Welcome to our book review site go-pdf.online!
You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
German Poetry in Transition, 1945-1990
An ambitious bilingual anthology of postwar German poetry.
Exchange, Dialogue, New Divisions?
The countries of the larger region of Eastern Europe pass through change and "modernization" processes with ambivalent effects. This book tackles aspects of cultural diversity and change in the Baltic States, in Southeast Europe and in the Southern Caucasus. These regions are diverse not only with regard to their historical, political and religious traditions but also with regard to their status as EU-members or non-members. The articles focus on the situation of ethnic minorities and related political and public discourses as well as on aspects of political cultures. The anthology also raises the topic of cleavages between geographic Eastern Europe and Europe's "reunited" part. Sonja Schuler is a Research and Teaching Assistant at the Department of Social Sciences (Social Anthropology) of the University of Fribourg (Switzerland). (Series: Freiburg Studies in Social Anthropology / Freiburger Sozialanthropologische Studien, Vol. 45) [Subject: Eastern European Studies, Sociology]
Living and Working in Sofia
Western popular images of Bulgaria are still fused with stereotypes about "the Balkans" as a peripheral "Other." In these constructions, cities and contemporary urban life hardly figure at all. This book presents a variety of urban livelihood strategies, social relations, and personal agencies in the context of social and cultural change. A central task of social anthropology is to bring the unfamiliar into focus, and this urban ethnographic study contributes to a better understanding of Sofia as a major city in contemporary Europe. (Series: lines. Beitrage zur Stadtforschung aus dem Institut fur Ethnologie der Universitat Hamburg - Vol. 7)
Utopia and Neoliberalism
This volume aims to unpack the uneasy relationship between utopia and rural spaces in the context of global pressures. The ethnographies presented here offer a rich array of examples combining rural spaces, utopian representations, and neoliberal practices. In attempting to reconcile the desire to preserve the traditional image of rural landscapes in the context of neoliberal practices that threaten the ideal of a rural utopia, imaginaries appear as powerful devices for understanding the world and motivating action.
Breaking Boundaries
This book examines the controversial younger generation of poets who were 'born into' the established socialist state of the GDR. It explores the ways in which these young poets have broken the literary and political boundaries which were imposed upon them, through an examination of theirwork, and assesses the durability of their radical project.
How Corruption and Anti-Corruption Policies Sustain Hybrid Regimes
Leaders of hybrid regimes in pursuit of political domination and material gain instrumentalize both hidden forms of corruption and public anti-corruption policies. Corruption is pursued for different purposes including cooperation with strategic partners and exclusion of opponents. Presidents use anti-corruption policies to legitimize and institutionalize political domination. Corrupt practices and anti-corruption policies become two sides of the same coin and are exercised to maintain an uneven political playing field. This study combines empirical analysis and social constructivism for an investigation into the presidencies of Leonid Kuchma (1994–2005), Viktor Yushchenko (2005–2010), and Viktor Yanukovych (2010–2014). Explorative expert interviews, press surveys, content analysis of presidential speeches, as well as critical assessment of anti-corruption legislation are used for comparison and process tracing of the utilization of corruption under three Ukrainian presidents.
When the Future Came: The Collapse of the USSR and the Emergence of National Memory in Post-Soviet History Textbooks
This captivating volume brings together case studies drawn from four post-Soviet states—Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova. The collected papers illustrate how the events that started in 1985 and brought down the USSR six years later led to the rise of fifteen successor states, with their own historicized collective memories. The volume’s analyses juxtapose history textbooks for secondary schools and universities, and how they aim to create understandings as well as identities that are politically usable, within their different contexts. From this emerges a picture of multiple perestroika(s) and diverging development paths. Only in Ukraine—a country that recently experienced two popular uprisings, the Orange Revolution and the Revolution of Dignity—the people themselves are ascribed agency and the power to change their country. In the other three states, elites are, instead, presented as prime movers of society, as is historical determinism. The volume’s contributors are Diana Bencheci, Andrei Dudchik, Liliya Erushkina, Marharyta Fabrykant, Alexandr Gorylev, Andrey Kashin, Alla Marchenko, Valerii Mosneagu, Alexey Rusakov, Natalia Tregubova, and Yuliya Yurchuk.
Explaining Russian Foreign Policy Behavior
This book aims to explain the reasons behind Russia's international conduct in the post-Soviet era, examining Russian foreign policy discourse with a particular focus on the major foreign policy schools of Atlanticism, Eurasianism, derzhavniki, realpolitik, geopolitics, neo-Marxism, radical nationalism, and post-positivism. The Russian post-Soviet threat perceptions and national security doctrines are studied. The author critically assesses the evolution of Russian foreign policy decision-making over the last 25 years and analyzes the roles of various governmental agencies, interest groups and subnational actors. Concluding that a foreign policy consensus is gradually emerging in contemporary Russia, Sergunin argues that the Russian foreign policy discourse aims not only at the formulation of an international strategy but also at the search for a new national identity. Alexander Sergunin argues that Russia's current domestic situation, defined by numerous socio-economic, inter-ethnic, demographic, environmental, and other problems, dictates the need to abandon superpower ambitions and to rather set modest foreign policy goals.
On the Verge of History
Rural women have not had a formative role in the public histories of Central Eastern Europe. Izabella Agárdi aims to correct that by concentrating on their life stories and their connections to general histories. She investigates how Hungarian-speaking, ordinary women in rural contexts born in the 1920s and 1930s remember and talk about the twentieth century they have experienced, and how, through their stories, they articulate historical change and construct themselves as historical subjects. In her analysis, Izabella Agárdi traces the interactions between micro- and macro- narratives as well as the specific tools women of this generation appropriate to talk about personal memories of their often traumatic past. From these stories, a particular mnemonic community emerges, one that speaks from a highly precarious position 'on the verge of history'. It is up to future generations whether these women's experiences will be remembered or forgotten.
Nation-building and Identities in Post-Soviet Societies
Research by social scientists on multicultural and multilingual post-Soviet societies is manifold. However, there rarely exists a dialogue between academic fields, traditions and ideologies. This book critically reunites different academic generations and traditions, different disciplines, and different geographical and cultural backgrounds by keeping the plurality of the approaches. The contributions discuss the roles of ideologies, education, and ethnic, linguistic, and religious identities in the post-Soviet nation-building processes. The included case studies show continuities and discontinuities in the ideological and political aspects of nation-building and identity management in post-Soviet societies. (Series: Freiburg Studies in Social Anthropology / Freiburger Sozialanthropologische Studien, Vol. 47) [Subject: Social Anthropology, Sociology, Politics, Soviet Union]
