Torsello, Davide - Pappová, Melinda: Social Networks in Movement. Time, interaction and interethnic spaces in Central Eastern Europe - Nostra Tempora 8. (Somorja-Dunaszerdahely, 2003)
Epilogue
Epilogue 317 the twentieth century, we were suddenly faced not with its demise but with its remarkably vigorous revival (Gellner 1983; Hobsbawm 1991, 1992; Verdery 1993). As the political borders which separated the east from the west became more open and penetrable, temporary and long term migration from the former socialist countries increased massively. As formerly federated nation states separated amicably or were wrenched apart by civil wars, certain categories of people found themselves transported away from their homes, moved between countries, or “sent back" to countries to which they felt they did not belong (see Stewart 1993; Uherek and Plochová, Kappus, Weinerová this volume). This is not to imply that there were no movements of people, and no interethnic and international tensions, during the socialist period. There were, of course. But they tended to take different forms, often hidden by the discipline of the intrusive and directive socialist state. Thus, many of the most problematic aspects of postsocialism should be seen not necessarily as something new, but as changing, and certainly far more visible, responses to older issues. On the other hand, it is important to remember, of course, that some of the problems are new, and are very specific responses to the conditions created by the economic restructuring and resultant social uncertainties which marked the first decade after the fall of communism. Finally, and this point cannot be made too often or too strongly, most of the problems and conflicts which are discussed in this volume and elsewhere in the postsocialist literature (Bridger and Pine 1998; Burawoy and Verdery 1999; Hann 2002), are neither confined to the countries of eastern and central Europe, nor the product solely of socialism and its decline. Many are in fact far more symptomatic of global capitalism; this raises the question, which is being asked with increasing frequency by social scientists working in these regions, whether postsocialism is any longer a relevant analytic concept at all. Katherine Verdery, for one, has recently made a persuasive argument for abandoning the term altogether in favour of more politically and geographically encompassing, and less dichomtomous, categorisations
