Rory Archer - Böcker

Socialist countries like Yugoslavia garnered legitimacy through appealing to social equality. Yet social stratification was characteristic of Yugoslav society and increased over the course of the state's existence. By the 1980s the country was divided on socio-economic as well as national lines. Through case studies from a range of social millieux, contributors to this volume seek to 'bring class back in' to Yugoslav historiography, exploring how theorisations of social class informed the politics and policies of social mobility and conversely, how societal or grassroots understandings of class have influenced politics and policy. Rather than focusing on regional differentiation between Yugoslav republics and provinces the emphasis is placed on social differentiation and discontent within particular communities. The contributing authors of these historical studies come from diverse disciplinary backgrounds, linking scholarship from the socialist era to contemporary research based on accessing newly available primary sources. Voices of a wide spectrum of informants are included in the volume; from factory workers and subsistence farmers to fictional television characters and pop-folk music superstars.

This book challenges conventional wisdom about labor migration during the Cold War era, revealing a complex landscape of mobility that transcended the supposed rigid boundaries between socialist and capitalist worlds.Drawing on rich case studies from the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and Yugoslavia, the contributors demonstrate how the Cold War’s unique socioeconomic and political context fostered unexpected experimentation and adaptation in labor mobility policies and practices. Rather than a simple story of restriction versus freedom, this collection reveals how institutional actors across both blocs functioned as agents of globalization, navigating a terrain where competition and collaboration often coexisted.By examining labor migration as both lived experience and state- regulated phenomenon, this volume makes a vital contribution to our understanding of how Cold War rivalries shaped human mobility within and across ideological divides. The research presented here underscores the importance of integrating both Western and non- Western perspectives when assessing the history and enduring legacy of international labor migration during this pivotal period. This book is an essential resource for scholars of migration studies, Cold War history, labor economics, and global politics.The chapters in this book were originally published in Labor History.