Konfiscirana sjećanja (na rad i zaposlenost)

The article examines different interpretations of "post-socialist/post-communist nostalgia" by comparing them with interpretations of "nostalgic feelings and practices" in Western Europe and the United States. Likewise, it compares statements about the past and present of work and employment that were recorded by researchers in Western Europe and the United States with those collected by TRANSWORK project researchers through extensive field research in Croatia. On the basis of this comparison, it suggests that a scientific interest in "nostalgia" in "Eastern European" countries – that is commonly interpreted as a desire to understand unexpected disappointment in life "after socialism" or, in just a few of the relevant scholarly articles, as an expression of a post-imperial symptom that uses nostalgia to Orientalize the European East – could also be seen as an effort in defending the neoliberal regime (of labor).