Origins, Realities, and Alternatives to Neoliberalism in Eastern Europe
Join our online workshop on 24 September at 6pm CET about Jokubas Salygas’s upcoming book!
On zoom, register here: tbd
Speaker
Jokubas Salyga is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. His research investigates the political economy of capitalist development and transformation in Eastern Europe, with a particular focus on the post-communist transitions of the Baltic states.
Discussant
Yuliya Yurchenko, Senior Lecturer in Political Economy, University of Greenwich
Finde the book here: https://www.press.purdue.edu/9781626713765/
Abstract
What if the story of neoliberalism’s emergence in post-communist states was not one of Western imposition, but rather one of local innovation, adaptation, and resistance? The Myths of 1989 challenges the familiar yet mythical narrative that neoliberalism arrived ready-made and was delivered by Western advisers to Eastern European governments in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Long before the watershed years of 1989 and 1991, autochthonous actors experimented with these ideas and, at times, resisted Western advice, often blending neoliberal concepts with domestic policy goals and remnants of socialist legacies. Written by scholars from the fields of history, sociology, and political economy, this collection offers a nuanced and unconventional account of economic change in the region. By moving beyond simplistic East-meets-West explanations and exploring early market experiments under communism, as well as selective reforms in the 1990s, the book uncovers alternative paths and choices made throughout this transformation. It presents a fresh perspective on one of the twentieth century’s most significant economic shifts.
See you there!
Critical Political Economy Research Network (RN06) 