Traveling through Different Transitions in Latin America and the Post Socialist Europe

The concept of political and economic transition has been a catch-all term to capture diverse varieties of regime changes across the regions. By transition scholars have referred to the end of authoritarian rule and the return to democratic regimes in Latin America, and the route leading out from socialism and into capitalism in Eastern Europe. Despite diverse socioeconomic context and historical circumstances, the concept of transition underlines the idea of a period of cumulative changes that reshape institutions and reconfigure social relations (including social structures) into a new stage presumed to be significantly different. these epochal transformations have profound implications on gender equality both in the Latin America and Eastern European countries. Because no simple answer on how these transitions influenced both gender politics as well as the institutions of gender equality, an attempt to contribute to understanding of the gendered dynamics under periods of social and institutional upheaval require to put into dialogue different accounts of transition. After three decades after the major wave of transitions, the Social Politics social issue contribute to the discussion on gender equality across transitions and regions towards a broader debate on obstacles and incitements to gender inequality universally.

Accounts collected in the Social Politics special issue examine the actual effects of transitions. Predictions regarding the impact of transition on gender equality have been based on different assumptions of the legacy of the previous regimes at one hand, and on the opportunities/threats of the changes in transition (political and economic freedoms vs. rising social inequalities and re-traditionalisation/new forms of patriarchy) on the other. Rather than assuming a linear narrative of history, the special issue acknowledges the specific patterns of countries and regions.