2025/11/04 by Daina Bleiere · 2 voices
Social Sciences · #Eastern European Communism and Reforms #European Cultural and National Identity #Historical Geopolitical and Social Dynamics
paper · doi:10.1080/01629778.2025.2582654
openalex created_date 2025/11/04 · openalex publication_date 2025/11/04 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The objective of this article is to document the evolution of Latvia’s discotheque movement from 1973 to 1983 in the context of the evolving Soviet youth recreational politics of late socialism. In the Soviet Union, Latvia was a pioneer in this movement. This article analyzes the development of discotheques using Pierre Bourdieu’s conceptual instruments of field, habitus, and capital. Discotheques evolved in a field in the Bourdesian sense and achieved a certain degree of autonomy during the period in question. The ideological and bureaucratic demands of the authorities became increasingly stringent by the conclusion of the decade, but the autonomy of discotheques endured.