Princeton University Press
From Communists to Foreign Capitalists: The Social Foundations of Foreign Direct Investment in Postsocialist Europe
Key Metrics
- Nina Bandelj
- Princeton University Press
- Hardcover
- 9780691129129
- 9.18 X 6.48 X 1.05 inches
- 1.31 pounds
- Social Science > Demography
- English
Secure TransactionBook Description
From Communists to Foreign Capitalists explores the intersections of two momentous changes in the late twentieth century: the fall of Communism and the rise of globalization. Delving into the economic change that accompanied these shifts in central and Eastern Europe, Nina Bandelj presents a pioneering sociological treatment of the process of foreign direct investment (FDI). She demonstrates how both investors and hosts rely on social networks, institutions, politics, and cultural understandings to make decisions about investment, employing practical rather than rational economic strategies to deal with the true uncertainty that plagues the postsocialist environment.
The book explores how eleven postsocialist countries address the very idea of FDI as an integral part of their market transition. The inflows of foreign capital after the collapse of Communism resulted not from the withdrawal of states from the economy, as is commonly expected, but rather from the active involvement of postsocialist states in institutionalizing and legitimizing FDI. Using a wide array of data sources, and combining a macro-level account of national variation in the liberalization to foreign capital with a micro-level account of FDI transactions in the decade following the collapse of Communism in 1989, the book reveals how social forces not only constrain economic transformations but also make them possible.
From Communists to Foreign Capitalists is a welcome addition to the growing literature on the social processes that shape economic life.
Author Bio
I'm an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology, University of California, Irvine, with faculty affiliations in the Center for the Study of Democracy and Center for Organizational Research.
Recent accomplishments: 2006 Jean Monnet Fellow, European University Institute, Florence, Italy 2005 East Central European Post-Doctoral Fellow, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne, Germany 2004 Winner of Seymour Martin Lipset Dissertation Award, Society for Comparative Research Ph.D. Dissertation: Emma Embedded Economies: Foreign Direct Investment in Central and Eastern Europe
Research Interests
Economic Sociology, Organizations, Culture, Emotions, Comparative/Historical Sociology, Globalization, Postsocialism, Inequality,
Social Networks, Gender, Knowledge and Ideas, Children and Youth, Immigration, Ethnicity/Race, Mixed Methods.
Education
- 2003 Ph.D., Princeton University, Department of Sociology - Winner of 2004 Seymour Martin Lipset Dissertation Award from the Society for Comparative Research
2000 M.A., Princeton University, Department of Sociology
1997 B.A. (summa cum laude), Augsburg College, Minneapolis (Sociology, with honors, Communication, minor in Business Administration)
1993 International Baccalaureate (with distinction), Ljubljana, Slovenia
Source: University of California Irvine and Princeton University
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