ISBN:
9781317064398
Language:
English
Pages:
1 Online-Ressource (285 pages)
Edition:
1st ed
Parallel Title:
Print version Salmenniemi, Suvi Rethinking Class in Russia
DDC:
305.50947
Abstract:
Social differentiation, poverty and the emergence of the newly rich occasioned by the collapse of the Soviet Union have seldom been analysed from a class perspective. Rethinking Class in Russia addresses this absence by exploring the manner in which class positions are constructed and negotiated in the new Russia. Bringing an ethnographic and cultural studies approach to the topic, this book demonstrates that class is a central axis along which power and inequality are organized in Russia, revealing how symbolic, cultural and emotional dimensions are deeply intertwined with economic and material inequalities. Thematically arranged and presenting the latest empirical research, this interdisciplinary volume brings together work from both Western and Russian scholars on a range of spheres and practices, including popular culture, politics, social policy, consumption, education, work, family and everyday life. By engaging with discussions in new class analysis and by highlighting how the logic of global neoliberal capitalism is appropriated and negotiated vis-Ã -vis the Soviet hierarchies of value and worth, this book offers a multifaceted and carefully contextualized picture of class relations and identities in contemporary Russia and makes a contribution to the theorisation of class and inequality in a post-Cold War era. As such it will appeal to those with interests in sociology, anthropology, geography, political science, gender studies, Russian and Eastern European studies, and media and cultural studies
Abstract:
Cover -- Contents -- List of Tables -- Notes on Contributors -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction: Rethinking Class in Russia -- 1 Class Analysis in the USSR and Contemporary Russia -- Part I Class in Public Discourses -- 2 Business for Pleasure: Elite Women in the Russian Popular Media -- 3 Post-Soviet Khoziain: Class, Self and Morality in Russian Self-help Literature -- 4 Doing Class in Social Welfare Discourses: âUnfortunate Familiesâ in Russia -- 5 Political Parties and the Construction of Social Class in Russia -- Part II Classed Practices -- 6 Making and Managing Class: Employment of Paid Domestic Workers in Russia -- 7 âWe are Not Rich Enough to Buy Cheap Thingsâ: Clothing Consumption of the St. Petersburg Middle Class -- 8 Womenâs Use of Legal Advice and Claims in Contemporary Russia: The Impact of Gender and Class -- Part III Living Class -- 9 Wealth Brings Health? Class, Body and Health in Russia -- 10 Class Differences and Social Mobility amongst College-educated Young People in Russia -- 11 Re-inventing Themselves? Gender, Employment and Subjective Well-being amongst Young Working-class Russians -- 12 The Excluded Class: Russiaâs Forgotten Middle-aged Men -- Afterword: Thinking and Rethinking Class
