Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Transitional Justice as Situated Practices

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Representing Communism After the Fall

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Discursive Psychology ((PSDP))

  • 231 Accesses

Abstract

Since Ruti Teitel published her influential book in 2000, transitional justice has become established as a flourishing field of research and societal impact. After the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, the social and political experience of post-communist countries with transitional justice has provided a natural laboratory for exploring a wide range of practices, programs, and methods of coming to terms with the communist past.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Turcescu and Stan note that ‘laws saw very little need to acknowledge overlap between the two categories (that is, cases in which an individual had engaged in actions that could be simultaneously denote resistance and collaboration) or changes over the course of a lifetime (since an individual could have dissented during one decade and consented at some other time)’ (2017, pp. 24–25). See also Espindola (2015) on the ‘ambiguity’ of collaboration, that is, the category of ‘unofficial collaborators’ who are described as ‘neither bystanders nor dictators or state bureaucrats: they stand somewhere in an ambiguous position between these two sides’ (p. 2).

  2. 2.

    As Wittgenstein famously argued, ‘people who are constantly asking “why” are like tourists who stand in front of a building reading Baedeker and are so busy reading the history of its construction, etc., that they are prevented from seeing the building’ (1980, p. 40e).

References

  • Adorno, T. W. (1986). What Does Coming to Terms with the Past Mean?. In G. Hartman (Ed.), Bitburg in Moral and Political Perspective (T. Bahti & G. Hartman, Trans.). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Agha, A. (2007). Recombinant Selves in Mass Mediated Spacetime. Language and Communication, 27, 320–335.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Andrews, M. (2007). Shaping History: Narratives of Political Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Assmann, J. (2008). Communicative and Cultural Memory. In A. Erll & A. Nünning (Eds.), Cultural Memory Studies. An International and Interdisciplinary Handbook (pp. 109–118). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Augoustinos, M. (2001). Social Categorization: Towards Theoretical Integration. In K. Deaux & G. Philogene (Eds.), Representations of the Social: Bridging Theoretical Traditions (pp. 201–216). New York: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Billig, M. (1996). Arguing and Thinking: A Rhetorical Approach to Social Psychology (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Billig, M. (1998). Talking of the Royal family. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Billig, M., Condor, S., Edwards, D., Gane, M., Middleton, D., & Radley, A. (1988). Ideological Dilemmas: A Social Psychology of Everyday Thinking. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bruner, J. (2005). Past and Present as Narrative Constructions. In J. Straub (Ed.), Narration, Identity and Historical Consciousness (pp. 23–43). New York: Bergham Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bucur, M. (2009). Heroes and Victims: Remembering War in Twentieth-Century Romania. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, S. (2008). The Second Voice. Memory Studies, 1, 41–48.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cesereanu, R. (2004). Decembrie ’89. Deconstructia unei Revolutii. Iasi: Polirom.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, S. (2001). States of Denial: Knowing about Atrocities and Suffering. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Condor, S. (2006). Temporality and Collectivity: Diversity, History and the Rhetorical Construction of National Entitativity. British Journal of Social Psychology, 45, 657–682.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Connolly, W. (1993). The Terms of Political Discourse (3rd ed.). Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cornea, A. (2007). The Time Has Not Come Yet!’ or Tactics for Avoiding the Confrontation with the Past. Echinox Notebooks, 13, 133–137.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coulter, J. (2001). Human Practices and the Observability of the “Macro-Social”. In T. R. Schatzki, K. K. Cetina, & E. Savigny (Eds.), The Practice Turn in Contemporary Theory (pp. 29–41). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • de Brito, A. B., Enriquez, C., & Aguilar, P. (2001). The Politics of Memory: Transitional Justice in Democratizing Societies. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Doise, W., & Staerklé, C. (2002). From Social to Political Psychology: The Societal Approach. In K. Monroe (Ed.), Political Psychology (pp. 151–172). Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edwards, D. (2006). Facts, Norms and Dispositions: Practical Uses of the Modal Verb Would in Police Interrogations. Discourse Studies, 8(4), 475–501.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Espindola, J. (2015). Transitional Justice after German Reunification: Exposing Unofficial Collaborators. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Falk, B. (2003). The Dilemmas of Dissidence in East-Central Europe: Citizen Intellectuals and Philosopher Kings. Budapest: Central European University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Falk, B. (2011). Resistance and Dissent in Central and Eastern Europe: An Emerging Historiography. East European Politics and Societies, 25(2), 318–360.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gallie, W. B. (1962). Essentially Contested Concepts. In M. Black (Ed.), The Importance of Language (pp. 121–146). Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gallinat, A. (2009). Intense Paradoxes of Memory: Researching Moral Questions about Remembering the Socialist Past. History and Anthropology, 20, 183–199.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gergen, K. (2005). Narrative, Moral Identity and Historical Consciousness: A Social Constructionist Account. In J. Straub (Ed.), Narration, Identity and Historical Consciousness (pp. 99–119). New York: Bergham Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grosescu, R., & Fijalkowski, A. (2017). Retrospective Justice and Legal Culture. In L. Stan & L. Turcescu (Eds.), Justice, Memory and Redress in Romania: New Insights (pp. 100–123). Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gussi, A. (2017). Paradoxes of Delayed Transitional Justice. In L. Stan & L. Turcescu (Eds.), Justice, Memory and Redress in Romania: New Insights (pp. 76–99). Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Halbwachs, M. (1952/1992). On Collective Memory. Chicago: Chicago University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hester, S., & Eglin, P. (1997). The Reflexive Constitution of Category, Predicate and Context in Two Settings. In S. Hester & P. Eglin (Eds.), Culture in Action: Studies in Membership Categorisation Analysis (pp. 25–48). Washington, DC: University Press of America.

    Google Scholar 

  • Horne, C. (2017). Evaluating Measures and Their Outcomes. In L. Stan & L. Turcescu (Eds.), Justice, Memory and Redress in Romania: New Insights (pp. 45–75). Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huyssen, A. (2003). Present Pasts: Urban Palimpsests and the Politics of Memory. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Light, D., & Young, C. (2017). Memory, Commemorative Landscapes and Transitional Justice. In L. Stan & L. Turcescu (Eds.), Justice, Memory and Redress in Romania: New Insights (pp. 145–165). Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liu, J. H., Lawrence, B., Ward, C., & Abraham, S. (2002). Social Representations of History in Malaysia and Singapore: On the Relationship Between National and Ethnic Identity. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 5(1), 3–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu, J. H., & Hilton, D. J. (2005). How the Past Weighs on the Present: Social Representations of History and Their Role in Identity Politics. British Journal of Social Psychology, 44, 537–556.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu, J. H., Wilson, M. W., McClure, J., & Higgins, T. R. (1999). Social Identity and the Perception of History: Cultural Representations of Aotearoa/New Zealand. European Journal of Social Psychology, 29, 1021–1047.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lynch, M., & Bogen, D. (1996). The Spectacle of History: Speech, Text, and Memory at the Iran-Contra Hearings. Durham/London: Duke University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marková, I. (1997). The Individual and the Community: A Post-Communist Perspective. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, 7, 3–17.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McAdams, J. (2001). Judging the Past in Unified Germany. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Middleton, D., & Brown, S. D. (2005). The Social Psychology of Experience: Studies in Remembering and Forgetting. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Middleton, D., & Brown, S. D. (2007). Issues in the Socio-Cultural Study of Memory: Making Memory Matter. In J. Valsiner & A. Rosa (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Sociocultural Psychology (pp. 661–677). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, B. (1999). Narratives of Guilt and Compliance in Unified Germany: Stasi Informers and their Impact on Society. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, B. (2003). Portrayals of Past and Present Selves in the Life Stories of Former Stasi Informers. In R. Humphrey, R. Miller, & E. Zdravomyslova (Eds.), Biographical Research in Eastern Europe: Altered Lives and Broken Biographies (pp. 101–114). London: Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nalepa, M. (2010). Skeletons in the Closet: Transitional Justice in Post-Communist Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Olick, J. K. (Ed.). (2003). States of Memory: Continuities, Conflicts, and Transformations in National Retrospection. Durham: Duke University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Olick, J. K. (2007). The Politics of Regret: On Collective Memory and Historical Responsibility. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Petrescu, C. (2017a). Nostalgia, Identity and Self-irony in Remembering Communism. In L. Stan & L. Turcescu (Eds.), Justice, Memory and Redress in Romania: New Insights (pp. 192–213). Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Petrescu, D. (2017b). Public Exposure Without Lustration. In L. Stan & L. Turcescu (Eds.), Justice, Memory and Redress in Romania: New Insights (pp. 124–144). Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pettai, E.-C., & Pettai, V. (2014). Transitional and Retrospective Justice in the Baltic States. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Preda, C. (2017). The Role of Art in Dealing with the Communist Past. In L. Stan & L. Turcescu (Eds.), Justice, Memory and Redress in Romania: New Insights (pp. 166–191). Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rothberg, M. (2009). Multidirectional Memory: Remembering the Holocaust in the Age of Decolonization. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schudson, M. (1992). Watergate in American Memory: How We Remember, Forget, and Reconstruct the Past. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simic, O., & Volcic, Z. (Eds.). (2013). Transitional Justice and Civil Society in the Balkans. New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stan, L. (2006). The Vanishing Truth: Politics and Memory in Post-communist Europe. East European Quarterly, 40, 383–408.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stan, L. (2007). Comisia Tismăneanu: repere internaţionale. Sfera Politicii, 126–127, 7–13.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stan, L. (Ed.). (2009). Transitional Justice in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stan, L. (2013). Transitional Justice in Post-Communist Romania: The Politics of Memory. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Stan, L., & Turcescu, L. (Eds.). (2017). Justice, Memory and Redress in Romania: New Insights. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stan, L., & Nedelsky, N. (Eds.). (2013). International Encyclopedia of Transitional Justice. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stokoe, E., Hepburn, A., & Antaki, C. (2012). Beware the “Loughborough School” of Social Psychology: Interaction and the Politics of Intervention. British Journal of Social Psychology, 51, 486–496.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Straub, J. (2005). Telling Stories, Making History: Toward a Narrative Psychology of the Historical Construction of Meaning. In J. Straub (Ed.), Narration, Identity and Historical Consciousness (pp. 44–98). New York: Bergham Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sztompka, P. (1993). The Sociology of Social Change. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Teitel, R. (2000). Transitional Justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tileagă, C. (2008). What Is a Revolution: National Commemoration, Collective Memory and Managing Authenticity in the Representation of a Political Event. Discourse & Society, 19(3), 359–382.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Todorov, T. (2009). In Defence of the Enlightenment. London: Atlantic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Turcescu, L., & Stan, L. (2017). Collaboration and Resistance: Some Definitional Difficulties. In L. Stan & L. Turcescu (Eds.), Justice, Memory and Redress in Romania: New Insights (pp. 24–44). Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Veyne, P. (1984). Writing History: Essay on Epistemology (M. Moore-Rinvolucri, Trans.). Middletown: Wesleyan University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wertsch, J. (2002). Voices of Collective Remembering. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wertsch, J. (2007). Collective Memory. In J. Valsiner & A. Rosa (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Sociocultural Psychology (pp. 645–660). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Wertsch, J., & Karumidze, Z. (2009). Spinning the Past: Russian and Georgian Accounts of the War of August 2008. Memory Studies, 2(3), 377–391.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wetherell, M. (2003). Paranoia, Ambivalence and Discursive Practices: Concepts of Position and Positioning in Psychoanalysis and Discursive Psychology. In R. Harre & F. Moghaddam (Eds.), The Self and Others: Positioning Individuals and Groups in Personal, Political and Cultural Contexts (pp. 99–120). Westport: Praeger.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wittgenstein, L. (1980). Culture and Value (P. Winch, Trans.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Sciences, Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK

    Cristian Tileagă

Authors
  1. Cristian Tileagă
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Tileagă, C. (2018). Transitional Justice as Situated Practices. In: Representing Communism After the Fall. Palgrave Studies in Discursive Psychology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97394-4_2

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation