Crisis and the Everyday in Postsocialist Moscow

Olga Shevchenko is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Williams College.

"[This] book is a must-read for anyone with an interest in postcommunist transition and its effect on day-to-day living. It will also be a great resource in undergraduate classes on market transitions, contemporary Russia and consumption."—Contemporary Sociology"[Shevchenko's] fascinating and insightful survey shows how the ethnographical approach may cast new light on social and economic stakes in Russia, and highlights the role of cultural categories in times of large-scale social change."—Europe-Asia Studies"This fascinating and elegantly written book will be of tremendous interest and use to scholars of Soviet/post-Soviet societies, particularly in the fields of sociology, anthropology, and cultural studies. . . . The accessibility of Shevchenko's writing will make this book useful for both undergraduate and graduate courses. 69.3, July 2010"—The Russian Review". . . a sweeping panorama of everyday life that covers work, leisure, private life, and public (dis)engagement in postsoviet Russia.46 2009"—D.N. Shalin, University of Nevada"Olga Shevchenko's book leaves us with tools and a template for rigorous qualitative research that can benefit research in a wide range of cases of profound transformations. Vol.115.5 March 2010"—Balazs Vedres, Central European University"[A]n innovative contribution to the sociological study of quotidian life, alas not life under ordinary cir- cumstances. Shevchenko s book stretches beyond micro-sociological concerns towards fuller understanding of broad concepts such as social change, crisis and normality. The book is an ambitious effort to apprehend the sociological relationship between crisis and normality in the dramatic decade of change that followed communism's collapse. . . . [A]n illuminating, engaging contribution . . . ."—Social Forces"Shevchenko's work is timely and should be of interest to anyone concerned with the nature and consequences of economic and social change as well as those with a curiosity for all things Russian.Vol. 89.1, January 2011"—Slavonic and East European Reivew"Olga Shevchenko's Crisis and the Everyday in Postsocialist Moscow sets a very high standard of scholarship. A thoughtful, innovative and thought-provoking study, this book gives important insights into what proved to be one of the most dramatic episodes in Russia's recent history. . . . This book is an invaluable contribution to the study of contemporary Russia, with its mulitple paradoxes and contradictions. Vol. 5.1, 2010"—Cultural Sociology"A sensitive, thoughtful, and compelling portrait of life in Moscow during the final years of the last century by an observer who truly knows whereof she speaks. This is ethnography at its best."—Kai Erikson, William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor Emeritus of Sociology and American Studies, Yale University"Elegantly written and insightful, [this book] offers important new understandings of the struggles and strategies that Russians undertake to manage life amidst post-Soviet transition"—Michele Rivkin-Fish, author of Women's Health in Post-Soviet Russia

• ContentsAcknowledgments1. Introduction: Living on a Volcano2. How the Crisis of Socialism Became a Postsocialist Crisis3. A State of Emergency: The Lived Experience of Postsocialist Decline4. The Routinization of Crisis, or On the Permanence of Temporary Conditions5. Permanent Crisis, Durable Goods6. Building Autonomy in Everyday Life7. What Changes When Life Stands Still8. ConclusionAppendix 1. MethodologyAppendix 2. List of RespondentsAppendix 3. List of Interviewed ExpertsAppendix 4. Discussion TopicsNotesWorks CitedIndex