Deserved : economic memories after the fall of the Iron Curtain /

Deserved : economic memories after the fall of the Iron Curtain /

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:	Hilmar, Till, 1985- author.
Imprint:	New York : Columbia University Press, [2023]
Description:	263 pages ; 23 cm
Language:	English
Subject:	Post-communism -- Europe, Central. Post-communism -- Europe, Eastern. Economic history. Post-communism. Social conditions. Former communist countries -- Economic conditions. Former communist countries -- Social conditions. Central Europe. Eastern Europe. Former communist countries.
Format:	Print Book
URL for this record:	http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/13148111

Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:	9780231209786 0231209789 9780231209793 0231209797 9780231558112
Notes:	Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary:	"The 1990s in Central Europe were a time of vast social change. What was it like for people who lived behind the Iron Curtain to find themselves living within a communist economy one day and a capitalist economy the next? What does it mean to formulate moral judgments about the value of work and who is doing that work when previously none were needed? In Deserved, Till Hilmar explains how moral imaginations about economic roles are formed and how they frame political dynamics in society using the fall of communism in East Germany and the Czech Republic as his cases. In an exceptionally short period of time, the labor markets in both of these countries were completely disrupted. Large scale sectoral changes, especially deindustrialization, swiftly and thoroughly upended the meaning of work. New types of social inequality rose across all forms of personal and professional relationships. Deserved is based on 67 interviews with people with firsthand experience of this social transformation. Among them, despite the large-scale structural nature of a changing economic system, respondents employ a thoroughly moral vocabulary and identify future economic successes and failures based on language of individual responsibility. In conclusion, Hilmar argues that understanding this period can help us comprehend drives towards societal polarization today, specifically the departure from collective models of social insurance against economic risk and the move towards individualized ones"--
Other form:	Online version: Hilmar, Till, 1985- Deserved New York, NY : Columbia University Press, [2023] 9780231558112

Description
Summary:	After the fall of the Iron Curtain, people across the former socialist world saw their lives transformed. In just a few years, labor markets were completely disrupted, and the meanings attached to work were drastically altered. How did people who found themselves living under state socialism one day and capitalist democracy the next adjust to the changing social order and its new system of values?<br> <br> Till Hilmar examines memories of the postsocialist transition in East Germany and the Czech Republic to offer new insights into the power of narratives about economic change. Despite the structural nature of economic shifts, people often interpret life outcomes in individual terms. Many are deeply attached to the belief that success and failure must be deserved. Emphasizing individual effort, responsibility, and character, they pass moral judgments based on a person's fortunes in the job market. Hilmar argues that such frameworks represent ways of making sense of the profound economic and social dislocations after 1989. People craft narratives of deservingness about themselves and others to solve the problem of belonging in a new social order.<br> <br> Drawing on in-depth interviews with engineers and care workers as well as historical and comparative analysis of the breakdown of communism in Eastern Europe, Deserved sheds new light on the moral imagination of capitalism and the experience of economic change. This book also offers crucial perspective on present-day politics, showing how notions of deservingness and moral worth have propelled right-wing populism.
Physical Description:	263 pages ; 23 cm
Bibliography:	Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN:	9780231209786 0231209789 9780231209793 0231209797 9780231558112