In the Shadow of the Iron Curtain

The book presents the development and characteristics of anti-capitalist social movements in Central and Eastern Europe. It shows features of social and political activism in the settings of new democracies and post-socialist environments.

This book examines the alterglobalist activists in Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary. Based on lengthy ethnographic fieldwork and numerous in-depth interviews with key figures of the movement, it covers mobilizations and actions between 1998 and 2011 and analyzes the process of adapting the alterglobalist way of thinking, claims and organizational modes in post-socialist countries. By pointing out the main challenges the movement faced, the author discusses the ways it tried to overcome these. The main argument is that the post-communist legacy (expressed in low levels of mobilization, in rejection of leftist ideals and discourse and in deep mistrust towards political life) had a tremendous impact on the formation and the shape of the alterglobalist movement in the region.

Autorentext

Grzegorz Piotrowski works at the European Solidarity Centre in Gdäsk, Poland and specializes in the study of radical social movements and civil society actors in Central and Eastern Europe. He is a graduate of the European University Institute, Fiesole, Italy.

Inhalt

Alterglobalist relations Central and Eastern Europe Civil society Subcultural scenes Genealogies of social movements Impact of postsocialism Waves of mobilization