In the 1990s, states in what would become the eastern edge of the European Union transformed their political systems and economies, leaving state socialism behind for liberal democracies and free markets. In the ensuing decades, two shipyards that were once the pride of their cities \u2013 in Gdynia, Poland, and Pula, Croatia \u2013 went bankrupt, unable to withstand global competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Through an interdisciplinary study of these two shipyards, In the Storms of Transformation brings together a team of researchers to re-evaluate the shift from state socialism to market capitalism and offer a new periodization. With perspectives from social anthropology, sociology, and business history, the book argues that this transformation began with the oil crisis of the early 1970s and ended with EU accession \u2013 in 2004 in Poland and in 2013 in Croatia \u2013 highlighting the EU competition laws and global competition that pushed the shipyards into bankruptcy and diminishing the role of the revolutions of 1989.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the Storms of Transformation bridges local labour history with global market forces, going beyond prevalent narratives of loss and nostalgia or successful neoliberal change to offer a novel and nuanced reading of post-communist transformation and its contradictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
About the authors<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Ulf Brunnbauer<\/strong> is the academic director of the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies and holds the Chair of Southeast and East European History at the University of Regensburg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Philipp Ther<\/strong> is a professor of Central European history and founder of the Research Center for the History of Transformations (RECET) at the University of Vienna.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Piotr Filipkowski<\/strong> is an assistant professor at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology at the Polish Academy of Sciences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Andrew Hodges<\/strong> is a book editor and literary translator at The Narrative Craft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Stefano Petrungaro<\/strong> is an associate professor in the Department of Linguistics and Comparative Cultural Studies at Ca\u2019 Foscari University of Venice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Peter Wegenschimmel<\/strong> is the head of archives at the University of Kassel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reviews<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cShipbuilders were among the primary groups whose strikes and activism brought down communism: this pathbreaking volume asks what they ultimately achieved. Taking readers to their workplaces and communities over three decades, the authors examine gains but also losses. Did the transformation needlessly do away with things of value, like jobs and industry, or was the pain necessary for the transition to liberal society?\u201c \u2013 John Connelly, Sidney Hellman Ehrman Professor of European History, University of California, Berkeley<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cA stunning and detailed study of post-socialist transition told through the eyes of two shipyards in Poland and Croatia, emphasizing not only the economic but also the social and cultural effects of wave after wave of change. It forces us to look at just how stark the transition from socialism to capitalism has been \u2013 and at the storms that marked journey.\u201d \u2013 Mitchell A. Orenstein, Professor of Russian and East European Studies, University of Pennsylvania<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n University of Toronto Press<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 267 pages<\/p>\n\n\n\n January 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n