Goulash and Solidarity

Goulash and Solidarity
Author: Zsuzsanna Clark
Publisher:
Total Pages: 202
Release: 2019-12-05
Genre:
ISBN: 9781839450709

'When people ask me what it was like growing up in Hungary in the 1970s and 80s, most people expect to hear tales of secret police, bread queues and other nasty manifestations of life in a one-party state. They are invariably disappointed when I tell them that the reality was quite different and that communist Hungary, far from being hell on earth, was in fact rather a good place to live'. From my 'Goulash and Solidarity' article, The Guardian, 2nd November 2002. My book presents a detailed, nuanced account of what everyday life was really like behind the 'Iron Curtain', written from a working-class perspective. How we lived, worked, loved, played and laughed (and at times suffered too). After my original Guardian article, (which was featured on the front cover of The Week magazine as one of the 'Best British Articles') was published I received a large number of emails and letters from readers from all over the world who had given up hope that such an honest, balanced account would ever be published. The dominant view we have of countries behind the 'Iron Curtain' is a very negative one, because the accounts tend to be written by those fiercely hostile to communism. But there is another side to the story, at least in relation to my country, Hungary. Thirty years on from the seismic political changes of the autumn of 1989, which led to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of communism in eastern Europe, my book, based on first-hand experience, provides a refreshing, alternative view to the one we have read or heard so many times before. My aim in writing 'Goulash and Solidarity' is to inform you, to entertain you, and I hope, surprise you.

The Politics of a Disillusioned Europe

The Politics of a Disillusioned Europe
Author: André Liebich
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 178
Release: 2021-11-16
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 3030839931

Moving from the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 to the present day, this book traces the trajectory of the six East Central European former satellites of the Soviet Union (Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria) that have joined the European Union. It seeks in particular to explain these countries’ disenchantment with the “return to Europe” in spite of their significant advances. The book proceeds country by country and then devotes chapters to some contemporary issues, such as minorities, migration, and the relations of these “new” members with the European Union as a whole. The book eschews theory and is intended for a general audience, including students at all levels in political science and history classes devoted to the EU and to contemporary Europe, and to an academic and practitioner audience interested in world affairs and the evolution of the European Union. The book strives to fill a persistent knowledge gap in the English-speaking world concerning East Central Europe, and to offer fresh insights about the region in the context of contemporary geopolitics.

Translating Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex

Translating Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex
Author: Julia C. Bullock
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 237
Release: 2023-05-19
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1000869229

This collection offers insights into the transnational and translingual implications of Simone de Beauvoir’s Le Deuxième Sexe (The Second Sex), a text that has served as foundational for feminisms worldwide since its publication in 1949. Little scholarly attention has been devoted to how the original French-language source text made its way into languages other than English. This is a shocking omission, given that many (but by no means all) other translations were based on the 1953 English translation by Howard M. Parshley, which has been widely criticized by Beauvoir scholars for its omissions and careless attention to its philosophical implications. This volume seeks to fill this gap in scholarship with an innovative collection of essays that interrogate the ways that Beauvoir’s essay has shifted in meaning and significance as it has travelled across the globe. This volume brings together for the first time scholars from Translation Studies, Literary Studies and Philosophical Studies, and over half of it is dedicated to non-Western European engagements with Le Deuxième Sexe (including chapters on the Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Hungarian and Polish translations). As such, this collection will be essential to any scholar of Beauvoir’s philosophy and its contributions to feminist discourses.

Unity

Unity
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 568
Release: 2002
Genre: Communism
ISBN:

Academics as Public Intellectuals

Academics as Public Intellectuals
Author: Sven Eliaeson
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 315
Release: 2009-03-26
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1443807176

As public intellectuals academics formulate specialized knowledge to become understandable and relevant for people outside of the specialty. There are two main forms of such intellectual activity: dissemination and debating. Scientific knowledge is a cultural value in its own right and also of importance in public discourse. Due to the complexity of the challenges facing modern societies the intellectual role of individual academics and scholarly institutions is increasingly important with mass education and new media techniques expanding the public sphere. It has become more important that specialists popularize also for specialists in other fields. Challenges such as climate change or social integration requires knowledgeable citizens and broad public discourses integrating specialized knowledge from several disciplines. Contemporary challenges in Western Europe, Scandinavia and the US are discussed. The historical perspectives are followed back to early Modernity. The cases include contributions on Holberg, the Myrdals and Boas. There are contributions on the recent transformations “East of the Elbe” and the challenges facing scholars in Turkey and India. The main focus of the book is on social scientists but the issues discussed are of general interest for all kinds of academics and for people interested in the cultural and political relevance of science.

Comparative Hungarian Cultural Studies

Comparative Hungarian Cultural Studies
Author: Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek
Publisher: Purdue University Press
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2011-08-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 1612491960

The studies presented in the collected volume Comparative Hungarian Cultural Studies— edited by Steven Totosy de Zepetnek and Louise O. Vasvari—are intended as an addition to scholarship in (comparative) cultural studies. More specifically, the articles represent scholarship about Central and East European culture with special attention to Hungarian culture, literature, cinema, new media, and other areas of cultural expression. On the landscape of scholarship in Central and East Europe (including Hungary), cultural studies has acquired at best spotty interest and studies in the volume aim at forging interest in the field. The volume's articles are in five parts: part one, "History Theory and Methodology of Comparative Hungarian Cultural Studies," include studies on the prehistory of multicultural and multilingual Central Europe, where vernacular literatures were first institutionalized for developing a sense of national identity. Part two, "Comparative Hungarian Cultural Studies and Literature and Culture" is about the re-evaluation of canonical works, as well as Jewish studies which has been explored inadequately in Central European scholarship. Part three, "Comparative Hungarian Cultural Studies and Other Arts," includes articles on race, jazz, operetta, and art, fin-de-siecle architecture, communist-era female fashion, and cinema. In part four, "Comparative Hungarian Cultural Studies and Gender," articles are about aspects of gender and sex(uality) with examples from fin-de-siecle transvestism, current media depictions of heterodox sexualities, and gendered language in the workplace. The volume's last section, part five, "Comparative Hungarian Cultural Studies of Contemporary Hungary," includes articles about post-1989 issues of race and ethnic relations, citizenship and public life, and new media.

Comparative Perspectives on Social Movements

Comparative Perspectives on Social Movements
Author: Doug McAdam
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 450
Release: 1996-01-26
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780521485166

Social movements such as environmentalism, feminism, nationalism, and the anti-immigration movement are a prominent feature of the modern world and have attracted increasing attention from scholars in many countries. Comparative Perspectives on Social Movements, first published in 1996, brings together a set of essays that focus upon mobilization structures and strategies, political opportunities, and cultural framing and ideologies. The essays are comparative and include studies of the former Soviet Union and eastern Europe, the United States, Italy, the Netherlands, and Germany. Their authors are amongst the leaders in the development of social movement theory and the empirical study of social movements.

The End of the Cold War

The End of the Cold War
Author: David Pietrusza
Publisher: Lucent Books
Total Pages: 132
Release: 1995
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781560062806

Photographs and text recount the unraveling of Communism and the entire Soviet system while explaining the background and effects of the animosity between the U.S.S.R. and the noncommunist world.

Liquid Society and Its Law

Liquid Society and Its Law
Author: Jiří Přibáň
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 237
Release: 2016-05-06
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1317104749

This collection of essays brings together Zygmunt Bauman and a number of internationally distinguished legal scholars who examine the influence of Bauman's recent works on social theory of law and socio-legal studies. Contributors focus on the concept of 'liquid society' and its adoption by legal scholars. The volume opens with Bauman's analysis of fears and policing in 'liquid society' and continues by examining the social and legal theoretical context and implications of Bauman's theory.

The Politics of Greed

The Politics of Greed
Author: Andrew Schwartz
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 384
Release: 2006
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780742553088

Presenting the political history of privatization in Central and Eastern Europe, this work demonstrates that the way that assets are privatized matters, both with respect to national economic performance and the successful development of the rule of law. It applies ownership regime theory to a range of post-communist privatization cases.