Youth and Social Change in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union
Youth and Social Change in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union

Author: Charles Walker

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-09-13

Total Pages: 184

ISBN-13: 1135701318

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Two decades have now passed since the revolutions of 1989 swept through Eastern Europe and precipitated the collapse of state socialism across the region, engendering a period of massive social, economic and political transformation. This book explores the ways in which young people growing up in post-socialist Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union negotiate a range of identities and transitions in their personal lives against a backdrop of thoroughgoing transformation in their societies. Drawing upon original empirical research in a range of countries, the book's contributors explore the various freedoms and insecurities that have accompanied neo-liberal transformation in post-socialist countries - in spheres as diverse as consumption, migration, political participation, volunteering, employment and family formation - and examine the ways in which they have begun to re-shape different aspects of young people's lives. In addition, while 'social change' is a central theme of the issue, all of the chapters in the collection indicate that the new opportunities and risks faced by young people continue both to underpin and to be shaped by familiar social and spatial divisions, not only within and between the countries addressed, but also between 'East' and 'West'. This book was originally published as a special issue of Journal of Youth Studies.

Youth and Social Change in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union
Youth and Social Change in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union

Author: Charles Walker

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-09-13

Total Pages: 137

ISBN-13: 1135701245

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Two decades have now passed since the revolutions of 1989 swept through Eastern Europe and precipitated the collapse of state socialism across the region, engendering a period of massive social, economic and political transformation. This book explores the ways in which young people growing up in post-socialist Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union negotiate a range of identities and transitions in their personal lives against a backdrop of thoroughgoing transformation in their societies. Drawing upon original empirical research in a range of countries, the book's contributors explore the various freedoms and insecurities that have accompanied neo-liberal transformation in post-socialist countries - in spheres as diverse as consumption, migration, political participation, volunteering, employment and family formation - and examine the ways in which they have begun to re-shape different aspects of young people's lives. In addition, while 'social change' is a central theme of the issue, all of the chapters in the collection indicate that the new opportunities and risks faced by young people continue both to underpin and to be shaped by familiar social and spatial divisions, not only within and between the countries addressed, but also between 'East' and 'West'. This book was originally published as a special issue of Journal of Youth Studies.

Eastern European Youth Cultures in a Global Context
Eastern European Youth Cultures in a Global Context

Author: Matthias Schwartz

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-04-29

Total Pages: 381

ISBN-13: 1137385138

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The demise of state Socialisms caused radical social, cultural and economic changes in Eastern Europe. Since then, young people have been confronted with fundamental disruptions and transformations to their daily environment, while an unsettling, globalized world substantially reshapes local belongings and conventional values. In times of multiple instabilities and uncertainties, this volume argues, young people prefer to try to adjust to given circumstances than to adopt the behaviour of potential rebellious, adolescent role models, dissident counter-cultures or artistic breakings of taboo. Eastern European Youth Cultures in a Global Context takes this situation as a starting point for an examination of generational change, cultural belongings, political activism and everyday practices of young people in different Eastern European countries from an interdisciplinary perspective. It argues that the conditions of global change not only call for a differentiated evaluation of youth cultures, but also for a revision of our understanding of 'youth' itself – in Eastern Europe and beyond.

Youth Movements and Elections in Eastern Europe
Youth Movements and Elections in Eastern Europe

Author: Olena Nikolayenko

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2017-10-12

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 1108267831

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At the turn of the twenty-first century, a tide of nonviolent youth movements swept across Eastern Europe. Young people demanded political change in repressive political regimes that emerged since the collapse of communism. The Serbian social movement Otpor (Resistance) played a vital role in bringing down Slobodan Milosevic in 2000. Inspired by Otpor's example, similar challenger organizations were formed in Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, and Ukraine. The youth movements, however, differed in the extent to which they could mobilize citizens against the authoritarian governments on the eve of national elections. This book argues that the movement's tactics and state countermoves explain, in no small degree, divergent social movement outcomes. Using data from semi-structured interviews with former movement participants, public opinion polls, government publications, non-governmental organization (NGO) reports, and newspaper articles, the book traces state-movement interactions in five post-communist societies: Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Serbia, and Ukraine.

1989: Young People and Social Change After the Fall of the Berlin Wall
1989: Young People and Social Change After the Fall of the Berlin Wall

Author: Carmen Leccardi

Publisher: Council of Europe

Published: 2012-01-01

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 9789287171832

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After the collapse of state socialism at the end of the 1980s, young people in Eastern Europe began to play a dramatically different role in society. Once cast as the vital, reinvigorating protagonists of the communist ideal, they emerged as promoters of democratisation and agents of a now hegemonic market system. Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, an event symbolising both the lifting of the Iron Curtain and the end of the Cold War, an international seminar was held in Budapest to discuss how the opening of eastern European societies to western Europe and the world had changed the living conditions and experiences of young people growing up in the region. This collection of essays, based on this seminar, examines the circumstances of young people in eastern Europe before and after 1989 from a variety of angles: their transition to adulthood; their living conditions; the scope they have for social participation; the way in which they construct their identities and constitute and represent current social realities; their cultures and genders; and the interplay of continuities and discontinuities around this historic watershed. This book, which pays particularly close attention to the relationship between research, policy and practice, is an invaluable tool for anyone wishing to achieve a deeper understanding of young people in Eastern Europe today.

Subcultures, Popular Music and Social Change
Subcultures, Popular Music and Social Change

Author: William Osgerby

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2014-09-18

Total Pages: 330

ISBN-13: 1443867373

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Style-based subcultures, scenes and tribes have pulsated through the history of social, economic and political change. From 1940s zoot-suiters and hepcats; through 1950s rock ’n’ rollers, beatniks and Teddy boys; 1960s surfers, rudeboys, mods, hippies and bikers; 1970s skinheads, soul boys, rastas, glam rockers, funksters and punks; on to the heavy metal, hip-hop, casual, goth, rave, hipster and clubber styles of the 1980s, 90s, noughties and beyond; distinctive blends of fashion and music have become a defining feature of the cultural landscape. Research into these phenomena has traversed the social sciences and humanities, and Subcultures, Popular Music and Social Change assembles important theoretical interventions and empirical studies from this rich, interdisciplinary field. Featuring contributions from major scholars and new researchers, the book explores the historical and cultural significance of subcultural styles and their related music genres. Particular attention is given to the relation between subcultures and their historical context, the place of subcultures within patterns of cultural and political change, and their meaning for participants, confederates and opponents. As well as Anglo-American developments, the book considers experiences across a variety of global sites and locales, giving reference to issues such as class, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, creativity, commerce, identity, resistance and deviance.

Rethinking Class in Russia
Rethinking Class in Russia

Author: Suvi Salmenniemi

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-04-08

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 1317064399

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Social differentiation, poverty and the emergence of the newly rich occasioned by the collapse of the Soviet Union have seldom been analysed from a class perspective. Rethinking Class in Russia addresses this absence by exploring the manner in which class positions are constructed and negotiated in the new Russia. Bringing an ethnographic and cultural studies approach to the topic, this book demonstrates that class is a central axis along which power and inequality are organized in Russia, revealing how symbolic, cultural and emotional dimensions are deeply intertwined with economic and material inequalities. Thematically arranged and presenting the latest empirical research, this interdisciplinary volume brings together work from both Western and Russian scholars on a range of spheres and practices, including popular culture, politics, social policy, consumption, education, work, family and everyday life. By engaging with discussions in new class analysis and by highlighting how the logic of global neoliberal capitalism is appropriated and negotiated vis-à-vis the Soviet hierarchies of value and worth, this book offers a multifaceted and carefully contextualized picture of class relations and identities in contemporary Russia and makes a contribution to the theorisation of class and inequality in a post-Cold War era. As such it will appeal to those with interests in sociology, anthropology, geography, political science, gender studies, Russian and Eastern European studies, and media and cultural studies.

Socialism, Capitalism and Alternatives
Socialism, Capitalism and Alternatives

Author: Peter J. S. Duncan

Publisher: UCL Press

Published: 2019-10-14

Total Pages: 254

ISBN-13: 1787353834

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In 1989 the Berlin Wall came down. Two years later the Soviet Union disintegrated. The collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union discredited the idea of socialism for generations to come. It was seen as representing the final and irreversible victory of capitalism. This triumphal dominance was barely challenged until the 2008 financial crisis threw the Western world into a state of turmoil. Through analysis of post-socialist Russia and Central and Eastern Europe, as well as of the United Kingdom, China and the United States, Socialism, Capitalism and Alternatives confronts the difficulty we face in articulating alternatives to capitalism, socialism and threatening populist regimes. Beginning with accounts of the impact of capitalism on countries left behind by the planned economies, the volume moves on to consider how China has become a beacon of dynamic economic growth, aggressively expanding its global influence. The final section of the volume poses alternatives to the ideological dominance of neoliberalism in the West. Since the 2008 financial crisis, demands for social change have erupted across the world. Exposing the failure of neoliberalism in the United Kingdom and examining recent social movements in Europe and the United States, the closing chapters identify how elements of past ideas are re-emerging, among them Keynesianism and radical socialism. As those chapters indicate, these ideas might well have potential to mobilise support and challenge the dominance of neoliberalism.

Civil Society and Government Institutions in Armenia
Civil Society and Government Institutions in Armenia

Author: Valentina Gevorgyan

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2024-05-09

Total Pages: 176

ISBN-13: 1040010520

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The book provides an understanding of the three decades of Armenia’s young history – from the perspective of relations between civil society and government institutions. It explores the intricate dynamics between the two entities: by explaining the patterns of relations since 1991 to present. The book offers a comprehensive exploration for understanding the state-society relations, and also delves into the historical backdrop of the region. Drawing on the latest data, the author examines real-world practices exemplifying relational variations and the opportunity structures for Armenia to progress by means of its civil society.