Post-socialist Europe and its “Constitutive Outside”: ethnographic resemblances for a comparative research agenda

Picker, G. (2017) Post-socialist Europe and its “Constitutive Outside”: ethnographic resemblances for a comparative research agenda. In: Krase, J. and Uherek, Z. (eds.) Diversity and Local Contexts: Urban Space, Borders, and Migration. Series: Palgrave studies in urban anthropology. Palgrave Macmillan: Cham, pp. 39-53. ISBN 9783319539515 (doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-53952-2_3)

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Abstract

The “post-Socialist Europe” label has been criticized for not being able to fully capture post-1989–91 social and cultural processes in Central and Eastern Europe and Russia. While some ask what was Socialist Europe?, I interrogate non-post-Socialist Europe today. This chapter examines, from a historical-ethnographic comparative perspective, present-day fragmented resemblances and disjunctures between Eastern and Western Europe, contextualizing them within their (Socialist) antecedents. By focusing on the local governance of marginalized Romani families in Cluj-Napoca (Romania) and Florence (Italy), I show that in both temporal regimes (pre- and post-1989) the two cities display ethnographic resemblances. However, rather than creating disparities and hierarchies, I point to the importance of ethnographic comparisons between the margins of the “West” and the “East” in order to de-dichotomize and refine our knowledge.

Item Type:Book Sections
Status:Published
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Picker, Dr Giovanni
Authors: Picker, G.
College/School:College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Sociology Anthropology and Applied Social Sciences
Publisher:Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN:9783319539515
Published Online:03 November 2017

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