Working Group on ‘Risk, Health, and State Socialism: Central and Eastern Europe, 1950s-1980s’

 Working Group on ‘Risk, Health, and State Socialism: Central and Eastern Europe, 1950s-1980s’ 

We invite scholars to join a working group exploring risk, health, and medicine under state socialism in Central and Eastern Europe. Through a series of 2-3 collaborative meetings, we aim to investigate risk-related practices, ideas, and technologies in state socialist healthcare, with the goal of preparing a publication, such as a special issue.

Existing scholarship, following the works of Ulrich Beck, Nikolas Rose, or François Ewald, has linked concepts of risk and ‘risk society’ primarily to Western Europe and the United States. Emerging from a shared sense of crisis during the 1970s—intensified by economic recession and growing anxieties about the complexity of modern society—risk became a technique of governance that offered a framework for addressing new social challenges by making them more predictable and calculable. Particularly in the fields of medicine and healthcare, from disease prevention and public health to drug control and biomedical research, the language of risk and risk factors has become increasingly prominent.

While much of this historiography has focused on liberal democracies, less attention has been given to how concepts of risk operated in state socialist contexts. Building on recent studies in the history of medicine and health, we invite scholars to join a working group examining risk, health, and medicine under state socialism in Central and Eastern Europe. To what extent did state socialist regimes recognize certain health and medical issues as ‘governable’ through risk? What kinds of practices and ideas emerged in response? And were there differences or similarities between state socialist and liberal democratic models of risk in healthcare and medicine? Our aim is to take an exploratory approach to discuss whether, and in what contexts, the concept of risk can be applied to state socialism, and to examine the risk-related practices, ideas, and technologies observed in healthcare and medicine in state socialism. The outcome of our collaboration is intended to be a publication, such as a special issue.

The initial one-day, in-person meeting of the working group will be held in May 2025 at the Institute for the History of Medicine and Ethics in Medicine, Charité Berlin. This meeting will focus on outlining the framework for our collaboration, presenting preliminary research ideas (10–15 minute presentations), and discussing potential outcomes of our work. We anticipate at least one or two additional follow-up meetings in autumn 2025 and spring 2026, either online or in person, based on participants’ preferences, to discuss our draft research papers. The aim is to prepare the final manuscripts for submission by the end of 2026, though this timeline may allow for adjustments as needed.

Potential research topics include prevention and self-prevention practices under state socialism; socialist medical innovation and emerging fields such as medical cybernetics; public health and environmental hazards; quantification, forecasting and computational technology in healthcare planning; risk, crime and control; health insurance and workplace safety. Other perspectives and research questions are warmly encouraged.

If you are interested in participating, please send a brief CV and a short abstract (no more than 300 words) describing your research on risk, health, and medicine in state socialism to jakub.strelec@charite.de by January 31, 2025. You are also welcome to include a note on specific themes or questions you would like to explore within the group.

Travel and accommodation costs for the meetings in Berlin can be covered. The exact meeting date in May will be coordinated with participants. The primary language of the working group will be English. Due to the discussion-based format of the group, the number of participants will be limited to six.

The working group is organized by Dr. Jakub Střelec (ERC Leviathan, Charité Berlin) and supported by the European Research Council (GA No. 854503). Please feel free to reach out with any questions or suggestions you may have.

Contact Information

Jakub Střelec

Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin

Institut für Geschichte der Medizin und Ethik in der Medizin

Campus Benjamin Franklin

Thielallee 71, 14195 Berlin