It is easy to understand or frame the end of socialism or communism as a direct transition towards democracy. But like most things in life, that does not go nearly far enough to understand the multi-faceted upheavals and consequences of such a radical change. If we think about states and regions like Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Poland or even East Germany, there is often terminology involved like “keeping up” (with the West for example), or “backwardness”.

This sounds a lot like colonial key-/’buzz’words and results in the question: Can Postsocialism be colonial? That is the very interesting main question of the Resident Group “Postcolonial and Postsocialist Interdependencies Across Borders” that worked at ZiF from April to July 2026.

Three fellows (two of them convenors) of the group are guests in this episode: Human Geographer Birgit Glorius, sociologist Helma Lutz and political scientist Andreas Vasilache.

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