European Perspectives on Transition

Pablo Sánchez León is a Distinguished Researcher at the Institute of Social History Valentín de Foronda of the University of the Basque Country, where he coordinates a team that works on the imperial cultures of the Iberian Peninsula and the Balkans in comparative perspective in the transition to modernity. He has worked on the history of social conflicts and the construction of citizenship in the Hispanic world between the Early Modern and Modern Ages. He is the author of Popular Political Participation and the Democratic Imagination in Spain, 1766-1868. From Crowd to People (Palgrave, 2020).

“[This] is a very welcome collection. Very little has been published on the concept of transition, as opposed to the practices conventionally associated with it, and the contributors to this volume provide a thorough historical treatment. The reader gets a critical analysis of this particular concept, and also a powerful example of how to study temporality in contemporary European history.” • Jonathan White, London School of Economics“This [book] makes a valuable and timely contribution in addressing a pressing matter of concern: how to fill the space left empty (in both intellectual and policy terms) by the bankruptcy of the transitology approach to democratization which has risen to prominence globally during last half-century? In particular, what intellectual historians can do about it?” • Piotr Wciślik, Instytut Badań Literackich PAN

• Introduction: Transition: Conceptual and Comparative History of an Axial Political and Social ConceptPablo Sánchez León and Agustín CosovschiChapter 1. Between Civil War and Revolution: The Concept of Transition in Spain and Portugal to the Twenty-First CenturyPablo Sánchez LeónChapter 2. The Engineering of a Transition to Democracy in PortugalRita LuísChapter 3. The Languages of Transition in the Soviet Republics: Interpreting Perestroikain Estonia and Lithuania in 1985–89Juhan Saharov and Justinas DementavičiusChapter 4. From Peaceful Revolution to the Search for Unity: Semantics of Transition in Germany since 1989Benno Nietzel and Marcus BöickChapter 5. All Possible Futures: Social Sciences Thinking about Transition in Serbia and Croatia during the 1990sAgustín CosovschiChapter 6. The Semantics of the Transition to Democracy in Greece and SpainMagda FityliChapter 7. Legal Doctrine and Liberal Pedagogy. The Concept of “Transition” and Polish LawyersMichał Stambulski and Jakub SzumskiChapter 8. Permanent Transition in HungaryAdam Fabry and Zoltán PogátsaConcluding Remarks: A Common Semantic Framework for Transitions with Diverse National Conjugations in Southern and Central-Eastern EuropePablo Sánchez León and Agustín CosovschiAfterword: Time and Narrativity in “Transition”: An AfterwordAugusta Dimou