The Influence of Economic-Cultural Factors on Post-Socialist Societies

Project duration: 1998 – 2006, Contact Person: Prof. Heiko Pleines
 

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Following the collapse of the socialist planned economies in Eastern Europe, much of the early discussion on their transformation focussed on the question how the state could best retreat from its interventionist role and allow market forces to take effect. Soon strategies of privatisation and liberalisation linked to monetary stabilisation dominated the debate. While the adoption of such strategies led to a positive economic development in Central Eastern Europe, many of the other post-socialist economies, including Russia, were confronted with a prolonged economic crisis in the mid-1990s.

Discussion then focussed on identifying which factors delayed economic recovery and how the performance of the different states undergoing transformation could be explained. In this context cultural factors were often cited. Incidentally, it was exactly at this point in time that economic and political science research started to take a more pronounced interest in explanatory approaches taking cultural factors into account. To this end, initiated by Hans-Hermann Höhmann, the Research Centre for East European Studies at the University of Bremen established a research unit dedicated to ‘economic cultures’ in 1998.

Research into the economic-cultural factors affecting the transformation of post-socialist economies being a new field of interest at the time, the first step was to establish what research had already been undertaken and what empirical findings had already been gathered. An international conference attended by experts from the various economic disciplines greatly facilitated this task. Indeed, its impact was so profound that an international conference on the role of economic-cultural factors has been held at the Research Centre for East European Studies at the University of Bremen every December since 1998.

At the same time new research projects were developed to test and improve theoretical frameworks and to make a substantial contribution to the empirical analysis of the economic transformation processes. The respective research projects are listed separately.

The project introduced here, focussing on the impact of economic-cultural factors on post-socialist societies, conceptually drew on research conducted on economic culture in Bremen and attempted to develop the ‘Bremen approach’ further at the theoretical level.


Publications

Pleines, Heiko (2006): Wirtschaftskulturelle Ansätze in der deutschen Osteuropaforschung, in: Sozialwissenschaftlicher Fachinformationsdienst Osteuropaforschung 13:2, 9-15.

Heiko Pleines (2006): Die Bedeutung wirtschaftskultureller Faktoren. Methodische Überlegungen und Implikationen für die erweiterte EU, in: Nils Goldschmidt, Joachim Zweynert (eds): Die Interaktion der ökonomischen Kulturen und Institutionen im erweiterten Europa, Münster (LIT), pp. 37-56.

Hans-Hermann Höhmann, Heiko Pleines (eds) (2004): Wirtschaftskultur in Osteuropa. Bremer Ansatz und Bremer Projekte, Arbeitspapiere und Materialien der Forschungsstelle Osteuropa No. 61.

Pleines, Heiko (2004): Wirtschaftskulturelle Faktoren in der postsozialistischen Transformation. Der Bremer Ansatz, in: Berliner Debatte Initial 15:5-6, 55-63.

Christian Meier, Heiko Pleines, Hans-Henning Schröder (eds) (2003): Ökonomie - Kultur - Politik. Transformationsprozesse in Osteuropa. Festschrift für Hans-Hermann Höhmann, Bremen (Edition Temmen).

Höhmann, Hans-Hermann (ed.) (2002): Wirtschaft und Kultur im Transformationsprozeß. Bremen(Edition Temmen).

Höhmann, Hans-Hermann (ed.) (2001): Kultur als Bestimmungsfaktor der Transformation im Osten Europas. Bremen (Edition Temmen).

Höhmann, Hans-Hermann (ed.) (1999): Eine unterschätzte Dimension? Zur Rolle wirtschaftskultureller Faktoren in der osteuropäischen Transformation. Bremen (Edition Temmen).


Contact person

PD Dr. Heiko Pleines