The decolonial challenge: Framing post-socialist Central and Eastern Europe within transnational feminist studies

• Published in: The European journal of women's studies 2014-11, Vol.21 (4), p.330-343
• Main Authors: Koobak, Redi, Marling, Raili
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Central and Eastern Europe; Central Europe; decolonial approach; Eastern Europe; Feminist theory; Framing; gender; Knowledge; Narratives; Post-communist societies; post-socialism; postcolonial theory; Theory; transnational feminist studies; Transnationalism; Womens studies
• ISSN: 1350-5068; 1461-7420; 1461-7420
• DOI: 10.1177/1350506814542882

The article explores the location of Central and Eastern Europe in transnational feminist studies. Despite the acknowledgement of the situatedness of knowledge, feminist theorising nevertheless seems to continue to be organised around a limited number of central axes and internalised progress narratives. The authors argue that there is a pressing need for theories which can approach the near absence of Central and Eastern European perspectives from transnational feminist theorising, and challenge the limited number of discursive tropes associated with post-socialist Central and Eastern Europe – especially that of a ‘lag’, where difference is translated into a temporal distance. Instead, the authors suggest that a more inclusive vision of transnational feminist studies can be achieved by applying the decolonial framework to the post-socialist context, as explicated in the work of Madina Tlostanova.