Post-socialist Transition Research Articles

The Spatial Planning System and Practice in Post-Socialist Romania: Between the Heritage of “Systematization” and Europenization

This paper offers an overview of the major processes and characteristics of the spatial planning system and practice in Romania. It is largely based on document analysis, proposing an evaluation of the major legislative documents regulating the field of spatial planning (the basic Law nr. 350 from 2001 for Spatial Planning and Urbanism, and additionally, the seven laws composing the National Spatial Planning Act). We focus on the description of the planning practices indetified in the official spatial planning documents from various spatial scales, from regional to local, by considering the interactions established between institutional, economic, political and cultural factors from the socialist period and during the post-socialist transition period. The article argues for the major effects related to a low-speed but obvious Europeanization process of the spatial planning institutions and practices expressed through the uncritical and unreflected introduction of neo-liberal ideas in the spatial planning legislation and practices. The resulting spatial planning system has taken a hybrid shape, represented by a mix of three major European planning styles: comprehensive integrated, land-use oriented and urbanistic planning styles.

From post-socialist transition to the COVID-19 crisis: cycles, drivers, and perspectives of subordinate financialization in Latvia

ABSTRACT In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the specific features of financialization in peripheral and semi-peripheral contexts. To date, the majority of this research, however, consists of broad studies covering a number of countries, leaving a gap in the analysis of case studies, especially from east-central Europe. Therefore, the present article attempts to address this gap through an in-depth analysis of Latvia. The research shows that subordinate financialization is a changing and heterogeneous phenomenon that goes through uneven cycles of advance and retreat, which can lead to divergent dynamics between and within economies.

The Dark Forest: The Economized Hunting Ground for Human Capital in Liu Cixin’s Three-Body Trilogy

Liu Cixin’s Three-Body trilogy has become more than a work of science fiction. The Dark Forest discourse Liu proposes in the stories has reached beyond the domain of literature, becoming a broader social and cultural phenomenon during China’s historical economic transformations. The Dark Forest has even been dubbed the ‘Bible’ by a group of leading entrepreneurs for its seeming ability to provide inspiration for how people behave and make decisions in a post-socialist modernity developed by market-oriented reforms. This article examines how the Dark Forest metaphor relates to China’s post-socialist transition, where the subject is remade into human capital and where competitive market principles penetrate every social sphere. Through investigating the dehumanizing impulse in the Dark Forest, I will argue that this process of turning people into ‘non-people’ is a literary representation of the process of ‘economization’ in China’s current reality. Building on this point, I will demonstrate that in this Dark Forest only the ‘bestial nature’ of the post-socialist subjects could lead to eventual victory. The popularity of Liu Cixin’s ‘Dark Forest’ theory in China, therefore, provides an important viewpoint through which to perceive the conditions of post-socialist Chinese society.

Gender and entrepreneurship in the formation of family farms during the postsocialist transformation in Hungary

ABSTRACT This paper explores how women and men in commodity producer family farms that emerged during the post-socialist transition in Hungary negotiated gendered and entrepreneurial identities within the emergent gender regime balancing between three entangled and conflicting processes related to globalization, retraditionalisation and state socialist legacies. During this period, the agricultural production structure polarized between units with rapid land concentration and intensified commodity production and small-scale subsistence farmers. Gender dynamics showed to have had great importance for how farms could position themselves on the capital accumulation trajectory. The study is based on a selection from fifty life-history interviews carried out with farm families on the commodification trajectory during the post-socialist transition in rural Hungary between 2000 and 2004 (the years prior to Hungary joining the EU), among which a number of farm families were revisited after three years of the first occasion. Four major types of family farms were identified based on how they (un)done the gender entrepreneurship nexus while reconciling production and care: traditional family farm, semi-equal partnerships in joint farms, feminized one-woman farm, masculinized one-man farm. Semi-equal partnerships in joint farms moved towards different directions over time: farms with separate spheres adjusting to care, masculinization, woman-led joint farm with care mission out-sourced, and farms with dual crises of care and enterprise. The demands for reproducing family farms under globalized market pressure assumed the mobilization of family labour. Women’s inputs were of great importance, while their responsibility to organise care prevailed, putting extra pressure on their health and work burden.

Some Thoughts on Artistic Re-Imaginings of Yugofuturism’s Utopological Elements

Within the context of societies marked by the postsocialist transition of the 1990s and their cultural – and to a certain extent, their political – practices, we need to highlight the insistence on a meaningful connection between this future and certain past socialist socio-political aspirations as one the more recognizable aspects of thinking about the future. Depending on position or perspective, these aspirations towards equality, interpersonal and intergenerational solidarity, a fairer distribution of resources, and creativity as the basic direction of human life experience may today seem utopian, naïve, or even unnecessary. In this paper, however, I consider whether it is not precisely this legacy of the above-characterised utopianism – not as a teleological orientation towards a predetermined future but rather as a form of action and an attempt to act for the future in the now – that is one of the more meaningful and not at all naïve aspects of the approaches adopted by artistic and cultural practices which we may refer to as yugofuturistic. I will do so by focusing specifically on attitudes towards remembering, and former utopias and related practical issues examined in the works of Marta Popivoda and Ana Vujanović.

Post-Coal Fantasies: An Actor-Network Theory-Inspired Critique of Post-Coal Development Strategies in the Jiu Valley, Romania

Romania is among the countries with a long history of coal mining, which intensified in the context of the industrialization and urbanization policies during the socialist period. During the post-socialist transition, mining units decreased considerably, with those considered economically unprofitable being restructured and eventually closed. This process, which began in the late 1990s, continues today with the increasing discussions about the transition from coal in Romania, the commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and the signing of the Paris Agreement, which stipulates the abandonment of coal by 2030. The Jiu Valley region is Romania’s most important mono-industrial area that developed exclusively around coal extraction. This article proposes an analysis of the social impact of reducing mining activity in this area based on actor-network theory. Recently, the discussions on the “Just Transition” in the Jiu Valley have culminated with the “Jiu Valley Economic, Social, and Environmental Development Strategy” (2021–2030) and the related Action Plan. This paper seeks to address the question: how were people “brought in” for the production of coal during socialism, how were they subsequently “pushed out”, and how challenging is it now for the Jiu Valley strategy to reassemble a network to support the post-coal transition? Our analysis helps to understand, in an innovative way, the challenges of the Jiu Valley Strategy as a mismatch between a creative and entrepreneurial city model on the one hand and the ruralized/small urban (former mono-industrial) conditions prevailing in the Jiu Valley on the other. We thus provide a critical analysis of the strategy as one that is conceptually wedded to the large urban center model and applies the just transition framework in a decontextualized way. We emphasize the role of the dismantling of coal production in the narrowing of the space of possibilities of change brought about by the just transition. Using the published literature on the Jiu Valley, we also show what broader lessons can be drawn from this case for similar transition processes in Central and Eastern Europe.

Income and household energy consumption in a transition economy: The case of Uzbekistan

We scrutinize the impact of household income on energy consumption in Uzbekistan. We do so because the evidence on household energy consumption in post-socialist transition economies is scarce, while the issue is important. We use the unique nationally representative “Uzbekistan, Jobs, Skills, and Migration Survey.” Our cross-sectional analysis shows that electricity, natural gas, and other fuels (coal, firewood, animal dung and waste, and liquefied natural gas) are equally essential energy sources for households. However, based on the budget share Energy Engel Curve, our analysis shows that low and high-income households spend a larger share of their budget on electricity and natural gas consumption relative to their middle-income peers. Interestingly, we find no strong support for the relationship between income and the percentage of household income spent on the consumption of other fuels. We conjecture that these other fuels became a necessity for households to deal with unreliable gas and electricity supply. (144 words).

Demise of the False Utopia: China's Post-socialist Transition in Han Song's Red Star Over America

Demise of the False Utopia: China's Post-socialist Transition in Han Song's Red Star Over America

Re-Embedding and Disembedding in Post-Socialist Hungary: An Analysis of Orbanism from a Polanyian Perspective

The rise of populist authoritarianism is a substantial reversal of the liberal democratic path in Central and Eastern Europe, including Hungary. What explains Hungary’s authoritarian turn toward Orbánism and what are the components of Orbánism that consolidate its claim to power? This paper uses a Polányian perspective and argues that the populist authoritarian turn occurred in the context of the social dislocation of the post-socialist transition period in the 1990s and 2000s. Viktor Orbán and Fidesz’ populist authoritarianism filled a political vacuum by offering a new re-embedding strategy for the population, which included material (full employment, family policy, remittances) and ideological (ethnic nationalism, xenophobia, Christian conservatism) policies. However, Orbánism has contradictory implications, because (1) material embedding takes the form of a punitive and highly conditional workfare regime, and (2) the regime simultaneously advances “disembedding” features including pro-oligarchic, pro-foreign investor, pro-rich, anti-union and anti-welfare policies. As a result, Orbán’s power consolidation is premised on political authoritarianism to prevent any expected discontent from threatening the regime.

Antifašistička tradicija kao čuvar političkog jedinstva naroda u BiH / Antifascist tradition as a Guard to Political Unity of People in Bosnia and Herzegovina

This paper presents the key moments in the develpment of socialist Yugoslavia, including its disingegration, that is post-socialist transition or the period when the etno-nationalist elites took over ruling power and broke apart not only Yugoslavia but socialist system that created it. The politics of socialist Yugoslavia itself oscilated between: authoritative one-party politics and democratic tendencies expressed through self-management politics; state unitarism and national separatism; priciples of equality and liberty; international socialist cosmopolitanism and antiimperial national self-determination; bolshevik exlusiveness and restrictivity and socialdemocratic openess; politics of the West and the East... It was depending on historical context that one tendency was dominant over the other. But in any case, the politics of socialist Yugoslavia was directed towards finding its own path of development of the state and socialist society, which—regardless of its internal controversies— managed to create a new political community at the same time maintain the exhisting one. In the context of development of DFJ (Democratic Federal Yugoslavia),
 but also FNRJ (Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia), and then SFRJ (Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia), Bosnia and Herzegovina had a very important role. Bosnia and Herzegovina was constituted through the decisions of ZAVNOBiH (the Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Bosnia and Herzegovina) presented on its founding meeting on November 25, 1943 in Mrkonjić Grad and recognized as one of the Republics
 within State Federation of Yugoslavia that same year on the Second Session of AVNOJ (Anti-Fascist Council for the People’s Liberation of Yugoslavia) which took place on November 29 in Jajce. The author focuses on the significance of anti-fascism, which recognized Bosnia and Herzegovina and was based on the notion that this republic acts as a bridge that connects South Slavic community in political and symbolic sense.

Gender Equality Paradise Revisited: The Dynamics of Gender Disbalance in Russian Engineering from the Late Soviet Time to the 2010s

The Soviet Union, during the late socialist period, is believed to have achieved impressive progress in making gender equality in STEM come true. The collapse of the Soviet Union and rapid transition to the market economy, accompanied by destruction of industrial production and economic decline, brought unprecedented challenges to the engineering profession. How has the post-socialist transition affected gender (dis)balance? We use rich, unique, and previously unexplored big data from a Russian-speaking social network, VKontakte, to answer this question. Our primary finding is that there have been negative gender dynamics since the late Soviet times, the gender gap has widened, and gender inequality in engineering has become more acute. Women’s presence in the profession has considerably decreased. Gender segregation, both vertical and horizontal, in higher education and at the workplace has solidified. We found minor gender discrepancies in job mobility patterns, and even slightly declining mobility since Soviet time. However, changing mobility patterns does not seem to have affected the gender imbalance positively. We find partial support for the leaky pipeline argument in higher engineering education and paid employment. We conclude that the 1990s was a period of harsh masculinization and intensifying gender inequality in engineering in Russia, and the current situation is still under the influence of these trends.

ТРАНЗИТНІСТЬ І ТРАНСФОРМАЦІЇ МІСЬКОГО ПРОСТОРУ У ПОСТРАДЯНСЬКІЙ ПЕРСПЕКТИВІ: ПІДХОДИ ТА КОНЦЕПТУАЛІЗАЦІЯ

This paper explores current debates on post-socialist transition and transformations, focusing on their spatial dimension and conceptualization of the urban transformations. We analyze the evolution of approaches and current discussions around transition as such and post-socialist transition in particular, the relationships between transition and transformations along with their spatial outcomes, and define the main types of restructuring in the course of spatial transformations. In this paper, we illustrate transition as temporal and methodological frame and provide an overview of ideas on its ending, relevance and usefulness, interpreting post-socialist transition as fundamental societal changes of political regime, economy, institutions and space, which are taking place simultaneously. We argue that urban transformations as spatial projection and outcome of the post-socialist transition could be interpreted through the lens of restructuring – the process of socialist structures updating under which old structures are transforming, supplementing with new elements, and therefore new structures are gradually developing as a reflection of the new ideologies and spatial practices. We distinguish and analyze three main types of urban space restructuring in the post-socialist perspective - functional, morphological and institutional, which, interacting, illustrate the key changes of the post-socialist urban spaces. Such interpretation of spatial transformations could be useful for understanding different dimensions of spatial dynamics, providing deeper contextualization and giving comparative perspective on spatial outcomes.

Small shrinking towns in the post-socialist context of development

The process of urban shrinkage is affecting many cities around the world. It is evident in small towns as well, but unlike larger cities, it has not received much attention. Accordingly, this paper analyses small towns? shrinking focusing on post-socialist context of development, which led to new patterns of urban shrinkage in countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). After discussing the specific characteristics of the shrinkage of small towns, their paths of development in different CEE countries are analyzed, in order to highlight the characteristics of urban shrinkage and the influence of post-socialist transition on this process. Thereafter, the shrinkage of small towns in Serbia is analyzed in order to determine whether the identified characteristics are recognized in them and to single out the specifics of that process in relation to other post-socialist countries. Based on the general characteristics of the development and shrinkage of small towns in the CEE countries, it can be concluded that shrinking small towns are not equally represented in all countries, and there are certain differences in terms of dynamics and intensity of shrinkage. The results of the analysis indicate that the previous path of development had a strong influence on their shrinkage after the post-socialist transformation. Three general trajectories of socialist development have been singled out, which influenced different patterns of urban shrinkage. In Serbia, it has also been observed that the shrinkage of small towns is directly related to the unfavourable direction of the urbanization process during socialist development.

A kelet-közép-európai városrégiók átalakulása a posztfordi korban – elméleti alapok

The post-Fordist and post-socialist transition had a significant impact on the development of cities in East Central Europe. One of the most spectacular processes in the development of postsocialist cities has been the transformation of the inner areas and outskirts of the urban regions. In the inner areas, after the regime change, urban regeneration gained momentum and thanks to the prevailing neoliberal urban policies almost without exception triggered gentrification processes in the neighbourhoods. Outside the administrative boundaries of the city, in the agglomeration zone and in the more remote areas of the urban region, suburbanisation and urban sprawl have determined the development process. As a consequence, the previously compact urban fabric of post-socialist cities slowly disintegrated and cities became more and more fragmented. The aim of this theoretical study is to explore the most important processes of urban transformation in the post-Fordist era. We briefly introduce the theoretical background of metropoliszation, suburbanization and urban sprawl, as well as the main characteristics of commuting and land use. The role of urban regeneration and fragmentation in the urban fabric will be highlighted as well.

Jelena Džankić, Soeren Keil and Marko Kmezić (eds.), The Europeanisation of the Western Balkans: A Failure of EU Conditionality?

At the beginning of the millennium, a good decade after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent post-socialist transitions, there seemed to be a positive outlook on the prospects of a united Europe. However, twenty years later, the future of the EU project looks to be much grimmer. The European Union has witnessed Brexit as well as ‘democratic back-sliding’ both in the ‘older’ and ‘newer’ EU Member States. That is why, as the contributors to “The Europeanisation of the Western Balkans: A Failure of EU Conditionality?” argue, the long-lasting EU accession negotiations in the Western Balkan (wb

ЯНОШ КОРНАЇ ТА ЙОГО ПАМ'ЯТНА ТВОРЧІСТЬ

Янош Корнаї – найвидатніший економіст соціалістичних і постсоціалістичних країн за останні 50 років. Він був всесвітньо відомим ученим, який залишив по собі величезну спадщину праць, опублікованих більш як 20 мовами. Його теорія системної нерівноваги в централізовано плановій економіці, концепція жорстких і м'яких бюджетних обмежень та економічного дефіциту мали революційне значення для наукового тлумачення процесів виробництва, розподілу і нагромадження капіталу в державних соціалістичних економіках. Особливо вагомим був його внесок у політичну економію соціалізму, курс якої він викладав у Гарвардському університеті. При аналізі соціалістичної системи Корнаї, по суті, задовольнявся описовим підходом, тоді як у працях, опублікованих після 1989 р., він акцентував увагу на нормативній економіці, пропонуючи напрями структурної реформи, інституційного будівництва і економічної політики в перехідному постсоціалістичному періоді. Велике значення має його остання книга, в якій порівнюється нерівновага, що характеризується дефіцитами при соціалізмі, з нерівновагою, характерною для надлишків при капіталізмі.Проаналізовано еволюцію теоретичної думки цього видатного економіста та її вплив на реальні економічні процеси. Надано полемічних коментарів щодо інтерпретації економічних і соціальних процесів, які відбуваються в Китаї.

ECONOMIC GROWTH: HISTORICAL AND INSTITUTIONAL ASPECT

The article deals with the features of the socio-economic development of Russia, the issues of state intervention in the economy. Based on the analysis of the historical development of the post-socialist transition countries, it is shown that different countries with transit economies are characterized by special trajectories of entrepreneurship development. The importance of ethical, cultural and institutional factors in the implementation of entrepreneurship, the important role of traditions of economic behavior that explain the specifics of the longterm development trajectory of Russia is emphasized. For the countries of the post-socialist transition, the possibility of ensuring sustainable economic growth is determined by the different civilizational history at the previous stages of development and the need to form a modern institutional environment that promotes socioeconomic changes. In many ways, the factors influencing economic growth are the low level of innovation activity and competitiveness, as well as the growing influence of the state on the economy, the increase in its share due to the growth in the number and scale of state-owned companies, which limits the potential of Russian entrepreneurs within the framework of the domestic market. The main challenge to overcome dependence on previous development trajectories and prospects for long-term economic growth will be the formation of entrenched political institutions of civil society, guarantees of property rights, the rule of law, the independence of the judiciary, freedom of trade and the absence of strict state regulations.

Janos Kornai and his memorable work

ABSTRACT Janos Kornai was the most outstanding economist from the socialist and post-socialist region in the last 50 years. He was a world-renowned scholar who left behind an immense legacy of works published in over 20 languages. His theory of systemic disequilibrium in a centrally planned economy, the concept of hard and soft budget constraints, and economic shortage were of revolutionary importance to the scientific interpretation of the processes of production, distribution and capital accumulation in state socialist economies. Also of note is the author’s work on political economy of socialism, which he taught at the Harvard University. When analysing the socialist system, Kornai essentially contented himself with a descriptive approach, whereas in works published after 1989 he focused his attention on normative economics, suggesting directions of structural reform, institution-building, and economic policy in post-socialist transition. Also of great importance is Kornai’s last book comparing the disequilibrium characterised by shortage in socialism with the disequilibrium typical of the surplus in capitalism. This article analyses the evolution of this outstanding economist’s theoretical thought and its impact on real economic processes.

János Kornai and his memorable work

János Kornai was the most outstanding economist of socialist and postsocialist countries in the last fifty years. He was a world-renowned scholar who left behind an immense legacy of works published in over twenty languages. His theory of systemic disequilibrium in a centrally planned economy, concept of hard and soft budget constraints and the economics of shortage were of revolutionary importance to the scientific interpretation of the processes of production, distribution and capital accumulation in state socialist economies. Also of note is the author’s work on political economy of socialism, which he taught at the Harvard University. When analysing the socialist system Kornai essentially contented himself with a descriptive approach, whereas in works published post-1989 he focused his attention on normative economics suggesting directions of structural reform, institution-building and economic policy in post-socialist transition. Of great importance is also Kornai’s last book comparing the disequilibrium characterised by shortage in socialism with the disequilibrium typical of the surplus in capitalism. The article analyses the evolution of this outstanding economist’s theoretical thought and its impact on real economic processes. Polemic comments are also made on the interpretation of economic and social processes taking place in China.

Toward a Tender, Decolonial, Feminine Universality in Olga Tokarczuk’s Flights

Abstract Can literature re-imagine universality in a way that would not be an expression of an underlying urge toward homogeneity and totality? Beginning with the remarks from Olga Tokarczuk’s Nobel Lecture “The Tender Narrator” where she calls for literature to “universalize our experience” that involves—somewhat counterintuitively—a tender attunement to the fragment, this article discusses a new, paradoxical, feminine formulation of universality in Tokarczuk’s bestseller Flights. By analyzing mobilizations of flight in the novel, the article suggests its universal is woven out of “the shadows of consciousness,” untranslatable idioms of language, pagan Slavic mythologies, old Slavic sect of Bieguni that is virtually unknown in Eastern Europe, and forgotten historical figures and incidents that the narrator “tenderly” narrates. It proposes that universality in Flights emerges as an ethical and political question of reading, translating, and writing across not only national, social, historical languages and contexts, but also across itinerant and fractured subjectivities, languages, myths, and temporalities embedded within the fabrics of Tokarczuk’s novel. This universal is also structured of ambivalent capitalist presents and socialist pasts—though not explicitly addressed, post-socialist transition surfaces here as the unresolvable political, temporal, and subjective liminality. Finally, the article proposes that Tokarczuk’s unique formulation of universality in terms of attention to the fragmentary, forgotten, and fleeting informs recent decolonial, emancipatory attempts in Eastern European feminist scholarship and offers a way out of a certain deadlock created by the frequent dismissal of universality due to its association with the patriarchal status quo and the repression of difference.