SPACE - Socio-Political Alternatives in Central Europe

The book Socio-political Alternatives in Central Europe (SPACE) is firstly innovative in character while being in its entirety devoted to the organisations and social movements operating within the area that lies between the state and society; organisations which constitute a challenge to those subjects active within mainstream politics, first and foremost for existing political parties. The editors of the volume – two well-known Polish researchers into political parties – Katarzyna Sobolewska-Myślik and Dominika Kasprowicz invited contributions from academics based in four Central European countries: the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary, to present the forms and ways of operation for the said socio-political alternatives; something that should be viewed as a most worthwhile undertaking. It is important to draw attention not only to the substantial content presented in the book but also the inventiveness as displayed in the wordplay of the title. For Socio-political Alternatives in Central Europe is, on the one hand, an apt appraisal of the organisations and movements which constitute a challenge, and which could therefore constitute an alternative to the mainstream political parties in Central Europe, while on the other the words themselves create the acronym SPACE, through which one is to understand the area between society and the state in which the mentioned organisations operate and jointly create. The work presents a broad spectrum of socio-political alternatives to the parties of the main stream: quasiparties, social movements, non-government organisations, and forms of citizen interaction of a less formalised nature. The book – one fulfi lling a hitherto gap in the relevant subject literature – constitutes a valuable contribution to the publishing market. This is a work that will interest not only political scientists, but equally sociologists, activists involved in non-government organisations, think tanks as well as all those intrigued by the development of civil society in Central Europe. [From the review by Beata Kosowska-Gąstoł]