Eastern European Youth Cultures in a Global Context [Hardcover]

The demise of state Socialisms caused radical social, cultural and economic changes in Eastern Europe. Since then, young people have been confronted with fundamental disruptions and transformations to their daily environment, while an unsettling, globalized world substantially reshapes local belongings and conventional values. In times of multiple instabilities and uncertainties, this volume argues, young people prefer to try to adjust to given circumstances than to adopt the behaviour of potential rebellious, adolescent role models, dissident counter-cultures or artistic breakings of taboo.

Eastern European Youth Cultures in a Global Context takes this situation as a starting point for an examination of generational change, cultural belongings, political activism and everyday practices of young people in different Eastern European countries from an interdisciplinary perspective. It argues that the conditions of global change not only call for a differentiated evaluation of youth cultures, but also for a revision of our understanding of 'youth' itself  in Eastern Europe and beyond.

This volume examines contemporary Eastern European youth cultures from an interdisciplinary perspective, investigating how the radical changes resulting from the demise of state Socialisms and concurrent increased globalization processes have resulted in huge challenges for young people and a reimagining of youth itself.

Introduction; Matthias Schwarz and Heike Winkel
PART I: RECONSIDERING GENERATIONAL CHANGE
1. The End of Childhood and/or the Discovery of the Tineidzher? Adolescence in Soviet and Post-Soviet Culture; Catriona Kelly
2. Youth Cultures and the Formation of a New Political Generation in Eastern Europe; Ken Roberts
3. Fast Forward to Capitalism? Accelerated Youth in Post-Socialism; Herwig Reiter and Christine Steiger
4. Revival Without Nostalgia. The Dizel' Movement, Serbialc