Rethinking Class in Russia - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1138277134 ISBN 13: 9781138277137

Publisher: Routledge, 2016

Synopsis

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-à-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.

About this title

About the Author

Suvi Salmenniemi is a postdoctoral fellow at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, University of Helsinki, Finland, and author of Democratization and Gender in Contemporary Russia

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1138277134
• ISBN 13: 9781138277137
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288
• Editor: Salmenniemi Suvi