TY - BOOK ID - 14467510 TI - Transformations in Central Europe between 1989 and 2012: Geopolitical, Cultural, and Socioeconomic Shifts PY - 2012 SN - 9780739174104 PB - Lexington, MA : Lexington Books, DB - UniCat KW - POST-COMMUNISM--EUROPE, CENTRAL KW - POST-COMMUNISM--EUROPE, EASTERNEUROPE, CENTRAL--POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT KW - EUROPE, EASTERN--POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT KW - EUROPE, CENTRAL--SOCIAL CONDITIONS KW - EUROPE, EASTERN--SOCIAL CONDITIONS KW - EUROPE, CENTRAL--ECONOMIC CONDITIONS KW - EUROPE, EASTERN--ECONOMIC CONDITIONS UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:14467510 AB - This is an in-depth study of the transformations in Central Europe in the years since the fall of Communism. Using a comparative analysis of geopolitical, ethical, cultural, and socioeconomic shifts, this essential text investigates post-communist countries including Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Slovenia. Next to transitological interpretations, this study ventures upon negative and positive freedom (Isaiah Berlin) in Central Europe after two decades of post-communist transition. The author questions the meaning of completeness of post-communist transition, both geopolitical and socioeconomic, when there are many transformations that do not necessarily mean unequivocal progress. The author also analyses why Central Europe in 1989, armed with civil disobedience, could not maintain its moral politics. But the book touches sensitive issues of memory as well : an examination of May 9th is provided from the Russian and the Baltic perspectives, revealing two opposing world views regarding this date of liberation or occupation. Finally, the author analyzes the tragedy at Smolensk airport, which became an inseparable part of Central European identity. ER -