The Dictionary of Human Geography

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data analysis. As such, it provides an antidote

to nihilistic relativism about facts, values and

reality. Saloranta (2001) shows how PSN can

be used in the climate change debate. kj

post-socialism The various complex polit-

ical and economic transformations occurring

(particularly after 1989) in the former socialist

states of Central and Eastern Europe and the

former Soviet Union. It signals an historical

break with models of social and economic

development organized around a centralized

bureaucraticstatesocialist project, acom-

mand economy, and the demise of thegeo-

political hegemonyof the Soviet Union over

its satellite states. There is still debate about

whether Chinese market socialism can be

thought of as post-socialist with its opening

of markets to foreign investment and export

markets, and the expansion of private owner-

ship in aneconomystill strongly controlled by

the party state.

Post-socialism is also a description of a

reorientation in a broaderepistemological

and political structure of thought. Along

with other similar ‘postings’ (such aspost-

modernism,post-structuralismandpost-

colonialism), post-socialism has signalled a

conceptual break and has initiated a series of

thorough-going theoretical transformations

of socialist thought, as these others had

withmodernism,structuralismand colonial

thought. With its enormous geographical

scope and the depth of its impacts on regional

and global economies, post-socialism has also

reshaped the intellectual and institutional

practices of many of the social sciences (e.g.

theperestroikamovement in political science,

post-marxismand rethinkingmarxismin eco-

nomics,political economyandgeography,

and the resurgence ofanarchistthought and

practice insocial movementsand global just-

ice movements).

Despite the salience of the historical

changes wrought after 1989, post-socialism

retains the binary nature of its origins. On

the one hand, it represents one of the deepest

politico-philosophical breaks of the twentieth

century, the break withsocialismand the

return to themarket ideologyof Friedrich

von Hayek. This break has fuelled the resur-

gence ofneo-liberalismin former socialist

states, particularly by the Bretton Woods

organizations such as the IMF and World

Bank. In this view, there is no alternative for

reform societies but to privatize their econ-

omies, democratize their polities and liberalize

their societies. De-communization must

accompany structural adjustment, shock ther-

apy and the building of open markets. On the

other hand, post-socialism has also been a

political–theoretical movement of socialist

and social-democratic thinkers deeply con-

cerned by the shocking deepening of social

and economic inequalities produced bystruc-

tural adjustmentand shock therapy, yet

optimistic about the possibilities of what

Jacques Derrida called ‘democracy-to-come’

(Derrida, 1994). For such scholars, the tech-

nocratic implementation of shock therapy and

the dire consequences for regional economies

and livelihoods has been a cause for serious

concern. From this perspective, the social and

geographical contingencies of state socialism

are matched by the deep complexities and

contradictions of post-socialism (van Hoven,

2003). In response, geographers have expli-

citly challenged the dominant transition

framework that examines organizational forms

in Eastern Europe according to the degree to

which they conform to or depart from the

blueprints of already existingcapitalisms.In

their place, they have focused on the diversity

of ‘actually occurring post-socialisms’

(Grabher and Stark, 1997; Pickles and

Smith, 1998).

With accession to the European Union, the

geographies of post-socialist Central and

Eastern europe have become ever more

focused on issues of regional and institutional

integration, the creation of common eco-

nomic spaces, and issues of immigration

and labour market change. Here, post-

socialism finally comes to mean something

it probably ought to have meant much earl-

ier; the process of regional change wrought

on both sides of the Iron Curtain. jpi

Suggested reading

Hann (2002); Pickles (2007); Rainnie, Smith

and Swain (2002); Smith (2004); Zˇizˇek (2001).

post-structuralism A post-1960s intellec-

tual movement that countered the perceived

rigidities, certainties and essentialisms thought

to characterize structuralism. Yet post-

structuralism has always been indebted to its

predecessor, to which it is tied in productive

ways (hence ‘post-’ and not ‘anti-’ structural-

ism). Post-structuralism was developed first in

philosophyand later took hold in literary

theory and criticism (seecultural turn). Its

birth is usually marked by a 1966 conference

paper by Jacques Derrida (republished in

1978; also see Derrida, 1979). Other key

figures and contributions include Foucault

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POST-STRUCTURALISM