Towards dialogic post-socialism: Relational geographies of Europe and the notion of community in urban activism in Bratislava

•The paper reinvigorates post-socialism as a conceptual tool for addressing relational geographies of Europe.•It proposes a dialogic approach, based on contingency, ontological openness and rejection of teleology and essentialism.•This is illustrated in a critical discourse analysis of urban activism in Bratislava, Slovakia.•The notion of community has been absent in Eastern European politics but begins to be deployed through a myriad of relations.•The analysis warns against essentialising the emerging discourses between Eastern and Western Europe.