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Post-Socialist Europe and Its “Constitutive Outside”: Ethnographic Resemblances for a Comparative Research Agenda

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Diversity and Local Contexts

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Urban Anthropology ((PSUA))

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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.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Birmingham School of Social Policy, Birmingham, UK

    Giovanni Picker

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  1. Giovanni Picker
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Brooklyn College, Sociology Department, City University of New York, Brooklyn, New York, USA

    Jerome Krase

  2. Institute of Sociological Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

    Zdeněk Uherek

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Picker, G. (2017). Post-Socialist Europe and Its “Constitutive Outside”: Ethnographic Resemblances for a Comparative Research Agenda. In: Krase, J., Uherek, Z. (eds) Diversity and Local Contexts. Palgrave Studies in Urban Anthropology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53952-2_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53952-2_3

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-53951-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-53952-2

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