Post-Socialism
From: Judith Henchy <judithh@u.washington.edu>
Date: Jul 7, 2006 8:48 AM
Subject: [Vsg] Post-Socialism
Folks,
I received this message off the VSG web site. It may be of interest to
those of you who contributed to this discussion topic........
Judith Henchy
List Administrator
----- Original Message -----
From: <adirlik@uoregon.edu>
To: <judithh@u.washington.edu>
Sent: Friday, July 07, 2006 5:49 AM
Subject: Mail from Library Webserver
>
>
> adirlik@uoregon.edu wrote:
> Hi, I just stumbled on your website while I was looking for something
> else. I find some of the notes interesting, because the idea of
> "post-socialism" was first coined by self-with reference to China-back in
> 1986, subsequently published in the Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars,
> and in Dirlik/Meisner edited, Marxism and the Chinese Experience!
> Arif Dirlik
>
>
From: Thomas Jandl <thjandl@yahoo.com>
Date: Jul 7, 2006 9:54 AM
Subject: [Vsg] A note of protest on Post-Socialism
A quick protest out of principle:
I do not accept the notion that the term "post-socialism" can be appropriated. We all know there was a system called socialism, and a period after it would then be post-socialism.
For anyone to argue that s/he coined the term is similar to saying 'I termed the coin post-WWII or post-Sept.11.' In the case here described, the author may be able to argue that there was novelty in the CLAIM that in 1986, socialism had ended in China, but that's different from the claim of having coined the term post-socialism itself.
Just like for a patent application, some sort of novelty in the term has to be demonstrated to appropriate it. (As in post-modernism, which goes beyond just adding the Latin prefix 'post' to something we all know ended -- 'post-modernism' stands for something that without explanation we would not intuitively understand from general knowledge.)
I for one will continue to use post-World-War-II and post-socialism without attributing it to anyone, as a generic, intuitive term consisting of the un-patented notions of 'post' and 'socialism.'
Subject: RE: [Vsg] A note of protest on Post-Socialism
Date: Fri, 7 Jul 2006 23:05:38 +0200
From: "Oscar Salemink" <OJHM.Salemink@fsw.vu.nl>
Judith, the post-socialist man always rings twice :-)