Following the end of the Cold War and European Union enlargement, in what sense does Eastern Europe continue to exist as a meaningful geo-political concept? In addressing this question, contributors to this volume-Alex Cistelecan, Robert Bideleux, Katalin Miklossy and Dieter Segert-tease out the implications for an 'Area Studies' approach to the region. They examine its contradictory situation within discourses of 'orientalisation': on one hand, posited as the 'underdeveloped' pendant to its western neighbours; on the other, largely Christian by religion and an integral part of a continent that dominated the world. They uncover the roots of area studies in the 'colonial paradigm' by which great powers promote the creation of predictive, 'problem-solving' knowledge that is immediately apprehendable for decision makers, helping them to take advantage of a region's resources and strategic position, but which tends to homogenise the region's geography and history. For critical inquiry, they argue, the challenge is to delineate transparently the reasons underlying Eastern Europe's construction as an area of study, to identify the epistemological interests of motivated organisations such as funding agencies and political bodies, and to counter the ongoing orientalism of Western perspectives toward the East. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe.

An incisive new study of dissent and protest in the German Democratic Republic, focusing on the upheaval of 1989-1990.

The author, an active participant both in the 'Citizens' Movement' and in the street protests of that year, draws upon a vast array of sources including interviews, documents from the archives of the old regime and the Citizens' Movement and his own diary entries, to explore the causes and processes of the East German revolution. The book is at once a lucid and vibrant narrative history and a pioneering contribution to research in this field.

An incisive new study of dissent and protest in the German Democratic Republic, focusing on the upheaval of 1989-1990. The author, an active participant both in the 'Citizens' Movement' and in the street protests of that year, draws upon a vast array of sources including interviews, documents from the archives of the old regime and the Citizens' Movement and his own diary entries, to explore the causes and processes of the East German revolution. The book is at once a lucid and vibrant narrative history and a pioneering contribution to research in this field.

Following the end of the Cold War and European Union enlargement, in what sense does Eastern Europe continue to exist as a meaningful geo-political concept? In addressing this question, contributors to this volume-Alex Cistelecan, Robert Bideleux, Katalin Miklossy and Dieter Segert-tease out the implications for an 'Area Studies' approach to the region. They examine its contradictory situation within discourses of 'orientalisation': on one hand, posited as the 'underdeveloped' pendant to its western neighbours; on the other, largely Christian by religion and an integral part of a continent that dominated the world. They uncover the roots of area studies in the 'colonial paradigm' by which great powers promote the creation of predictive, 'problem-solving' knowledge that is immediately apprehendable for decision makers, helping them to take advantage of a region's resources and strategic position, but which tends to homogenise the region's geography and history. For critical inquiry, they argue, the challenge is to delineate transparently the reasons underlying Eastern Europe's construction as an area of study, to identify the epistemological interests of motivated organisations such as funding agencies and political bodies, and to counter the ongoing orientalism of Western perspectives toward the East. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe.

This is the first work to offer a collection of Polanyi's texts never before published in English. The book presents articles, papers, lectures, speeches, notes, and draft manuscripts, mostly written between 1907 and 1923, with the exception of a few later texts. Organised thematically around religion, ethics, ideology, world politics and Hungarian politics, the topics include contemporary thinkers, the Galilei Circle, the Tisza government, the Aster and the Bolshevik Revolutions, the Councils Republic, the Radical Citizens' Party, Hungarian democracy, the national question, political conviction, fatalism, British socialism, political theory and violence, and more. Each section includes a discussion of the political and intellectual contexts in which the texts were written. Karl Polanyi: The Hungarian writings is an outstanding and essential resource that brings to light for the first time the works of a key thinker who is relevant to today's study of globalisation, neoliberalism, social movements, and international social policy. -- .

Karl Polanyi (1886-1964) was one of the twentieth century's most original interpreters of the market economy. His penetrating analysis of globalization's disruptions and the Great Depression's underlying causes still serves as an effective counterargument to free market fundamentalism. This biography shows how the major personal and historical events of his life transformed him from a bourgeois radical into a Christian socialist but also informed his ambivalent stance on social democracy, communism, the New Deal, and the shifting intellectual scene of postwar America. The book begins with Polanyi's childhood in the Habsburg Empire and his involvement with the Great War and Hungary's postwar revolution. It connects Polanyi's idealistic radicalism to the political promise and intellectual ferment of Red Vienna and the horror of fascism. The narrative revisits Polanyi's oeuvre in English, German, and Hungarian, includes exhaustive research in five archives, and features interviews with Polanyi's daughter, students, and colleagues, clarifying the contradictory aspects of the thinker's work. These personal accounts also shed light on Polanyi's connections to scholars, Christians, atheists, journalists, hot and cold warriors, and socialists of all stripes. Karl Polanyi: A Life on the Left engages with Polanyi's biography as a reflection and condensation of extraordinary times. It highlights the historical ruptures, tensions, and upheavals that the thinker sought to capture and comprehend and, in telling his story, engages with the intellectual and political history of a turbulent epoch.

This ambitious volume examines revolutionary situations during a non-revolutionary historical conjuncture--the neoliberal era. The last three decades have seen an increase in the number of political upheavals that challenge existing power structures, many of them taking the form of urban revolts. This book compellingly explores a series of such upheavals--in Eastern Europe, South Africa, Indonesia, Argentina, Bolivia, Venezuela, sub-Saharan Africa (including Congo, Zimbabwe, Burkina Faso) and Egypt. Each chapter studies the ways in which protest movements developed into insurgent challenges to state power, and the strategies that regimes have deployed to contain and repress revolt. In addition to empirical chapters, the book engages in theorization of revolution, dealing with questions such as the patterning of revolution in contemporary history, the relationship between class struggle and social movements, and the prospects of socialist revolution in the twenty-first century.

*Shortlisted for the Deutscher Memorial Prize 2017* Karl Polanyi's contribution to political economy and social science is immeasurable. In Reconstructing Karl Polanyi, Gareth Dale, foremost scholar and biographer of Polanyi, provides a sweeping survey of his contributions to the social sciences. An opponent of traditional economics and a believer in economics' contingency to society and culture, Polanyi's work has a cross-disciplinary appeal, finding popularity in anthropology, economic history, economic sociology and political science. Paradoxical formulations, such as 'liberal socialist' and 'cosmopolitan patriot', are often used to describe Polanyi's intellectual and political vision. In exploring these paradoxes, Dale draws upon original writings and transcripts to reconstruct Polanyi's views on a range of topics long neglected in critical literature; including the history of antiquity, the evolution and dynamics of Stalin's Russia, McCarthyism and Polanyi's critical dialogue with Marxism. Accompanying the reconstruction of his work is Dale's analysis of Polanyi's relevance to current issues, notably the 'clash' between democracy and capitalism, and the nature and trajectory of European unification. This proves an indispensable critical guide to Polanyian thought.

This book offers a new account of the East German Revolution of 1989 and uncovers hitherto neglected events and phases of this tumultuous period. It draws upon published and unpublished primary sources, including twenty-five interviews with oppositionists, movement participants and state officials, as well as archive materials from the Stasi, police, SED and civic groups. It brings to prominence previously unexplored events, including the 'battle of Dresden station,' the 'December uprising' and the strike wave of January 1990. In addition, as a resident of East Germany in the late 1980s and an active participant in the civic groups and street protests of 1989, Gareth Dale succeeds in bringing an immediacy and vividness to the narrative. This is the most comprehensive account in English of East Germany's 'peaceful' revolution. As a piece of sustained original research, this book will be an indispensable reference for historians of Germany and Eastern Europe. As an accessible narrative history, written in a fluent style and with an eye for the telling anecdote, it is keyed to the needs of students and lay readers. -- .

Karl Polanyi (1886-1964) was one of the twentieth century's most original interpreters of the market economy. His penetrating analysis of globalization's disruptions and the Great Depression's underlying causes still serves as an effective counterargument to free market fundamentalism. This biography shows how the major personal and historical events of his life transformed him from a bourgeois radical into a Christian socialist but also informed his ambivalent stance on social democracy, communism, the New Deal, and the shifting intellectual scene of postwar America. The book begins with Polanyi's childhood in the Habsburg Empire and his involvement with the Great War and Hungary's postwar revolution. It connects Polanyi's idealistic radicalism to the political promise and intellectual ferment of Red Vienna and the horror of fascism. The narrative revisits Polanyi's oeuvre in English, German, and Hungarian, includes exhaustive research in five archives, and features interviews with Polanyi's daughter, students, and colleagues, clarifying the contradictory aspects of the thinker's work. These personal accounts also shed light on Polanyi's connections to scholars, Christians, atheists, journalists, hot and cold warriors, and socialists of all stripes. Karl Polanyi: A Life on the Left engages with Polanyi's biography as a reflection and condensation of extraordinary times. It highlights the historical ruptures, tensions, and upheavals that the thinker sought to capture and comprehend and, in telling his story, engages with the intellectual and political history of a turbulent epoch.

This ambitious volume examines revolutionary situations during a non-revolutionary historical conjuncture--the neoliberal era. The last three decades have seen an increase in the number of political upheavals that challenge existing power structures, many of them taking the form of urban revolts. This book compellingly explores a series of such upheavals--in Eastern Europe, South Africa, Indonesia, Argentina, Bolivia, Venezuela, sub-Saharan Africa (including Congo, Zimbabwe, Burkina Faso) and Egypt. Each chapter studies the ways in which protest movements developed into insurgent challenges to state power, and the strategies that regimes have deployed to contain and repress revolt. In addition to empirical chapters, the book engages in theorization of revolution, dealing with questions such as the patterning of revolution in contemporary history, the relationship between class struggle and social movements, and the prospects of socialist revolution in the twenty-first century.

The work of Karl Polanyi has become a central reference point for scholars in a variety of traditions and disciplines within the social sciences, including international relations, international political economy, economic sociology and economic anthropology. This book offers a comprehensive introduction to Polanyi's political and economic thought by examining the key themes that run throughout it: economic ideas, commodification, money, the gold standard, geopolitical economy, the state, class, fascism, democracy and knowledge. Each chapter introduces the relevant aspects of Polanyi's writings, covering important terminology and the position of the theme in relation to his work more broadly. The contributions seek to engage critically with Polanyi's ideas, analysing both the strengths and weaknesses, as well as highlighting continuing points of relevance to contemporary issues and debates. The book celebrates the diversity of Polanyi's political and economic thought whilst encouraging the reader to see it as a whole and not as a set of fragmented concepts. It is an ideal introduction for students engaging with Polanyi's work for the first time.

The work of Karl Polanyi has become a central reference point for scholars in a variety of traditions and disciplines within the social sciences, including international relations, international political economy, economic sociology and economic anthropology. This book offers a comprehensive introduction to Polanyi's political and economic thought by examining the key themes that run throughout it: economic ideas, commodification, money, the gold standard, geopolitical economy, the state, class, fascism, democracy and knowledge. Each chapter introduces the relevant aspects of Polanyi's writings, covering important terminology and the position of the theme in relation to his work more broadly. The contributions seek to engage critically with Polanyi's ideas, analysing both the strengths and weaknesses, as well as highlighting continuing points of relevance to contemporary issues and debates. The book celebrates the diversity of Polanyi's political and economic thought whilst encouraging the reader to see it as a whole and not as a set of fragmented concepts. It is an ideal introduction for students engaging with Polanyi's work for the first time.

The 1989-91 upheavals in Eastern Europe sparked a tremendous acceleration of change. With the reverberations throughout the region of the global crisis of 2008-10, a new phase has begun. This volume identifies and explores its major features. The book focuses on the relationships between geopolitics, the world economy, and class restructuring. The authors, from Eastern and Western Europe, have been shaping scholarly debate about Eastern Europe's entry into the global political economy. Together, their contributions show us a world far away from the simple neoliberal conceit of creaking communist economies witnessing rapid transitions to efficient markets and political liberty. Neoliberal interpretations of the global crash are also challenged. With chapters covering the Balkans, Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, Russia, and Ukraine, this is a thorough and complete survey of the brutal reality of capitalism for Eastern Europe.

The discourse of 'green growth' has recently gained ground in environmental governance deliberations and policy proposals. It is presented as a fresh and innovative agenda centred on the deployment of engineering sophistication, managerial acumen and market mechanisms to redress the environmental and social derelictions of the existing development model. But the green growth project is deeply inadequate, whether assessed against criteria of social justice or the achievement of sustainable economic life upon a materially finite planet. This volume outlines three main lines of critique. First, it traces the development of the green growth discourse quaideology. It asks: what explains modern society's investment in it, why has it emerged as a master concept in the contemporary conjuncture, and what social forces does it serve? Second, it unpicks and explains the contradictions within a series of prominent green growth projects. Finally, it weighs up the merits and demerits of alternative strategies and policies, asking the vital question: 'if not green growth, then what?'

This book is an exploration of the economic history of the German Democratic Republic, with an emphasis upon its confrontation by and contribution towards economic and military competition on the world stage. Beginning with an analysis of the Soviet bloc as a state-capitalist formation, the GDR's economic history is charted, with detailed examinations of the challenges to Soviet-style autarky that were posed by the globalising world market, as well as of GDR policymakers' attempts to use Western imports and credits as a 'whip' to spur growth. The book's central section consists of an exploration of the ambivalent attitudes of East German policymakers and industrialists towards their West German counterparts in the 1980s, as the whip was transformed into an ever-tightening noose of debt. Here, a prodigious range of secondary sources as well as hitherto unpublished documents from the archives of the old regime are drawn upon to document the means by which relative economic decline and dependency upon Western institutions came to constrain the options available to the East German nomenklatura. Finally, this study analyses the political economy of the 1989 revolution and unification and of post-unification Eastern Germany.