Post-Communist Modernization, Transition Studies, and Diversity in Europe

Blokker, Paul

doi:10.1177/1368431005059703

Cited by 54 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…Kennedy (2002) speaks about the emergence of a transit culture. P. Blokker describes post-Communist modernity in Central and Eastern Europe as 'pluralist, creative, extremely diverse and institutionally differently manifested processes' (Blokker 2005). Some modernisation processes in post-Communist countries are in essence contrary to the modernisation processes in Western Europe: for instance, where Western modernity negated traditional authorities and the religiously legitimated political order, post-Communist Europe mostly sought ways of how to sneak nationalism and religion into public discourse (Podolinská et al 2013: 190-191).…”

Section: Mary Moves People and The Economic Marketmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contemporary Models of Marian Discourse in Slovakia

Kečka¹

2020

Traces of the Virgin Mary in Post-Communist Europe

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According to the 2001 census, the majority of Slovakia's population statistically follows the Catholic confession of Roman or Byzantine rites. In both rites, the Marian devotion has a consider- able place in religious reflection and spirituality. This study explores the religious discourse of the Marian devotion as it appears in available books and booklets on this topic. The main focus of the chapter is a comparison of the Marian discourse in Slovakia (representing a post-socialist country) and the Marian discourse in neighbouring Austria (representing a ‘Western’ country with no socialist history). For this purpose, a sample of Mariological reflections and spiritual texts was created based on their availability in all Catholic bookstores in the capital of Slovakia (Bratislava) and the capital of Austria (Vienna). The reason for this choice is that these bookstores offer books that mirror the living intellectual and religious brainstorming and reflect Christianity, in par-ticularly the pattern of the Marian discourse of the recent decades in both countries. The study comments on the absence of modern Marian literature in Slovak bookstores. The author also analyses the Marian vocabulary and topics in the both samples. The author distinguishes three existing models of the Marian discourse in Slovakia, all of traditional origin, portraying Mary as an unselfish and patient mother, Mary loving conditionally and restraining God's anger; Mary leading the legions against Satan and crushing his head. All three models are based on the traditional images of Mary and, within the Christian communities, are not understood as contradictory, but complementary. Compared to Western Christianity, the Marian discourse in Slovakia lacks two recurrent models: (1) the progressive 20th/21st century model, and (2) the traditionalist and fundamentalist mod- el. The first model has created a Marian vocabulary and contents representing a self-confident, social and communicative model of Mary. This model presents an alternative to the old models combining mild or triumphant vocabulary with mild or triumphant contents. The second model which is absent among Slovak believers is the Marian discourse of the traditionalist and fundamentalist groups of each age tolerated by official Church structures. These traditionalist and fundamentalist groups return to the old Marian vocabulary and contents that is triumphant, militant and – in this modern version – has an offensive character. This form of discourse, created as a reaction to progressive Christian groups – did not emerge in Slovakia, since there were no progressive Christian movements. Based on the research of the author, the Slovak Marian re- flection and spirituality result from traditional beliefs, having no affinity to Western progressive and traditionalist models. In this regard, it can be stated that Slovakia's isolation from the European spiritual development, which has caused traditional devotion to be fixed in its forms, is, paradoxically, continuing also after the fall of Communism in the era of religious freedom. The comparative discoursive analysis of Mariological literature in Slovakia and its Western neighbour – Austria has showed that the Slovak religious landscape is far more traditional (but not traditionalist) than the current trends in the ‘Western’ religious discourse.

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Section: Mary Moves People and The Economic Marketmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contemporary Models of Marian Discourse in Slovakia

Kečka¹

2020

Traces of the Virgin Mary in Post-Communist Europe

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“…Certainly, this is not meant to exclude the imaginary of individual autonomy: as Wagner (1994) points out, the double imaginary signification of modernity is rooted in the notions of rational mastery and autonomy, and it is not our task here to reduce it to the former. However, we can lean on the work of other scholars who have shown the transitions to market-based society as emancipatory movements towards autonomy and self-determination (Blokker, 2005). Our task, as we see it, is to focus on a rationale which is frequently rooted in widely shared experiences of daily life and therefore in practices rather than in political philosophy.…”

Section: Conclusion: Escape From Arbitrarinessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Escape from arbitrariness: Legitimation crisis of real socialism and the imaginary of modernity

Świrek

Pospěch

2020

European Journal of Social Theory

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The 1989 revolutions in Central and Eastern Europe and the subsequent transitions have commonly been interpreted in political terms, as movements towards democracy, or in economic terms, as escape from the command economy towards the free market. We revisit the problem to suggest a different reading. We argue that in the legitimization crisis of real socialism, a pivotal role was played by the burden of social oversaturation and bureaucratic arbitrariness, which met its desired alternative in social imaginaries of impersonal, objective social system. For the citizens of Central and East European countries, this fantasy was matched by the promise of the free market, which was morally contrasted to the experience of daily life under late socialism. We argue that this desire to escape from arbitrariness to objectivity is a particularly strong motive in the imaginary of modernity which found one of its historical manifestations in the disappointment with real socialism.

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“…1994). The primary concerns of the field were convergence 7 (Blokker 2005; Sztompka 1993) and consolidation 8 (Bandelj and Radu 2006; Linz and Stepan 1996).…”

Section: The Washington Consensusmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transitional Societies in Eastern Europe: Moving Beyond the Washington Consensus Paradigm in Transitology

Kokushkin¹

2011

Sociology Compass

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Post-communist transitions are generally thought to be a part of the past. However, most students of those transitions now acknowledge that the processes of transition in the countries in Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union are far from over. Instead of reaching a point where all countries converge towards normal capitalism, the experiences of the countries from the region are extremely diverse. This article surveys the literature on post-communist transitions and argues that transitologists have experienced a shift from viewing transitions as mostly similar and converging to viewing transitions as uniquely complex and diverging. To advance this argument, the article: (i) systematizes the literature along methodological lines; (ii) uses a policy paradigm (namely, the Washington Consensus) as a metaphor to illustrate the tensions in the literature; and (iii) connects the shift away from one-size-fits-all policies with the evolution in the literature from being formally prescriptive and abstract to being context-sensitive and emphasizing complexity.

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Post-Communist Modernization, Transition Studies, and Diversity in Europe

Cited by 54 publications

References 40 publications

Contemporary Models of Marian Discourse in Slovakia

Contemporary Models of Marian Discourse in Slovakia

Escape from arbitrariness: Legitimation crisis of real socialism and the imaginary of modernity

Transitional Societies in Eastern Europe: Moving Beyond the Washington Consensus Paradigm in Transitology

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