This book provides a unique look into the civil spaces of post-transformation societies in Central and Eastern Europe. It investigates the dynamics of civil spheres in a region characterized by overcoming dictatorship and experiencing transitions and tremendous social change. Empirically, the book provides ten case studies that analyze the often ambivalent processes of polarization and democratic backsliding, memory culture and the role of emotions, as well as new forms of democratic resilience that have emerged in the region. The book utilizes civil sphere theory and introduces the concept of post-transformation as the central parameter of complex social and political developments in Central and Eastern Europe. In combining these theories, the book illuminates the tensions between institutionalization and informality, trust, mistrust, and the evolution of a we-ness and abstract solidarity, and thereby, explores how democratic software is programmed against the backdrop of different socialist and post-socialist legacies.

Provides a new application of classical Civil Sphere Theory in the underexplored region of Central and Eastern Europe Offers insight into transformation and post-transformation/post-communist processes Explores avenues for the development of social solidarity and best practices in civil societies

Autorentext

Bernadette Nadya Jaworsky is a professor of sociology at Masaryk University in the Czech Republic and Faculty Fellow at Yale University’s Center for Cultural Sociology in the United States.

Susann Worschech is a social scientist, senior researcher at European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder), Germany and scientific coordinator of the KIU. Competence Network Interdisciplinary Ukrainian Studies Frankfurt (Oder) – Berlin.

Jeffrey C. Alexander is the Lillian Chavenson Saden Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Yale University in the United States, founder and Director Emeritus of Yale’s Center for Cultural Sociology, and co-editor of The American Journal of Cultural Sociology.

Inhalt

Part I Introduction.-1. Post-transformation and the Civil Sphere in Central and Eastern Europe: A Conceptual Approach.- Part II Polarization and Democratic Backsliding in the Civil Sphere.- 2. From Civil Brothers to Anticivil Others: Cohabitation, Civility, and Orientalism in Czech Discursive Perceptions of the Slovak Political Crisis.- 3. Societalizing the Energy Crisis: How Germany and Austria's Far Right Delegitimized Support for Ukraine After February 24, 2022.- 4. Transformation as Incorporation: The Civil Sphere and Collective Identity in Post-socialist East Germany.- 5. The Polluting Colony: The Uses of Postcolonial Argument in Present-Day Serbia.- Part III Democratic Resilience in the Civil Sphere.- 6. From Ideals to Reality: Civil Society Autonomy Under Authoritarian RuleLessons from Russia for Post-communist Contexts.- 7. Deliberative Innovations and the Civil Sphere: Insights from Polish Climate Movements.- 8. Metamorphoses of Civil Solidarity in Wartime: Ukraine and its Dynamic Civil Sphere.- Part IV Memory, Social Practices, and Emotions in the Civil Sphere.- 9. Literature in Dialogue with the Civil Sphere: (De)Constructing Historical Continuity in Post-soviet Czechoslovakia.- 10. Surva Winter Carnivals, Civil Repair, and Nested Solidarity: Including Rurality into the Bulgarian, the European, and the Global Civil Spheres.- 11. Polarization, Moral Binaries, and Antagonistic Emotions in the Lithuanian Civil Sphere.- Part V Conclusion.- 12. The Struggle Between Liberal Democracy and Illiberal Autocracy: A Civil Sphere Theory Perspective.