This article revisits the case for paying more attention to agency and strategy in theories of post-communist politics and society. The author analyses two trends of major social and political significance in Central and Eastern Europe between 1989 and 2007: the apparent political inconsequentiality of rising unemployment and the causes and consequences of the dramatic decline of organised labour, across a wide variety of political and institutional settings. While the prevailing explanations have emphasised the institutional and ideological legacies of the communist past, the author points to theoretical reasons for why the 'unsettled times' of transformation may have been particularly conducive to elite agency. Looking beyond legacies can shed light on the degree to which elites have channelled the expression of workers' reform grievances towards socially peaceful but, possibly, politically illiberal repertoires of expression. Pointing to past developments across a number of advanced and developing democracies, the author situates the post-communist labour decline within a larger comparative and historical context. Lastly, the author indicates how the erosion of labour power has influenced the particular models of democracy and the varieties of capitalism that have been emerging in Central and Eastern Europe since 1989.
Ústav pro soudobé dějiny Akademie věd ČR, v. v. i., ve spolupráci s Centrem pro ruská, středo- a východoevropská studia Univerzity v Glasgow (Centre for Russian, Central and East European Studies, University of Glasgow) uspořádal ve dnech 24. a 25. března 2012 v Praze mezinárodní workshop „Environmentální dějiny visegrádských zemí: Studená válka a environmentální vědy“, který byl podpořen Visegrádským fondem. Cílem setkání badatelů zaměřených na environmentální dějiny a na dějiny vědy bylo umožnit rozvoj spolupráce v tomto oboru se zřetelem na roli environmentálních dějin v dynamice vztahů Východu a Západu v období studené války., On 24 and 25 March 2012, the Institute of Contemporary History, Prague, together with the Centre for Russian, Central and East European Studies at the University of Glasgow, held an international workshop in Prague. Entitled ‘Environmental Histories of the Visegrád Countries: Cold War and Environmental Sciences’, the workshop was supported by the Visegrád Fund. The aim of the meeting was to enable people researching environmental history and the history of scholarship to work together more closely in this field, focusing on the role of environmental history in the relations between East and West during the Cold War., Emma Hakala ; přeložila Doubravka Olšáková., and přeloženo z angličtiny