Book Discussion: In the Storms of Transformation: Two Shipyards between Socialism and the EU, by the Shipyard Collective

Session Submission Type: Book Discussion Roundtable

Brief Description

This Book Discussion will engage with the main arguments of In the Storms of Transformation, an interdisciplinary monograph written by six authors. This book tells a new story of transformation on the example of two shipyards, which were once the pride of their cities – in Gdynia, Poland, and Pula, Croatia – but went bankrupt after Poland and Croatia joined the European Union. They proved unable to withstand global competition (like many other European shipyards), which leads to a first question: how was the course of transformation linked to shifts in the global industrial geography? In the Storms of Transformation also offers a new periodization, arguing that this transformation began with the oil crisis of the early 1970s and ended with EU accession – in 2004 in Poland and in 2013 in Croatia. Did the regulatory framework of the EU mean an end to post-socialism? The book also identifies surprising continuities in state help into the 2000s, i.e., a time often described as the hegemony of neoliberalism. Bridging local labour history with global market forces and the institutions of economic policy making, the book suggests a more nuanced reading of post-communist transformation and its contradictions going beyond prevalent narratives of loss or successful change. But does it so successfully? And what can we learn from the fate of the two shipyards for a more assertive European industrial policy, and for the quest of workers for a meaningful job? Finally, the panel will address the methodological challenges of writing a book as a collective.

Sub Unit

• Economic History/Economics/Business

Chair

• Tanja Petrovic, Scientific Research Centre SAZU (Slovenia)

Roundtable Speakers

• Johanna K. Bockman, George Mason U

• Ulf Brunnbauer, Leibniz Inst for East and Southeast European Studies (Germany)

• Tao Chen, Tongji U (China)

• David Ost, Hobart & William Smith Colleges

• Vladimir Unkovski-Korica, U of Glasgow (UK)