The Political Economy of Eastern Europe 30 years into the ‘Transition’: New Left Perspectives from the Region: International Political Economy Series

Preface (Hilary Wainwright and Daniel Chavez).- Chapter 1. Introduction: East European new left perspectives on postsocialist transformation (Ágnes Gagyi).- Chapter 2. A clear cut? The restoration of capitalism and the contradictions of socialism in Yugoslavia (Vladimir Simović, Tanja Vukša).- Chapter 3. Capitalist restoration and development in Slovenia and Croatia (Marko Kržan, Dimitrije Birač).- Chapter 4. Ukraine and the (dis)integrating empire of capital (Yuliya Yurchenko).- Chapter 5. Reconfiguring regimes of capitalist integration: Hungary between 1970-2020 (Ágnes Gagyi, Tamás Gerőcs).- Chapter 6. Czechia 30 years on: The (im)perfect oligarchy and the misery of emancipatory alternative (Ondřej Slačálek, Daniel Šitera).- Chapter 7. Bosnia and Herzegovina after the transition: forever postwar, postsocialist and peripheral? (Danijela Majstorović, Zoran Vučkovac).- Chapter 8. Life in transition and in crisis. The political autobiography of a generation (Dana Dömsödi, Florin Poenaru), etc.

“The book provides an informative and reasoned compilation of local leftist academic theory, which could serve as a starting point for further discussion and investigation. I recommend that it be read especially by scholars of regional studies who wish to confront their sometimes rather standardised methods and presuppositions critically as well as by academics and activists interested in explanations of the emergence of right-wing political forces … as well as in potential resources for promoting leftist approaches in the region.” (Nina Krienke, Europe-Asia Studies, July 24, 2023)

Agnes Gagyi is a sociologist. She works on East European politics and social movements from the perspective of the region’s long-term world-economic and geopolitical integration. Presently she is employed as a researcher on East European social movements at the Department of Sociology and Work Science, University of Gothenburg. She is a founding member of the regional English language forum LeftEast, and of the Working Group for Public Sociology “Helyzet” in Budapest. Besides scholarly publications on East European new left movements, she has been actively involved in organizing meetings and discussions across East European new left scenes. The present book project grew out from regional meetings she organized with the Transnational Institute as part of the New Politics project. Ondřej Slačálek is a political scientist and journalist, he focuses on East European politics, nationalist discourses and social movements from various analytical perspectives. He works at the Department of Political Science, Charles University, Prague. Besides articles in scholarly journals (Patterns of Prejudice, Slavic Review) on nationalism, social movements and musical subcultures of youth, he is a regular collaborator of Czech new left journal A2/A2larm, he was regular collaborator of left-wing daily Právo and editor of streetpaper Nový Prostor and active participant in international debates on post-socialism (Eurozine, LeftEast).

By the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, in most parts of Eastern Europe, high expectations associated with postsocialist transition have been substituted by disillusionment. After 1990, Eastern Europe has been internationally treated with a low-interest acknowledgement of what was understood as a slow and erratic, but unquestionable process of integration in a Western-dominated world order. In the context of today’s geopolitical reorganization, East European examples of authoritarian politics once again become discussed as significant reference points for Western and global politics. This book represents a contribution to this debate from a distinctive East European perspective: that of new left scholars and activists from the region, whose lifetime largely corresponds to the transformations of the postsocialist period, and who came to develop an understanding of their environment in terms of its relations to global capitalist processes. A both theoretical and empirical contribution, the book provides essential insights on topics conventionally associated with East European transition from privatization to the politicized slogans of corruption or civil society, and analyzes their connection to the newest reconfigurations of postsocialist capitalist regimes. As a contribution to contemporary debates on the present global socio-political transformation, this collection does not only seek to debate analytical statements, but also to change the field where analytical stakes are set, by adding perspectives that think Eastern Europe’s global relations from within the regional context and its political stakes.
Agnes Gagyi works on East European politics and social movements from the perspective of the region’s long-term global integration. She is researcher on East European social movements at the University of Gothenburg, and member of the Working Group for Public Sociology “Helyzet” in Budapest.
Ondřej Slačálek is a political scientist and journalist, he focuses on East European politics, nationalism and social movements. He works at Charles University, Prague. He is a regular collaborator of Czech new left journal A2/A2larm.

The first region-wide collection of new left perspectives on Eastern Europe's post-socialist transformation Combines political economy analysis with a contextual critique of major ideological concepts of the regime change Speaks to current debates on Eastern Europe's "democratic backslide" from a locally rooted, critical left perspective