Shared Divergence: Comparing Post-Socialist Peripheries and Predicaments

Main Article Content

Juho Korhonen

Abstract

Based on preliminary research, mainly interviews with social scientists, and theoretical propositions I explore the politics of knowledge in peripheral post-socialist states. The states considered here are Albania, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, and Tanzania. Out of the four a focus is set on Tanzania in order to better argue for and show the global nature of some of the shared predicaments of post-socialist states in general and of the post-socialist peripheries of the former second world, the so-called “post-peripheries,” in particular. The overarching argument is that certain post-socialist predicaments have incapacitated an effective politics of knowledge across post-peripheral states and led to a decrease of substantive rationality. The argument is constructed not to hold categorically but rather to outline an ideal-type description of one perspective with which to better understand similarities of post-socialist states within the divergence of the former socialist world as a whole.

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How to Cite
Korhonen, J. (2016). Shared Divergence: Comparing Post-Socialist Peripheries and Predicaments. Modern Africa: Politics, History and Society, 4(1), 35–64. Retrieved from https://journals.uhk.cz/modernafrica/article/view/118
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Author Biography

Juho Korhonen, Brown University

PhD candidate in sociology at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, USA. His research focuses on historical transformations of political entities from empire to nation-state, from socialism to post-socialism.