Transformations in Central Europe between 1989 and 2012 PDF Download

Author: Tomas Kavaliauskas
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 0739174118
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 233

View

Book Description
This book is an in-depth study of the transformations in Central Europe in the years since the fall of Communism. In a comparative analysis of geopolitical, ethical, cultural, and socioeconomic shifts, this essential text investigates the post-communist countries.

Author: Tomas Kavaliauskas
Publisher: Value Inquiry Book
ISBN: 9789004442115
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 274

View

Book Description
For the last thirty years the year 1989 has symbolized a European 'annus mirabilis', standing for such events as the fall of the Berlin Wall and the impending collapse of the Soviet Union. Cultural and political transformations in Western Europe due to the rise of the migrant crisis are now echoed in East-Central Europe. In 'Europe Thirty Years After 1989', the authors jointly explore the recent history of former socialist countries such as Bulgaria, Croatia, Poland, Hungary, the Czech republic, the Baltic States, and Russia. Thirty years ago some of these countries stood as a paradigmatic example of peaceful and liberal patriotism, but during the past thirty years some countries have experienced transformations in their values, memory and identity. A shift towards illiberal democracy has occurred, although not without the overlapping trends in Western and Southern Europe. This book is for those who wish to join and learn from the search for an interpretation and answer(s) to the question: what happened to the legacy of 1989 over the past thirty years, and why did these changes and transformations occur?

Author: Jerzy Bański
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9783030212360
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 367

View

Book Description
This book identifies, diagnoses and evaluates social and economic processes taking place in the rural areas of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) states in the last 25 years and affecting the immediate future, with a particular focus on their spatial diversity. It addresses questions related to the rationality of the current development policy and possible results in the future. Contemporary processes of socio-economic development are typified by the fact that spatial and regional disparities are tending to increase. This unfavourable phenomenon manifested both in society and in terms of polarised space needs to be counteracted using an effective development policy. The book highlights issues concerning demography, functional structure and non-agricultural activity, and identifies new challenges arising from membership of the European Union (EU). Accession to the EU and the opportunity to implement support measures has further increased the dynamism of transformation – a process that proceeded under various scenarios and different regulations and assumptions that have yet to be identified and evaluated. Furthermore, the current internal policies of individual CEE states concerning rural areas are diverse and likely to affect differential future development. The book is based on the knowledge and experience of scientists from countries in the region investigated, who have the best understanding of the subject matter and have observed the transformations. It is intended for researchers exploring the development of the countryside and practitioners dealing with regional and national development policies targeting rural areas.

Author: Andrzej Szczerski
Publisher:
ISBN: 9788323345435
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 258

View

Book Description
Andrzej Szczerski examines how artists responded to the post-1989 transition to democracy and a free market economy and proposed directions for these transformations to take, as well as their role in shaping remembrance of the communist era.

Author: F. E. Ian Hamilton
Publisher: United Nations University Press
ISBN: 9280811053
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 539

View

Book Description
Annotation This volume is one in a series initiated by the United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies on the inter-relationship between globalisation and urban transformation. It identifies and describes the inter- and intra-urban transformations of Central and Eastern European cities and considers their pre-1945 historic legacies, the socialist period, and their contemporary transition towards market oriented and democratic systems. The dramatic changes since 1989 including the collapse of Communist ideology, the break-up of the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, the end of the Cold War and the impact of globalisation and European integration, have reconfigured this region and affected their re-integration into European and global networks. This book first examines the similarities and differences between significant Central and Eastern European cities, comparing the differing patterns of historical context and socialist legacies before 1990, and the impacts of internal and external forces on re-shaping these cities and their paths of transformation since 1990. It also examines the role of contemporary planning within the overall development of Central and Eastern European cities. The conclusion demonstrates the similarities and differences between Central and Eastern European cities and their re-integration into global networks.

Author: Jerzy Bański
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030737667
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 242

View

Book Description
This book describes the transformation of the agricultural sector in East-Central European countries after the collapse of the socialist system at the beginning of the 20th century. Through considering their spatial diversity, it identifies diagnoses and evaluates the social and economic processes that have taken place in eleven countries which are currently the members of the European Community. The book analyses all important elements of spatial structure of agriculture such as land use, agrarian structure, agricultural population, technical facilities, structure and volume of production, yields, and types of farms. It also provides a wealth of maps and charts that facilitate the interpretation of the identified phenomena. As such the book is a great resource for academics, students, practitioners and policy-makers in geography and food economics.

Author: Dan Stone
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199560986
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 796

View

Book Description
The postwar period is no longer current affairs but is becoming the recent past. As such, it is increasingly attracting the attentions of historians. Whilst the Cold War has long been a mainstay of political science and contemporary history, recent research approaches postwar Europe in many different ways, all of which are represented in the 35 chapters of this book. As well as diplomatic, political, institutional, economic, and social history, the The Oxford Handbook of Postwar European History contains chapters which approach the past through the lenses of gender, espionage, art and architecture, technology, agriculture, heritage, postcolonialism, memory, and generational change, and shows how the history of postwar Europe can be enriched by looking to disciplines such as anthropology and philosophy. The Handbook covers all of Europe, with a notable focus on Eastern Europe. Including subjects as diverse as the meaning of 'Europe' and European identity, southern Europe after dictatorship, the cultural meanings of the bomb, the 1968 student uprisings, immigration, Americanization, welfare, leisure, decolonization, the Wars of Yugoslav Succession, and coming to terms with the Nazi past, the thirty five essays in this Handbook offer an unparalleled coverage of postwar European history that offers far more than the standard Cold War framework. Readers will find self-contained, state-of-the-art analyses of major subjects, each written by acknowledged experts, as well as stimulating and novel approaches to newer topics. Combining empirical rigour and adventurous conceptual analysis, this Handbook offers in one substantial volume a guide to the numerous ways in which historians are now rewriting the history of postwar Europe.

Author: Waldemar Cudny
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000514625
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 274

View

Book Description
This book presents multidimensional socio-economic transformations taking place in the post-socialist cities located in selected countries of the Central European region. The analysis includes case studies from the Eastern part of Germany (Chemnitz, Leipzig), Poland (Łódź, Kielce, Katowice conurbation, and peripheral urban centres from Eastern Poland), Slovakia (Bratislava, Nitra), the Czech Republic (Olomouc, Brno), and from Hungary (Pécs). The analysed urban areas have undergone far-reaching political and socio-economic changes in the last 30 years. These changes began with the collapse of communism and the centrally planned economy system in the region of Central Europe. The beginning of this period, often referred to as post-socialist transformation, dates back to 1989. The consequence of the aforementioned political processes was the multifaceted socio-economic and demographic changes that significantly affected urban areas in Central Europe. This book presents an attempt to summarize the main long-term processes of changes taking place in these urban areas and to identify contemporary and future trends in their socio-economic development. The book will be valuable to undergraduate and postgraduate students in human geography, urban studies, economy, and city marketing, especially with an interest in Central Europe.

Author: Peter Wilkin
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 0739187929
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 251

View

Book Description
This book examines the crisis of democracy that has arisen in Hungary since the election of the Fidesz government in 2010. After moving swiftly to transform the Hungarian constitution, Fidesz created a new political system which has led its critics to argue that the era of democracy in Hungary is over. US Senator John McCain has gone so far as to describe Hungary as an illiberal democracy on a path toward fascism. The author argues that Fidesz has sought to challenge the capitalist and democratic transformation that shaped Hungary for 20 years after the fall of communism by increasing the power of the state over crucial aspects of the economy, society, and the political system. In so doing Fidesz’ actions resemble those undertaken by many authoritarian states that have emerged since the end of the Second World War, all aiming to build up a national capitalism and protect their economies whilst undertaking nation-building. To make sense of this the author draws upon two traditions of thought, world systems-analysis, which situates Hungary in the context of its incorporation in the modern capitalist world-system after the fall of communism; and anarchist social thought which provides a unique way of seeing the actions of states and political elites. In so doing the book argues that the events unfolding in Hungary cannot be explained on the basis of Hungarian exceptionalism but must be situated in the broader political and economic context that has shaped the development of Hungary since 1990. The form of capitalism introduced in Hungary and across the region of East and Central Europe has systematically undermined the strong state and social security that had existed under communism, and when added to the failure of the left and liberals in the region it has paved the way for far-right and neo-fascist political movements to emerge claiming the mantle of defenders of society from the market. This represents a fundamental threat to the enlightenment traditions that have shaped dominant modern political ideologies and raises profound problems for both the EU and NATO.

Author: Vladimir Tismaneanu
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108657966
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 215

View

Book Description
Reckoning with mass crimes perpetrated by an ideologically driven regime entails engaging in a thorough-going exploration of its utopian foundations. In the case of Romania, such an analysis requires an interpretation of the role of personality in the construction of a uniquely grotesque and unrepentant form of neo-Stalinist despotism. Of all the revolutions of 1989, the only violent one took place in Romania. Confronting its communist past therefore involves addressing the abuses committed by the communist regime up to its very last day, its failure to engage in Round Table-type agreements with democratic representatives, and the repression during the first post-communist years, a direct legacy of the old regime. This book shows how moral justice can contribute to a restoration of truth and a climate of trust in politics, in the absence of which any democratic polity remains exposed to authoritarian attack.