Reply to: Zsuzsa Gille, [log in to unmask]

CALL FOR PAPERS

NEW POSTSOCIALIST ONTOLOGIES AND POLITICS

THE ANNUAL SYMPOSIUM OF SOYUZ

The Research Network for Postsocialist Cultural Studies

March 11-12, 2011

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

 Symposium theme

The purpose of the conference is to build on and advance a new and
exciting direction in postsocialist studies, a paradigm we may call
the relational perspective. Such explorations have rested on three
approaches: 1) the conceptualization of the global context of state
and postsocialism; 2) the questioning of directionality between this
global context and the former “Second World;” and 3) the political
implications of rethinking the global context as itself postsocialist.

Existing social science and humanities scholarship has acknowledged
various global economic, social, and cultural contexts of state
socialism and postsocialism, though to a limited degree. For example,
some have argued that existing socialist countries were either part
and parcel of the capitalist world-system or—a more moderate view—that
they simultaneously exhibited an economic dependence on the West and
political dependence on Moscow. Others have positioned postsocialism
vis-à-vis modernity in particular ways, arguing that state socialism
was a version of modernity and/or that the social movements and civic
activities that helped bring communism down were demonstrably
postmodern. Another group of scholars has compared central planning to
the Fordist-Keynesian version of Western capitalism and the
developmental state, and the current neoliberal transformations to the
flexible accumulation phase of global capitalism and neoliberal
governmentality. Yet another group of scholars has emphasized the key
role environmental movements played in the collapse of communism,
exhibiting a global shift towards reflexive modernity, risk society,
and ecological modernization. Finally, and most recently, scholars,
primarily in the humanities, have started investigating the
similarities and differences between colonialism and the
Soviet/Russian empires, on the one hand, and the similarities and
differences between postcolonialism and postsocialism on the other.

These linkages have greatly inspired many area studies scholars, and
even those studying “postsocialist” countries in Latin-America, Asia,
and Africa, and we welcome further explorations of these relations.
However, we would also like to pose the question of whether eastern
European socialism and its collapse might also be constitutive of
these differently conceptualized global contexts and ‘posts’. Three
examples for such a conceptualization of the global context are a)
Johanna Bockman and Gil Eyal’s claim that neoliberalism was developed
and tested in vivo in eastern Europe; b) Alexei Yurchak’s and Dominic
Boyer’s argument that the similarities between late socialist
aesthetics and current uses of political irony in the West shed light
on the ontological entangledness of Western liberalism and
East-European state socialism; and, finally, c) Katherine Verdery and
Charad Shari’s call not just for more dialogue between postsocialist
and postcolonial studies but a research agenda that investigates how
the former Second and Third Worlds have been mutually constitutive. In
this symposium we seek to reimagine the global context of state and
postsocialism by questioning the currently dominant directionality of
relations among the “three worlds.”

Ultimately, we must also address the possible epistemological and
political implications of such new ontologies. One possible way to do
so might be to engage with political philosopher Nancy Fraser’s
concept of the postsocialist politics that moves away from the
traditional leftist politics of (re)distribution by integrating it
with the politics of recognition and of representation. Here we’re
asking questions about the circulation of political imaginaries during
the Cold War and after 1989. Other approaches however are also
welcome.

The format of the symposium

 The symposium will start with a keynote debate between Katherine
Verdery and Michael Burawoy on this “traffic between the posts.” The
rest of the symposium will follow the usual panel format but enriching
it with other invited faculty’s commentaries. These are scholars whose
work has inspired many of these ontological and epistemological
experiments, and they include Maria Todorova, József Böröcz, Johanna
Bockman, Bruce Grant, and Lynne Haney.

Practicalities

We will have some limited resources to contribute to graduate
students’ and regional scholars’ travel expenses.

 Submit your 300-word abstracts to Zsuzsa Gille at [log in to unmask]
by December 1, 2010. We will get back to you by January 15, 2011. In
the subject of your email please mention Soyuz 2011, and in the text
of your message please indicate your need financial assistance.