Szabo, Veronica
(2012)
YOUTH AND POLITICS IN COMMUNIST ROMANIA (1980-1989).
Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.
(Unpublished)
This is the latest version of this item.
Abstract
My research in Romania examines the presence of politics in the everyday lives of youth in the 1980s. While most research on youth’s political opinions focuses on First World democracies, my work examines how political education took place in the tightly controlled, non-democratic context of communist Romania. I tried to understand how Romanian youth experienced politics in their everyday lives in the 1980s, under a “totalitarian-sultanistic” system. I try to answer this question by looking at three levels: the lived and remembered experience of students and their teachers, the “indoctrination” materials such textbooks and policy documents they were exposed to, and the social research from the 1980s aimed at assessing the effectiveness of their “indoctrination”.
My findings show that ideological indoctrination of youth in 1980s Romania existed more as intent (Party policies) than as outcome, thus rendering the “totalitarian” frame as outdated for the analysis of everyday life. The education system and youth organizations that were supposed to do the “indoctrination work” did it an inept and ambivalent fashion, and whatever they accomplished in schools was further deconstructed in autonomous spaces of expression within family and friendship circles. Furthermore, research commissioned by youth organizations and collected in the 1980s clearly shows evidence of their failing and awareness of it among members of the regime.
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Details
| Item Type: |
University of Pittsburgh ETD
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| Status: |
Unpublished |
| Creators/Authors: |
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| ETD Committee: |
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| Date: |
2 October 2012 |
| Date Type: |
Publication |
| Defense Date: |
30 April 2012 |
| Approval Date: |
2 October 2012 |
| Submission Date: |
14 June 2012 |
| Access Restriction: |
2 year -- Restrict access to University of Pittsburgh for a period of 2 years. |
| Number of Pages: |
149 |
| Institution: |
University of Pittsburgh |
| Schools and Programs: |
Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences > Sociology |
| Degree: |
PhD - Doctor of Philosophy |
| Thesis Type: |
Doctoral Dissertation |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: |
communism, Eastern Europe, political socialization, Romania, everyday life, political sociology |
| Date Deposited: |
02 Oct 2012 20:04 |
| Last Modified: |
15 Nov 2016 13:58 |
| URI: |
http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/12447 |
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YOUTH AND POLITICS IN COMMUNIST ROMANIA (1980-1989). (deposited 02 Oct 2012 20:04)
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