Political Epistemics The Secret Police, the Opposition, and the End of East German Socialism

Name: Political Epistemics The Secret Police, the Opposition, and the End of East German Socialism
Price: 49.22 USD
Availability: InStock
ISBN: 9780226297941

ISBN-10: 0226297942

ISBN-13: 9780226297941

Edition: 2011

Authors: Andreas Glaeser

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Description:

What does the durability of political institutions have to do with how actors form knowledge about them? Andreas Glaeser investigates this question in the context of a fascinating historical case: socialist East Germany's unexpected self-dissolution in 1989. His analysis builds on extensive in-depth interviews with former secret police officers and the dissidents they tried to control as well as research into the documents both groups produced. In particular, Glaeser analyzes how these two opposing factions' understanding of the socialist project came to change in response to countless everyday experiences. These investigations culminate in answers to two questions: why did the officers not…

Book details

Copyright year: 2011
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Publication date: 4/15/2011
Binding: Paperback
Pages: 640
Size: 5.98" wide x 8.98" long x 1.73" tall
Weight: 1.892
Language: English



List of Illustrations


List of Abbreviations


Preface


Acknowledgments


Introduction: Understandings, Politics, and Institutions



Socialism as a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy-The Party's Project



From Marx to Conscious Social Transformation



Aporias of Producing Right Consciousness



Contingencies and Dynamics of Understanding-The Theory



Constituting Understandings through Validations



Dialectics in Spaces of Validation



Becoming Socialist Men-The Stasi Officers



Guardians of the Party State



Stasi Culture-Authority, Networks, and Discourses



Disenchantment, Disengagement, Opposition-The Dissidents



When Someone's Eden Becomes Another's Purgatory



Forming Groups, Organizing Opposition



Policing Understandings-Reproducing Misunderstandings



Attempting to Know and Control the Opposition


Conclusions: Paralyzing Uncertainties


References


Index