<synthesis> Black Box East · Texts

[Krystian Woznicki]

Hi INC-folks,

as you know BLACK BOX EAST is conceived as a year-long project, and the
Berliner Gazette (BG) has initiated diverse activities in the course of
this, most importantly a series of texts and a three-day online
conference encompassing five collaborative workshop tracks taking place
September 23, 24, and 25, 2021.

For the text series, the BG has created an extensive space within its
online newspaper (in German). We are sharing other language versions
with international partners, including EastEast, LeftEast, Mediapart,
and NON. Here we are presenting the first 30 texts from that series.


I. How is the BLACK BOX EAST constructed? What interests does it serve?

With invited contributions by

historian *Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk* about the (un)friendly take over of
East-Germany (GER|EN)
https://berlinergazette.de/demokratie-ohne-folgen/
https://lefteast.org/democracy-without-consequences/

sociologist *Yana Milev* about the politics of blackboxed devastations
in East-Germany (GER)
https://berlinergazette.de/schwarzbuch-der-deutschen-einheit/

political theorist *Stefan Kausch* and discourse analyst *Jürgen Link*
about East German normality between deviance and avant-garde (GER)
https://berlinergazette.de/disruptive-territory-ostdeutschland/

culture theoretician *Marco Abel* about the role of “the East” for the
birth of Germany as a neoliberal nation-state (GER)
https://berlinergazette.de/realisierung-und-intensivierung-des-neoliberalen-potenzials-im-wilden-osten/

activist and researcher *Christoph Marischka* about technological
landscapes in “the East” (GER)
https://berlinergazette.de/landschaften-des-kapitals/

culture theoretician *Neda Genova* about knowledge production and the
politics of transparency/opacity (GER|EN)
https://berlinergazette.de/perfekte-black-box/
https://blogs.mediapart.fr/berliner-gazette/blog/200821/black-box-east-delivery

media researcher *Greg McLaughlin* about Western narratives of the “Fall
of the Berlin Wall” and “Brexit” propelling capitalism and nationalism
(GER|EN)
https://berlinergazette.de/mauerfall-brexit-delirien-des-kapitals-ekstasen-des-nationalismus/
https://blogs.mediapart.fr/berliner-gazette/blog/310521/black-box-east-time-monsters-and-death-certainty

social anthropologist *Florin Poenaru* about how the Orientalization of
Romania is propelling unequal power relations in the EU (GER|EN)
https://berlinergazette.de/orientalisierung-rumaeniens-ungleichheit-eu/
https://blogs.mediapart.fr/edition/english-club/article/260521/black-box-east-orientalizing-romania

the photographer *Petrut Calinescu* about Western images of Romania,
precarious archives, and the politics of documentary photography (GER|EN)
https://berlinergazette.de/orientalisierung-rumaeniens-fotografie
https://blogs.mediapart.fr/berliner-gazette/blog/070621/black-box-east-precarious-archives-and-politics-documentary-photography

artist *Marina Gržinić* about the EU’s turbo-politics in ex-Yugoslavia
(GER)
https://berlinergazette.de/eu-turbo-faschismus-kapitalismus-osten/

sociologist *Sanja Milivojevic* about the black-boxed mobility
infrastructure in the Western Balkans (GER|EN)
https://berlinergazette.de/black-box-eu-mobilitaetsregime-balkan-route/
https://blogs.mediapart.fr/krystian-woznicki/blog/020321/inside-border-black-box-towards-political-economy-balkan-route


II. What economic and political realities does the BLACK BOX EAST
conceal and favor?

With invited contributions by

researcher *Mira Wallis* about Germany’s digital ghost workers in
Romania (GER|EN|RU)
https://berlinergazette.de/digitale-arbeit-und-mobilitaet-zwischen-deutschland-und-rumaenien
https://easteast.world/en/posts/367
https://easteast.world/posts/367

digital media researcher *Miglè Bareikytè* about the incommensurability
of labor politics and AI strategies in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia (GER)
https://berlinergazette.de/ki-strategien-in-baltischen-staaten/

architects *Kateřina Frejlachová* and *Tadeáš Říha* about the politics
of logistics centers in Czech Bohemia (GER|EN)
https://berlinergazette.de/politik-der-lagerhallen-lkw-parks-und-autobahn-anschluesse-fuer-die-absatzmaerkte-des-westens/
https://blogs.mediapart.fr/berliner-gazette/blog/230821/black-box-east-politics-logistics-centers-czech-bohemia

geographers *Lela Rekhviashvili* and *Wladimir Sgibnev* about struggles
over infrastructure that holds post-Soviet space together (GER|EN)
https://berlinergazette.de/post-sowjetische-infrastrukturen/
https://lefteast.org/one-modernity-lost-the-other-out-of-reach-contested-post-soviet-infrastructures/

investigative journalist *Stefan Candea* about the political economy of
cross-border journalism in “the East” (GER|EN)
https://berlinergazette.de/der-journo-ngo-komplex-und-die-demokratisierung-rumaeniens
https://blogs.mediapart.fr/berliner-gazette/blog/230621/black-box-east-how-journalism-ngos-hijacked-democratization-romania

sociologist and activist *Polina Manolova* about the bureaucratic
bordering of Bulgarian migrant workers in Germany (GER|EN)
https://berlinergazette.de/buerokratisches-bordering/
https://non.copyriot.com/black-box-east-spatialities-of-in-betweenness-and-irregulairsed-pathways-of-incorporation-exploring-the-case-of-bulgarian-migrants-in-germany

anthropologist *Tanja Petrović* and journalist *Maja Ava Žiberna* about
invisibilized workers from the Balkans as drivers of “European
integration” (GER|EN)
https://berlinergazette.de/wie-arbeitsmigrantinnen-aus-dem-osten-europa-am-laufen-halten/
https://blogs.mediapart.fr/berliner-gazette/blog/180621/black-box-east-migratory-factories-invisibilized-workers-and-promise-europe

literary scientist and novelist *Marlen Schachinger* about the
last-minute-society in Kosovo (GER)
https://berlinergazette.de/kosovo-nach-der-zerschlagung-jugoslawiens

researcher and writer *Lesia Prokopenko* about how the working class in
Ukraine consumes China’s shanzhai goods as a phantom of “Westerness”
(GER|EN)
https://berlinergazette.de/das-weben-neuer-codes-shanzhai/
https://non.copyriot.com/black-box-east-the-gum-you-like-or-a-letter-from-the-western-borders-of-shanzhai/

decolonial researchers *Kasia Narkowicz* and *Zoltán Ginelli* about how
anti-colonial rhetorics against “foreign powers” are obstructing
decolonial critique in Poland and Hungary (GER|EN)
https://berlinergazette.de/wie-antikoloniale-rhetorik-gegen-fremde-maechte-die-kritik-an-kolonialitaet-blockiert/
https://blogs.mediapart.fr/berliner-gazette/blog/240621/black-box-east-how-anti-colonial-rhetorics-are-obstructing-decolonial-critique


III. What is the potential of the BLACK BOX EAST as a common space of
transnational struggles?

With invited contributions by

researcher and artist *Anna Stiede* about deindustrialization, labor
struggles, and TreuhandTechno (GER)
https://berlinergazette.de/black-box-apolda-treuhand-techno/

theater-maker *Kevin Rittberger* and artist *Nicolas Mortimer* about
labor struggles and cybernetic futurism in the GDR (GER|EN)
https://berlinergazette.de/sozialistische-kybernetik-ddr-marxismus-leninismus/
https://non.copyriot.com/black-box-east-how-socialist-cybernetics-helped-the-gdr-unlearn-marxism-leninism/

artist and activist *Rena Raedle* about how workers in the GDR organized
themselves in writing circles (GER)
https://berlinergazette.de/erweiterung-des-politischen-avantgarde-osten/

political geographer *Evelina Gambino* about lessons from 19th century
labor struggles in Georgia for today’s transnational fight against
logistical capitalism (GER|EN)
https://berlinergazette.de/arbeitskampf-logistischer-kapitalismus-georgien/
https://non.copyriot.com/black-box-east-infrastructures-to-other-worlds/

critical geographer *Salvatore Engel-Di Mauro* about what current
movements can learn from the eco-politics of the USSR (GER|EN)
https://berlinergazette.de/staatssozialismus-udssr-umweltpolitik/
https://blogs.mediapart.fr/berliner-gazette/blog/130821/black-box-east-lessons-eco-politics-ussr

political theorist *Gal Kirn* about “primitive accumulation” of capital
and memory, or how the Berlin Wall fell in Yugoslavia (GER|EN)
https://berlinergazette.de/akkumulation-der-erinnerung/
https://non.copyriot.com/black-box-east-primitive-accumulation-of-capital-and-memory-or-how-the-berlin-wall-fell-in-yugoslavia/

researchers *Sanja Bojanić* and *Marko-Luka Zubčić* about what it means
to be up against the Right in Croatia (GER|EN)
https://berlinergazette.de/kroatiens-zivilgesellschaft-kampf-gegen-rechts/
https://blogs.mediapart.fr/berliner-gazette/blog/310821/black-box-east-what-it-means-be-against-far-right-croatia

sociologist *Paul Stubbs* about the legacies of the Non-Aligned Movement
for today’s activism (GER|EN)
https://berlinergazette.de/progressiver-internationalismus-das-sozialistische-jugoslawien-und-die-bewegung-der-blockfreien-staaten/
https://non.copyriot.com/black-box-east-another-worldmaking-is-possible-or-progressive-internationalism-socialist-yugoslavia-and-the-non-aligned-movement/

historian *Anna Calori* about transethnic workers’ struggles against
privatization in Bosnia and Herzegovina (GER)
https://berlinergazette.de/arbeiterinnenkampf-postethnisch-wie-in-bosnien-der-aufstand-gegen-den-ausverkauf-gefuehrt-wurde/

literary scholar *Karolina Golimowska* about social struggles in Poland
during the COVID-19 pandemic (GER|EN)
https://berlinergazette.de/polen-kaempfe-frauen-und-lgbtq-rechte/
https://blogs.mediapart.fr/berliner-gazette/blog/280621/black-box-east-struggles-over-women-s-and-lgbtq-rights-poland

social thinker *Max Haiven* and historian *Vijay Prashad* about the role
of “the East” in the Western radical imagination (GER|EN)
https://berlinergazette.de/der-osten-in-der-radikalen-imagination-des-westens
https://blogs.mediapart.fr/berliner-gazette/blog/060921/black-box-east-role-east-west-s-radical-imagination


An overview is provided on https://blackboxeast.berlinergazette.de in
the TEXTS section. Here we are also constantly updating new submissions
and the publication of new language versions.

Best wishes,

Krystian (for the BG team)

-- 
--------------------------------------------------------------

BG – Berliner Gazette | since 1999 | https://berlinergazette.de

--------------------------------------------------------------

BLACK BOX EAST – "Post-Communist" Laboratories of Globalization
BG Project 2021: Workshops, Texts + Artworks
https://blackboxeast.berlinergazette.de

--------------------------------------------------------------

SILENT WORKS – The Hidden Labor in AI-Capitalism  BG Project 2020: Exhibition, Conference + Texts
https://silent-works.berlinergazette.de

--------------------------------------------------------------

MORE WORLD – How Can We Cooperate Across Borders to Tackle Climate Change?
Results from BG’s 20th Anniversary Event: Videos, Audios, Projects + Texts https://more-world.berlinergazette.de 

--------------------------------------------------------------