdoctoral Research Associate to support the work of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK)-funded project Socialism Goes Global. Cold War Connections Between the ‘Second’ and ‘Third Worlds’
http://socialismgoesglobal.exeter.ac.uk/This full-time post is available immediately on a fixed term basis for 9 months, research will focus on the themes of gender and labour. - Postdoctoral Research Associate to support the work of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK)-funded project Socialism Goes Global. Cold War Connections Between the ‘Second’ and ‘Third Worlds’ http://socialismgoesglobal.exeter.ac.uk/This full-time post is available immediately on a fixed term basis for 9 months, research will focus on the themes of war, peace and authoritarianism.
Please indicate in your application which post(s) you are applying for (candidates are welcome to apply for all three).
About You
The successful applicants will have the skills to carry out research at historical archives; be able to carry out historical analysis on archival material (with guidance); possess a reading capacity in one or more languages of the region, to a high academic standard; be able to report effectively on research progress and outcomes; be able to write academic texts; and to communicate complex information, orally, in writing and electronically in academic English.
Applicants will possess a relevant PhD (or be nearing completion) or possess an equivalent qualification/experience in a related field of study. They will be able to demonstrate sufficient knowledge of research methods and techniques needed to work within these research projects. Experience of work in related research fields would be beneficial.
Interviews are expected to take place in late January 2018.
What We Can Offer You
Salary will be from £28,936 per annum pro rata within the Grade E band (£26,495 – £33,518) depending on qualifications and experience.
- Freedom (and the support) to pursue your intellectual interests and to work creatively across disciplines to produce internationally exciting research;
- Support teams that understand the University wide research and teaching goals and partner with our academics accordingly
- An Innovation, Impact and Business directorate that works closely with our academics providing specialist support for external engagement and development
- Our Exeter Academic initiative supporting high performing academics to achieve their potential and develop their career
- A beautiful campus set in the heart of stunning Devon
Please ensure you read our Job Description and Person Specification for full details of this role.
To view the Job Description and Person Specification document please click here.
To apply and view the full job advert, please follow the link to the Exeter University Vacancies Board and Application Portal.
For further information please contact:
Professor James Mark, Principal Investigator 1989 after 1989 and Socialism Goes Global – J.A.Mark@exeter.ac.uk
Natalie Taylor, Leverhulme Trust 1989 after 1989 Project Co-ordinator (works Monday-Wednesday) N.H.Taylor@exeter.ac.uk
Catherine Devenish, AHRC Socialism Goes Global Project Co-ordinator (works Thursday and Friday) C.Devenish@exeter.ac.uk
[Top]Ideological Recycling of the Socialist Legacy. Reading Townscapes of Minsk and Astana
Nelly Bekus’ article Ideological Recycling of the Socialist Legacy. Reading Townscapes of Minsk and Astana has recently been published in the Journal for Europe-Asia Studies, Volume 69, Issue 5, July 2017.
Her article addresses the ways in which the systemic transformation of the former Soviet republics has been reflected in urban development in two capital cities, Minsk (Belarus) and Astana (Kazakhstan). Changes taking place in these capitals have been analysed through the prism of an ideological recycling of the socialist legacy, a concept that permits exploration of which aspects of the socialist legacy have been jettisoned and which retained, in the process of formation of a capital. The article explores the nationalising strategies adopted by Belarus and Kazakhstan and reified by various practices, including those involving the recasting of cities. These strategies, however, are analysed not as inventions of post-Soviet regimes, but as forms of structural continuity.
→ Ideological Recycling of the Socialist Legacy. Reading Townscapes of Minsk and Astana
[Top]The “Children of Crisis”: Making Sense of (Post)socialism and the End of Yugoslavia
Ljubica Spaskovska’s article The “Children of Crisis”: Making Sense of (Post)socialism and the End of Yugoslavia has just been published in the Journal of East European Politics and Societies, Volume 31, Issue 3, August 2017. It forms part of a special section on the Genealogies of Memory, guest edited by Ferenc Laczó and Joanna Wawrzyniak.
Ljubica’s article traces certain mnemonic patterns in the ways individuals who belonged to the late-socialist Yugoslav youth elite articulated their values in the wake of Yugoslavia’s demise and the ways they make sense of the Yugoslav socialist past and their generational role a quarter of a century later. It detects narratives of loss, betrayed hopes, and a general disillusionment with politics and the state of post-socialist democracy that appear to be particularly frequent in the testimonies of the media and cultural elites. They convey a sense of discontent with the state of post-Yugoslav democracy and with the politicians—some belonging to the same generation—who embraced conservative values and a semi-authoritarian political culture. The article argues that an emerging new authoritarianism and the very process of progressive disillusionment with post-socialist politics allowed for the emergence and articulation of such alternative, noninstitutionalized individual memories that, whilst not uncritical of the Yugoslav past, tend to highlight its positive aspects.
→ East European Politics and Socieities, Volume 31, Issue 3, August 2017
[Top]The Other Globalisers conference programme now available
Join the 1989 after 1989 research team for our conference on the “Other Globalisers” – how the socialist and the non-aligned world shaped the rise of post-war economic globalisation. Based at Exeter, this conference is the second in a series of events exploring how processes and practices that emerged from the socialist world shaped the re-globalised world of our times.
The globalisation of the world economy has most often been portrayed as the final triumph of a neoliberal international order led by the West. By focusing on the socialist and the non-aligned world, this conference, by contrast, aims to rethink the histories of postwar globalisation by addressing forces and models of global economic interdependence other than those of Western capitalism. Acknowledging that actors from these worlds could be contributors to the emerging neoliberal consensus, as well as to other forms of regional economic integration and global trade that survive to this day, we hope to encourage an interdisciplinary dialogue between scholars using different approaches to global interconnectedness, and/or working on a variety of regions.
CONFERENCE PROGRAMME
Day 1 – July 6
The Upper Lounge, Reed Hall, University of Exeter
8.45-9.15 Welcome Drinks
9.15-9.30 Introduction by the Organisers
9.30-11.30 Panel 1: Chronologies of Socialist Globalisations
Discussant: Wolfgang Knöbl (Hamburger Institut für Sozialforschung)
Marc-William Palen (University of Exeter) – Marx and Manchester: The Socialist Foundations of Post-1945 Globalisation
James Mark (University of Exeter) – Alternative? Socialist? Writing Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union into Postwar Globalisation
Christina Schwenkel (University of California – Riverside) – The Afterlife of Global Socialism: Technology and Mobility in the Postcolony
11.30-11.45 Refreshment Break
11.45-13.00 Panel 2: Global Integration
Discussant: Federico Romero (European University Institute)
Angela Romano (University of Glasgow) – Competing Plans of Pan-European Cooperation: European Community’s Policy and Soviet Proposals During the 1970s Globalization
Besnik Pula (Virginia Tech) – From Reform Socialism to Transnational Capitalism: The Political Economy of Foreign Direct Investment in Central and Eastern Europe
13.00-14.30 Lunch Break
14.30-16.30 Panel 3: Global Institutions Without Imperialism
Discussant: Richard Toye (University of Exeter)
Johanna Bockman (George Mason University) – Financial Globalisation Through Socialist and Non-Aligned Banks
Max Trecker (Institute for Contemporary History, Berlin) – Globalisation by Import Substitution? The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) and the Global South
Vlad Pașca (New Europe College) – Global Advocacy or Self-Interested Relativism? Socialist Romania, International Organizations, and the Quest for Economic Development (1960s-1980s)
Ljubica Spaskovska (University of Exeter) – The Non-Aligned, the UN and the Defeat of the ‘New International Economic Order’
16.30-16.45 Coffee Break
16.45-17.45 Round Table Discussion
Johanna Bockman (George Mason University)
Wolfgang Knöbl (Hamburger Institut für Sozialforschung)
Federico Romero (European University Institute)
19.00 Drinks Reception
20.30 Conference Dinner
Day 2 – July 7
Innovation Centre, University of Exeter
8.45-9.30 Welcome Drinks
9.30-10.45 Panel 4: Neoliberalism and the Socialist and Nonaligned Worlds
Discussant: James Mark (Exeter)
Patrick Neveling (School of Oriental and African Studies) – The New International Division of Labour before the New International Economic Order: Special Economic Zones and Neoliberal Globalisation since 1947
Tobias Rupprecht (University of Exeter) – “Neoliberal” Ideas in the Communist Periphery
10.45-11.00 Refreshment Break
11.00-13.00 Panel 5: Africa and Alternative Globalisations
Discussant: Patrick Neveling (School of Oriental and African Studies)
Alanna O’Malley (Leiden University) – The Road to UNCTAD: The Exploration of Economic Sovereignty by African Countries at the United Nations, 1958-1962
Darius A’Zami (Renmin University of China) – Extra-Liberal Interdependence: The Land Commission, Heterodox Globalisation and its Roots in Sino-Tanzanian Relations in the Cold War
Theodora Dragostinova (The Ohio State University) – The Second World in the Third: Bulgarian Notions of Economic and Cultural Development in Nigeria, 1976-1982
Pavel Szobi (European University Institute) – Was Angola the “Czechoslovak Africa?” The Obstacles of the ČSSR Support for the MPLA Government Between 1975 and 1992
13.00-14.00 Lunch Break
14.00-16.00 Panel 6: Resources and Experts
Discussant: Piers Ludlow (LSE)
Ned Richardson-Little (University of Exeter) – East Germany and the Failed Dream of Global Socialist Oil Solidarity
Jan Zofka (University of Leipzig) – Coal as the Other Oil: East German Technical Experts and Industrial Expansion in the Socialist World of the 1950s
Shuxi Yin (Hefei University of Technology) – Sino-Soviet Rubber Cooperation, 1950-1953
Andrew Kloiber (McMaster University) – Brewing Global Socialism: Coffee, East Germans and the World, 1949-1989
16.15-17.00 Concluding Discussion
If you would like to attend the Other Globaliser’s conference on the 6-7 July, please contact the Project Co-ordinator, Natalie Taylor – N.H.Taylor@exeter.ac.uk
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Ljubica Spaskovska’s Monograph Now Available: The Last Yugoslav Generation
Manchester University Press have now published Dr Ljubica Spaskovska‘s new book – The Last Yugoslav Generation: The Rethinking of Youth Politics and Cultures in Late Socialism.
Her monograph examines the development of youth culture and politics in socialist Yugoslavia, focusing specifically on the 1980s. Rather than examining the 1980s as a mere prelude to the violent collapse of the country in the 1990s, the book recovers the multiplicity of political visions and cultural developments that evolved at the time and that have been largely forgotten in subsequent discussion. She argues that the youth of this generation sought to rearticulate the Yugoslav socialist framework in order to reinvigorate it and ‘democratise’ it, rather than destroy it altogether.
Ljubica Spaskovska is an Associate Research Fellow working on our research project 1989 after 1989 at the University of Exeter. Her research maps the history of the end of Yugoslavia’s global engagements not only as a subject/phenomenon associated with political/diplomatic history, but also as a broader societal project.
→ Purchase The Last Yugoslav Generation
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Join us for our next conference on State Socialism, Heritage Experts and Internationalism in Heritage Protection after 1945
Join us in Exeter for our conference exploring the rising contributions of socialist and non-aligned actors to the development of heritage at both domestic and international levels.
Conference dates: 21-22 November 2017
Conference location: The University of Exeter
Call for Papers deadline: 20 June 2017
CALL FOR PAPERS
Histories of heritage usually perceive their object of study as a product of western modernity, and exclude the socialist world. Yet, understood as a cultural practice and an instrument of cultural power, and as a “right and a resource”, heritage has played important roles in managing the past and present in many societies and systems. In the postwar period, preservation became a key element of culture in socialist and non-aligned states from China, the Soviet Union, and the Eastern Bloc to Asia, Latin America and Africa. Attention paid to the peoples’ traditions and heritage became a way to manifest the superiority and historical necessity of socialist development. However, the contribution of socialist states and experts to the development of the idea of heritage is still to be fully excavated.
The conference aims to understand the rising contributions of socialist and non-aligned actors to the development of heritage at both domestic and international levels. This phenomenon was in part the result of country-specific factors – such as a reaction to rapid industrial development; the destruction of both the Second World War or wars of national liberation; and the necessity to (re)-invent national traditions on socialist terms. But it was also due the growth of a broader international consensus on international heritage protection policies – in which socialist and non-aligned states and their experts played an important role. To this end, the conference will also address the relationship between socialist conceptions of heritage and those found in the capitalist world: to what extent can we discern the convergence of Eastern and Western dynamics of heritage discourses and practices over the second half of the twentieth century? To what degree did heritage professionals from socialist states play a role in the formation of the transnational and transcultural heritage expertise? To what extent did heritage still play a role in Cold War competition? Socialist states claimed that their respect for progressive traditions and material culture distinguished their superior methods of development from that of the capitalist world. Non-Aligned countries often attempted to blend aspects of socialist and capitalist logics of cultural heritage politics.
Conference themes to be addressed in papers include (but are not limited to):
- The rise of interest in, and conceptualisation of, heritage under socialist and non-aligned states;
- the transnational and transcultural circulation of ideas about heritage both within an expanding world of socialist states and across Cold War ideological divides;
- the role of socialist experts in international debates over heritage;
- the role of individual actors as cultural brokers within the cultural heritage field;
- the role of international organisations, such as UNESCO, ICOMOS, ICCROM, UIA and others in providing a platform for professional communication and knowledge exchange involving the socialist world;
- the role of the Cold War in the development of heritage;
- the role of national traditions, experience and transnational cooperation across the Cold War divide in the creation of concepts and practices of socialist heritage;
- the legacies of the work of socialist states and experts in contemporary heritage practices.
Abstracts of 300-500 words, together with an accompanying short CV should be submitted to Natalie Taylor (N.H.Taylor@exeter.ac.uk) by June 20, 2017.
The selected participants will be notified by July 20, 2017.
Funding opportunities for travel and accommodation are available, but we ask that potential contributors also explore funding opportunities at their home institutions.
To download a copy of the Call for Papers and for further information about the conference go to our State Socialism, Heritage Experts and Internationalism conference page
It is kindly supported by Exeter University’s Leverhulme Trust-funded project 1989 after 1989: Rethinking the Fall of State Socialism in Global Perspective.
Conference conveners:
Prof. James Mark and Dr. Nelly Bekus, University of Exeter, Leverhulme Trust-funded project 1989 after 1989: Rethinking the Fall of State Socialism in Global Perspective
Dr. Michael Falser, Cluster of Excellence Asia and Europe in a Global Context, Heidelberg University
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