Postsocialist Europe

Now that nearly twenty years have passed since the collapse of the Soviet bloc there is a need to understand what has taken place since historic date and where we are at the moment. Bringing together authors with different historical, cultural regional and theoretical backgrounds, this volume engages in debates that address new questions arising from recent developments, such as whether there is a need to reject or uphold the notion of post-socialism as both a necessary and valid concept ignoring changes and differences across both time and space. The authors' first hand ethnographies from their own countries belie such a simplistic notion, revealing, as they do, the cultural, social, and historical diversity of countries of Central and Southeastern Europe. -- from back cover.