The events of 1989 led to a transformation of the social order. This panel poses the question of how to characterize this new order and how social and economic sciences began to situate the events of 1989 in the global context of changing economic thought, economic practice, and governance from the 1970s through the 1990s. Was it a revolution of liberal political freedoms and human rights or a neoliberal revolution leading to privatization, the creation of a market economy, and the establishment of a specific neoliberal mode of governance? How did Central European economic and political thought relate to Western—or perhaps global—liberalism and neoliberalism? Were “Western” models adopted unchanged, or did they take on new meanings in Central and Eastern Europe? What alternative political and economic projects existed in 1989?

Keynote speakers: Johanna Bockman, Jan Drahokoupil
Interventions: Tereza Stöckelová, Luka Lisjak Gabrielcic, Jan Komárek