Political Epistemics: The Secret Police, the Opposition, and the End of East German Socialism

Contents......Page 8
Preface......Page 12
Acknowledgments......Page 28
INTRODUCTION Understandings, Politics, and Institutions......Page 32
PART I Socialism as a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy—The Party’s Project......Page 92
1 From Marx to Conscious Social Transformation......Page 96
2 Aporias of Producing Right Consciousness......Page 151
PART II Contingencies and Dynamics of Understanding—The Theory......Page 194
3 Constituting Understandings through Validations......Page 196
4 Dialectics in Spaces of Validation......Page 240
PART III Becoming Socialist Men—The Stasi Officers......Page 282
5 Guardians of the Party State......Page 286
6 Stasi Culture—Authority, Networks, and Discourses......Page 327
PART IV Disenchantment, Disengagement, Opposition—The Dissidents......Page 370
7 When Someone’s Eden Becomes Another’s Purgatory......Page 372
8 Forming Groups, Organizing Opposition......Page 430
PART V Policing Understandings—Reproducing Misunderstandings......Page 492
9Attempting to Know and Control the Opposition......Page 494
Conclusions: Paralyzing Uncertainties......Page 556
References......Page 596