SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND UPDATED (with an Introduction by James M. Jasper)

The NGOs that dominated the decades after the end of dictatorship have progressively been contested and replaced by social movements, more connected to the population and whose claims often had more social and political dimensions. A new generation of citizens has grown. Their claims and perspective progressively replace the ones of the first post-communism generation, developing protest movements rather than joining institutional NGOs. (Geoffrey Pleyers, ISA47 President)

Most of the work on “post-communism” has been written by political scientists, and so it has focused on changes in the state. It has also tended to lump all the post-soviet nations together, ignoring the immense diversity among them. This is a monolithic image that this volume should help explore. These nations have different pasts, presents, and futures. Not all social movements are about democracy, although many are. Despite talk of a deficit of civil society and trust, there is a flourishing protest scene, including environmental movements, women’s movements, rightwing nationalist movements, and many more, most of them represented in this volume. (James M. Jasper, City University of New York)