Negotiated and justified success stories of post-communist transformation in Lithuania

• In Event: Post-Communist Statecraft

Abstract

The post-communist transformation has been a period of radical change, where some of the most important questions people have had to address have been what is valuable, what is success and how to achieve it. Drawing on Boltanski and Thévenot's theory of justification, I explain how people differentially engage actively in social discourses and draw social boundaries to determine the legitimacy and value of their actions and choices in their professional careers. The issue of justification becomes even more relevant when we look at two different groups experiencing transformation from different starting points: small entrepreneurs and former industrial workers. Although they were supposed to be the backbone of the new market economy, the new entrepreneurs were viewed with suspicion by both the public and politicians. Soon after the introduction of capitalism, they came to be seen as a group to be regulated and monitored, rather than as a legitimate social group in need of support. Meanwhile, those working in industry began to lose their privileged status in the economy. Privatization, efficiency requirements and the decline of the industrial sector in general have led to a loss of importance. Drawing on oral history interviews, I show how people in Lithuania justify their positions by applying different orders of worth and how the contradictory orders of worth used during the transformation period led to conflicts with societal attitudes and institutional approaches.

Short Bio

Jogilė Ulinskaitė is Associate Professor at the Institute of International Relations and Political Science, Vilnius University. Her research focuses on narratives of post-communist transformation and their connections to political divides. She belongs to a group of researchers working on the collective memory of the communist and post-communist past in Lithuania. Her academic research also includes studies of populist discourse and its links to emotional narratives about the past.

Author

• Jogilė Ulinskaitė, Institute of International Relations and Political Science, Vilnius University