Neoliberal Takeover? How the Social History of Economic Ideas Contributes to Historicising Post-socialist Transformations

Abstract

PETERS, Florian. Neoliberal Takeover? How the Social History of Economic Ideas Contributes to Historicising Post-socialist Transformations. Current historiography on the post-socialist transformation of East Central Europe is broadly dominated by antagonistic master narratives such as “return to Europe” or “neoliberal takeover.” In order to overcome these well-entrenched interpretations stemming from intellectual or political history, this contribution proposes another approach to historicising post-socialist transformations: a social history of economic ideas. Focussing on Poland, it makes the case for investigating the interplay between market-oriented ideas adopted by economists and intellectuals on the one hand