Welcome to the Desert of Post-Socialism: Radical Politics After Yugoslavia

by Srecko Horvat (Editor), Igor Stiks (Editor)

Overview

This volume offers a profound analysis of post-socialist economic and political transformation in the Balkans, involving deeply unequal societies and oligarchical “democracies.” The contributions deconstruct the persistent imaginary of the Balkans, pervasive among outsiders to the region, who see it as no more than a repository of ethnic conflict, corruption and violence. Providing a much needed critical examination of the Yugoslav socialist experience, the volume sheds light on the recent rebirth of radical politics in the Balkans, where new groups and movements struggle for a radically democratic vision of society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781781686225
Publisher:	Verso Books
Publication date:	01/06/2015
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Srećko Horvat is a philosopher and author of several books, including What Does Europe Want?, co-written with Slavoj Žižek. He has written for the Guardian, Al Jazeera and the New York Times. Igor Štiks has won numerous awards and been translated into a dozen European languages. His novel A Castle in Romagna was the first of his books to be published in English.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction: Radical Politics in the Desert of Transition Igor Štiks Srecko Horvat 1

Part I From Self-management to Disaster Capitalism

1 Self-management, Development and Debt: The Rise and Fall of the 'Yugoslav Experiment' Vladimir Unkovski-Korica 21

2 From the Market… to the Market: The Debt Economy After Yugoslavia Andreja Zivkovic 45

3 Workers and Unions After Yugoslavia Marko Grdešic 65

Part II Re-imagining the Post-Socialist Balkans

4 Re-imagining the Balkans Maria Todorova 85

5 On the Way to Europe: EU Metaphors and Political Imagination of the Western Balkans Tanja Petrovic 103

6 Children of Post-communism Boris Buden 123

Part III Two Decades After Yugoslavia: Bitter Fruits of Transition

7 The Silence of Lamb-eaters: Transition as a Post-war Crime Andrej Nikolaidis 143

8 Kosovo: The Long Independence Day Agon Hamza 157

9 Mapping Nostalgia for Tito: From Commemoration to Activism Mitja Velikonja 173

Part IV Towards a Balkan Spring? New Political Subjectivities

10 Insurrections in the Balkans: From Workers and Students to New Political Subjectivities Michael G. Kraft 199

11 'They had sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll; we'll have mini-jobs and loans to pay': Transition, Social Change and Student Movements in the Post-Yugoslav Region Jana Bacevic 223

12 Women's Struggles and Political Economy: From Yugoslav Self-management to Neoliberal Austerity Ankica Cakardic 243

Postscript: The Future of Radical Politics in the Balkans -Protests, Plenums, Parties Igor Štiks Srecko Horvat 281

List of Contributors 265

Index 269

Editorial Reviews

Finally a book we have been waiting for. A cold analytic look free of all versions of Balkanism, free of nostalgia for Yugoslav self-management Socialism, but also free of all illusions about liberal-democratic Brave New World. A report from the people who are effectively engaged in emancipatory struggles in ex-Yugoslavia. A must for everyone who wants to understand the post-Communist transition from bad to worse.”
—Slavoj Žižek

“We have entered a new age of resistance, and this dramatic change is nowhere more striking than in the post-socialist Balkans. As this invaluable book argues compellingly, the ‘transition’ period ended with a bang: new forms, subjects and strategies of dissent and resistance have sprang from Zagreb to Ljubljana and from Sofia to Sarajevo. They respond to two common enemies, greedy neoliberal capitalism and the post-democratic governance of ‘experts’ and corrupt elites. This book gives a new positive meaning to balkanization: instead of division and fragmentation, it marks the coming together of people in all parts of the region in an attempt to trace the contours of a future of justice and democracy.”
—Costas Douzinas

“They say that when the Nazis had Tito surrounded, he saved himself by hiding in a big cave. This is how it is in the Balkans: the resistance is often forced to conceal itself in caves and forests. But it never goes away. This book hopes and prepares for the resistance to step back into the open.”
—Antonio Negri

“[Welcome to the Desert of Post-Socialism] is a very important initiative for the region and beyond … [It] is a work that has opened the debate and encourages, in the coming years, the publication of this kind of writings about the space of ex-Yugoslavia and in Eastern Europe in general, which have long been at the center of imperialist propaganda against any idea of transcending capitalism.”
—Philippe Alcoy, Left Voice

From the Publisher