Situated Marxism: Theoretical Practices in State Socialist Europe
Situated Marxism: Theoretical Practices in State Socialist Europe
edited by Adela Hincu, Stefan Baghiu, Alex Cistelecan and Christian Ferencz-Flatz by Alex Cistelecan and Una Blagojević
Central European University Press, 2026 Cloth: 978-963-386-873-7 | eISBN: 978-963-386-875-1 (ePub) | eISBN: 978-963-386-874-4 (PDF)
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | TOC
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Situated Marxism analyzes theoretical practices in postwar Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union on their own terms and within their institutional, social, and historical contexts. Challenging enduring narratives of dogma and decline, twelve case studies from across the region trace how Marxist thought engaged with science, ecology, global futures, and Western philosophy, and how these engagements shaped new understandings of orthodoxy. The volume reveals a rich intellectual tradition with continuing relevance to today’s debates on knowledge, crisis, and social justice.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Adela Hîncu is an intellectual historian whose work focuses on the history of social sciences, Marxist social theory, and women’s political thought in East Central Europe after the Second World War. Currently a Marie Sklodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellow, she is conducting research on the transnational history of social expertise from Eastern Europe from the 1970s to the early 2000s.Stefan Baghiu is lecturer of Romanian literature and literary theory at the Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu and editor of the Transilvania journal. His research consists of quantitative analysis and ideological readings of Romanian literature and world literature. He has co-edited several collective volumes, such as Ruralism and Literature in Romania (2019) and Beyond the Iron Curtain (2021).Alex Cistelecan is a researcher in philosophy and history of ideas, specializing in Marxism and state socialism. He holds a PhD in political theory from LUISS University (Rome). He has published articles in Historical Materialism, Telos, Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe, Studies in East European Thought, Marx and Philosophy Review of Books.Christian Ferencz-Flatz is a philosopher and media scholar. His works include Critical Theory and Phenomenology (2023). and Film as a Social Situation (2018). Together with Radu Jude, he co-authored the found footage film Eight Postcards from Utopia (2024). He is the PI of a research project devoted to post-socialist advertising.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Adela Hîncu, Stefan Baghiu, Alex Cistelecan, Christian Ferencz-Flatz - Introduction: Situating Marxism in State Socialist Europe PART I: The Making and Unmaking of Orthodoxy Alex Cistelecan - Orthodoxy Unraveled: Diamat and Histomat in Communist Romania Bakar Berekashvili - Marxism, Science, and Society in Soviet Georgia Monika Wozniak - Towards New Orthodoxy: Epistemology and Philosophy of Science in Jaros.aw .adosz and Czes.aw Nowi.ski Ondrej Holub - Open-Minded Determinism: The Life and Ideas of Rudolf .íma PART II: Global Issues, Socialist Concerns Christian Ferencz-Flatz and Adela Hîncu - From Ecological Crisis to Ecological Revolution: Marxist Reflections on The Limits to Growth in Romania Jan Mervart - Global Studies and Late Socialist Czechoslovakia Stefan Baghiu and Alex Cistelecan - Romanian Communist Futurology as Diamat without Dialectics Una Blagojevic - (Un)orthodoxy of the Human Rights in Yugoslavia: Genealogy and Contestations PART III: Marxist Resignifications Jan Surman - The Making of a Western Socialist Scholar: J.D. Bernal in Eastern Europe Ádám Takács - Althusser Goes East: Theoretical (Anti)Humanism, the Lukács School, and the Specter of Stalinism Martin Küpper - Aesthetic Functionalism: A Design Concept for Socialism in the GDR? Siyaves Azeri - Humanism vs. Scientism? An Ilyenkovian Critique of Capital’s Dualities and Dichotomies .
