Preliminary communication
https://doi.org/10.5613/rzs.45.2.3
What after the (Social) Transition? Critical Remarks Regarding the Use of the Transition Approach in Sociological Examinations of Croatian Society
Krešimir Žažar
orcid.org/0000-0002-6133-8625
; Department of Sociology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
This article provides basic outlines of a prospective, more comprehensive, critical evaluation of the use of the concept of transition in sociological discourse in post-socialist Croatia. Certain terminological confusions were briefly considered, relations among disciplines that address transition were clarified, and historical roots of the transition model – as well as its fundamental determinants and crucial propositions – were indicated. Particular attention was paid to the examination of drawbacks and different critical objections directed at the transition approach. These objections include: a) mechanistic determinism and neo-evolutionism; b) implicit teleological presumptions; c) political reductionism of sorts; d) hypotheses about the sequential character of transition; e) ideological assumptions. Certain revisions aiming to overcome the objections to the transition approach were presented. Those revisions indicated departure from particular rigid assumptions enshrined in the classic transition model and enabled proliferation of different theoretical approaches that allowed the possibility of diverse outcomes of transition processes. Additionally, the status of Croatian society regarding the dynamics of ongoing transformation processes was discussed, and the heuristic potential and epistemological validity of application of the transition approach was examined. Owing to the drawbacks denoted in the article, the transition approach was deemed inappropriate for the analysis of the social dynamics of Croatian society. The urgency for development of authentic conceptual-analytical tools suited for the inquiry of social processes and for macroscopic dissection of the contemporary social environment was emphasized. The construction of such theoretical instruments must be sensitive to specific attributes of a particular society. Furthermore, such instruments should holistically encompass the totality of social universe and, correspondingly, avoid reductionism that may stem from analytical primacy being given to any singular social domain. It was concluded that the development of authentic theoretical tools is considerably more pertinent than the »import« and uncritical application of theoretical models generated in other social environments.
Keywords
the transition model; critical evaluation of the transition approach; explanatory power of the transition approach; developmental dynamics of postsocialist societies; contemporary Croatian society
Hrčak ID:
152185
URI
Publication date:
31.8.2015.
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