Bumbling Idiots or Evil Masterminds? Challenging Cold War Stereotypes about Women, Sexuality and State Socialism

In academic writing, facts about the past generally require the citation of relevant sources unless the fact or idea is considered “common knowledge:” bits of information or dates upon which there is a wide scholarly consensus. This brief article reflects on the use of “common knowledge” claims in contemporary scholarship about women, families, and sexuality as experienced during 20th century, East European, state socialist regimes. We focus on several key stereo- types about the communist state and the situation of women that are often asserted in the scholarly literature, and argue that many of these ideas uncannily resemble American anti-communist propaganda. When contemporary scholars make claims about communist intrusions into the private sphere to effect social engineering or the inefficacy of state socialist mass organizations or communist efforts to break up the family or indoctrinate the young, they often do so without citation to previous sources or empirical evidence supporting their claims, thereby suggesting that such claims are “common knowledge.” We believe that those wishing to assert such claims should link these assertions to concrete originating sources, lest it turn out the “common knowledge” derives, in fact, from western Cold War rhetoric.In academic writing, facts about the past generally require the citation of relevant sources unless the fact or idea is considered “common knowledge:” bits of information or dates upon which there is a wide scholarly consensus. This brief article reflects on the use of “common knowledge” claims in contemporary scholarship about women, families, and sexuality as experienced during 20th century, East European, state socialist regimes. We focus on several key stereo- types about the communist state and the situation of women that are often asserted in the scholarly literature, and argue that many of these ideas uncannily resemble American anti-communist propaganda. When contemporary scholars make claims about communist intrusions into the private sphere to effect social engineering or the inefficacy of state socialist mass organizations or communist efforts to break up the family or indoctrinate the young, they often do so without citation to previous sources or empirical evidence supporting their claims, thereby suggesting that such claims are “common knowledge.” We believe that those wishing to assert such claims should link these assertions to concrete originating sources, lest it turn out the “common knowledge” derives, in fact, from western Cold War rhetoric

Internationalisme socialiste et féminisme d’État pendant la Guerre froide. Les relations entre Bulgarie et Zambie

Après l’indépendance, la Zambie est gouverné par l’UNIP (United National Independence Party) qui met en place à partir de 1972 « une démocratie à parti unique ». Bien que non aligné au début, le pays choisit alors un développement socialiste et compte de plus en plus sur l’aide du bloc de l’Est. Éléments-clés du combat pour l’indépendance nationale, les femmes continuent à jouer un rôle dans le Parti. Cet article examine l’économie politique de l’aide apportée par les organisations officielles de femmes d’Europe de l’Est au jeune mouvement de femmes zambien, notamment pour développer et soutenir la UNIP Women’s League. Visites respectives, bourses d’études, aide au voyage, soutien technique et logistique spécifique : par ces moyens, les pays de l’Est contribuent à la construction d’un féminisme d’État en Zambie et aident les femmes zambiennes à s’affirmer politiquement au niveau international durant la décennie des Nations unies pour les femmes (1975-1985).After independence, the southern African country of Zambia was governed by the United National Independence Party (UNIP), which, from 1972, ruled in a “one party participatory democracy.” Although Zambia initially hoped to remain non-aligned, after 1972, the country embraced a socialist path to development and began to rely heavily on aid from the Eastern Bloc. Women had been key participants in the struggle for national independence and continued to play a role in the UNIP party. This article examines the political economy of aid transfers from state women’s organizations in Eastern Europe (in particular from Bulgaria) to the nascent Zambian women’s movement, with a specific focus on the bilateral aid sent to develop and support the UNIP Women’s League. Through exchange visits, educational scholarships, travel grants and specific technical and logistical support, the Eastern Bloc countries built state feminist capacity within Zambia and helped Zambian women find their political voices on the international stage during the United Nations Decade for Women (1975-1985)

Ethnographic Advocacy Against the Death Penalty

This article develops the concept of “ethnographic advocacy” to make sense of the humanizing, open‐ended knowledge practices involved in the defense of criminal defendants charged with capital murder. Drawing from anthropological fieldwork with well‐respected figures in the American capital defense bar, as well as my own professional experience as an investigator specializing in death penalty sentencing mitigation, I argue that effective advocacy for life occurs through qualitative knowledge practices that share notable methodological affinities with contemporary anthropological ethnography. The article concludes with a preliminary exploration of what the concept of ethnographic advocacy might reveal about academic anthropology\u27s own advocative engagements

The Turks of Bulgaria: An Outlier Case of Forced Migration and Voluntary Return

The Turks of Bulgaria have a particular place in displacement scholarship. As the largest minority group in the country, they were subjected to ethnic cleansing in the 1980s. Anti-Turkish sentiments culminated in state-led systematic exclusion and more than 340,000 Turks were forcefully migrated to Turkey in 1989. After the collapse of Communism and the transition to democracy, almost 40 per cent of them voluntarily returned to Bulgaria, making it an outlier case in displacement literature. Drawing on 46 semi-structured interviews, this study contributes to the literature by offering a grounded conceptual framework which explains the macro-dynamics of voluntary and sustainable return through an in-depth study of the Bulgarian case. The findings suggest that three-factors account for the voluntary return: (i) the peaceful transition to inclusive democracy and power-sharing; (ii) the dual moderation between majority and minority representatives; and (iii) the enabling role of international actors, primarily the EU-anchor