Call for papers : The social history of state socialism

Editor: Horváth István (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

State socialism was a social-historical reality, in the forms of life and life situations it created / allowed. Its lifestyle project: the residential area with blocks of flats, apartment in a block of flats or even the workplace that is considered desirable still determines the daily life and expectations of most of us. So, state socialism resulted in a situation in social history that did not completely eradicate itself in the miseries of the eighties (shrinking supplies in the form of a ticket system, power outages, etc.).

The fact that the literature focusing on this social-historical reality is scarce is a shortcoming in terms of social perspective and education in general, as the present is difficult to interpret especially for the post 1989 generations. On the other hand, the past can be interpreted in a contradictory way, first of all for those who lived as adults before 1989.

Many aspects of this period are worthy to be studied and reported as a shorter reflection (minimum 5 pages) or a more exhaustive study (maximum 15 pages), from forms of remembrance to critical, methodological reviews of social history research, from an overview of large processes (urbanization, consumption, lifestyle modernization), to the presentation or social interpretation of changes related to lifestyle, entertainment, transformation of social contacts.

In the spirit of this introduction, in the first thematic issue of the Transylvanian Society in 2021, we expect studies on topics that analyze, examine and evaluate some aspect of the above-mentioned processes in a given region, community, country or in a comparative way between the countries of a wider region. We particularly appreciate the writings on topics that examine some issues affecting the Hungarian or other ethnic-linguistic community in the region in relation to the transition period.

The interested authors have, as a first step, to submit an abstract of 300-400 words by 30 May 2021 to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The studies and the related materials (short English and Hungarian abstract, biographical data of the authors, keywords) must be uploaded to the electronic system of the Transylvanian Society's website (https://www.erdelyitarsadalom.ro/en/manuscripts/submit-manuscripts.html). The studies are reviewed by two anonymous reviewers, according to the so-called double blind peer review procedure. If accepted for publication, the author have to make the suggested changes within a short period of time, based on the reviewers' suggestions.

Although the focus of the topic is on the situation in Romania, we expect also studies related to other countries.

The deadline for submitting studies is 1 July 2021.

The formal requirements for the studies can be found here