Informal Nationalism After Communism

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, nation building and identity construction in the post-socialist region have been the subject of extensive academic research. The majority of these studies have taken a 'top-down' approach - focusing on the variety of ways in which governments have sought to define the nascent nation states - and in the process have often oversimplified the complex and overlapping processes at play across the region. Drawing on research on the Balkans, Central Asia, the Caucasus and Eastern Europe, this book focuses instead on the role of non-traditional, non-politicised and non-elite actors in the construction of identity. Across topics as diverse as school textbooks, turbofolk and home decoration, contributors - each an academic with extensive on-the-ground experience - identify and analyse the ways that individuals living across the post-socialist region redefine identity on a daily basis, often by manipulating and adapting state policy.In the process, Nation Building in the Post-Socialist Region demonstrates the necessity of holistic, trans-national and inter-disciplinary approaches to national identity construction rather than studies limited to a single-state territory.
This is important reading for all scholars and policymakers working on the post-socialist region.

Autorentext

Abel Polese is a senior research fellow at Tallinn University. Oleksandra Seliverstova has just finished her PhD at the Free University of Brussels and Tallinn University (jointly awarded). Emilia Pawlusz is a Marie Curie fellow in the School of Governance, Law and Society at Tallinn University. Jeremy Morris is an associate professor at the School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University.

Inhalt

Introduction
I. Informal Spaces

1. Negotiating Identity in a Multi-Ethnic Classroom: Anthropological Explorations of Everyday School Practices in the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia - Dilyara Suleymanova
2. The Estonian Way of Home-Making: Everyday Visions and Practices from the 1990s to 2000s - Anu Kannike
3. Exploring the Link between National Identity and Perceptions of Citizenship in Georgia - Tinatin Zurabishvili, Tamar Khoshtaria, Natia Mestvirishvili
   II. Consumption and Media Spaces
4. Why Nations Sell: Reproduction of Everyday Nationhood through Advertising in Russia and Belarus - Marharyta Fabrykant
5. The Moldovan Media: a Hotbed of Ntionalist Fervour - Onoriu Col?cel
6. Turbofolk as a Means of Identification - Petra s?astná
   III. Border Spaces
7. Ethnic and National Identity of Russian Estonians - Eva Sepping
8. The National and the Religious among Greek Catholic Transcarpathian - Agnieszka Halemba
9. Borders of a Borderland. "Everyday Identities" in the Context of Border Crossings - Ágnes Patakfalvi-Czirják and Csaba Zahorán
   IV. Public spaces
10. "But now everywhere is the West:" Cultural Identity in East Berlin after 1989 - Mary Dellenbaugh
11. Staging a Nation: Space and Identities in the Skopje Center - Vessela S. Warner
12. Countryside Revisited: Ethno Villages and Nation-Building in Serbia - Irena sentevska
    Conclusion