Postsocialisms Unbound: Connections, Critiques, Comparisons

Over the past twenty years, we have learned a great deal about the ways in which pervasive forces of transformation have enveloped the citizens and states of the former Soviet bloc. The analytic rubric of "postsocialism" has played a crucial role in this body of scholarship by enabling conversation and comparison among diverse studies spread across a massive region of the world. It is increasingly apparent, however, that the salient encounters and transformations of the early twenty-first century are inadequately un derstood if we limit the scope of our analyses to the geographical boundar ies of eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, or even the catchall "Eur asia." These days, Russia's private and nationalized oil and gas companies compete around the world in a heavily politicized marketplace of natural resource exploration, consumption, and production. Former Soviet and east European tourists, traders, laborers, and entrepreneurs cycle through the markets of Turkey, western Europe, and more distant destinations. Ac tivists promoting the rights of indigenous peoples draw upon expanding networks that connect Siberia to South America and the Arctic to Africa.