LEADER 04026nam 2200625Ia 450 001 9910465311403321 005 20200520144314.0 010 $a1-283-07834-1 010 $a9786613078346 010 $a0-226-29795-0 024 7 $a10.7208/9780226297958 035 $a(CKB)2560000000071756 035 $a(EBL)680711 035 $a(OCoLC)713010297 035 $a(StDuBDS)EDZ0000119119 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC680711 035 $a(DE-B1597)523604 035 $a(OCoLC)713025887 035 $a(DE-B1597)9780226297958 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL680711 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10464689 035 $a(CaONFJC)MIL307834 035 $a(EXLCZ)992560000000071756 100 $a20100413d2011 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aur|n|---||||| 181 $ctxt$2rdacontent 182 $cc$2rdamedia 183 $acr$2rdacarrier 200 10$aPolitical epistemics$b[electronic resource] $ethe secret police, the opposition, and the end of East German socialism /$fAndreas Glaeser 210 $aChicago $cUniversity of Chicago Press$dc2011 215 $a1 online resource (642 p.) 225 1 $aChicago studies in practices of meaning 300 $aDescription based upon print version of record. 311 $a0-226-29793-4 311 $a0-226-29794-2 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index. 327 $tFrontmatter -- $tContents -- $tIllustrations -- $tAbbreviations -- $tPreface -- $tAcknowledgments -- $tIntroduction: Understandings, Politics, and Institutions -- $tIntroduction -- $t1. From Marx to Conscious Social Transformation -- $t2. Aporias of Producing Right Consciousness -- $t3. Constituting Understandings through Validations -- $t4. Dialectics in Spaces of Validation -- $tIntroduction -- $t5. Guardians of the Party State -- $t6. Stasi Culture-Authority, Networks, and Discourses -- $t7. When Someone's Eden Becomes Another's Purgatory -- $t8. Forming Groups, Organizing Opposition -- $t9. Attempting to Know and Control the Opposition -- $tConclusions: Paralyzing Uncertainties -- $tReferences -- $tIndex 330 $aWhat does the durability of political institutions have to do with how actors form knowledge about them? Andreas Glaeser investigates this question in the context of a fascinating historical case: socialist East Germany's unexpected self-dissolution in 1989. His analysis builds on extensive in-depth interviews with former secret police officers and the dissidents they tried to control as well as research into the documents both groups produced. In particular, Glaeser analyzes how these two opposing factions' understanding of the socialist project came to change in response to countless everyday experiences. These investigations culminate in answers to two questions: why did the officers not defend socialism by force? And how was the formation of dissident understandings possible in a state that monopolized mass communication and group formation? He also explores why the Stasi, although always well informed about dissident activities, never developed a realistic understanding of the phenomenon of dissidence. Out of this ambitious study, Glaeser extracts two distinct lines of thought. On the one hand he offers an epistemic account of socialism's failure that differs markedly from existing explanations. On the other hand he develops a theory-a sociology of understanding-that shows us how knowledge can appear validated while it is at the same time completely misleading. 410 0$aChicago studies in practices of meaning. 606 $aSocialism$zGermany (East) 606 $aSocialism$zEurope, Eastern 607 $aGermany (East)$xPolitics and government 608 $aElectronic books. 615 0$aSocialism 615 0$aSocialism 676 $a320.53/150943109048 700 $aGlaeser$b Andreas$0941207 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910465311403321 996 $aPolitical epistemics$92122929 997 $aUNINA