The spirit of post-socialism: Common spaces and the production of diversity

Abstract

Since 1989 scholars and policy-makers have articulated different notions of post-socialist reform. Each presupposes or privileges distinct notions of space. This paper focuses on the ‘spirit of post-socialism’ and outlines these different understandings of post-socialist reform and their corresponding embedded assumptions about space and geography. It then argues that various attempts to frame post-socialism in terms of a series of broader universal projects of economic harmonization and integration have been increasingly supplemented by more conjunctural analyses of diverse economic and social post-socialist practices and spaces, and comparative analyses of post-socialism and reform-socialisms across and beyond Central and Eastern Europe.