Ethnography Seminar: Postcommunist Societies 758657

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Ethnography SeminarPost-communist Societies
(758657)

• Spring 2007

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General information

• Times Wed 12-14
• Location Unioninkatu 38, D112
• Email toomas.gross_at_helsinki.fi
• Phone [phone]
• Office Hours Wed 16-17, E308

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Topics and aims

• Topics
• Collective memory and narratives of the self
• Ethnic and center-periphery relations
• Social stratification
• Politics of gender
• Aims
• how people cope with / adapt to / resist
  transition
• Ethnographic focus
• mainly on Russia and Eastern Europe
• less on Central Asia and the Caucasus

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Format

• 6 lectures
• A general theme
• focus on one or two ethnographic cases
• videos
• Three readings
• Lecture materials
• at http//www.helsinki.fi/antropologia/opetus.htm
  
• by 11 a.m.
• ? Seminars

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Course requirements

• 6 reflection papers
• 1 research paper
• Active participation in seminars
• Presentation
• Opposition
• Contribution to discussions
• Ethnography Seminar I (7 credits) vs II (10
  credits)

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"Reflection papers"

• Concise summaries of your thoughts
• Based on seminar readings
• authors main arguments
• their strong and weak points
• comparison of the authors approaches
• For classes 2-7
• short (1,5-2 pages)
• not an essay
• may be hand-written
• in English or in Finnish
• Submission
• During the class or at toomas.gross_at_helsinki.fi
  (by 12 am)
• Late submission not accepted

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Research paper

• A longer essay
• on a particular research question or a set of
  issues
• in a certain (or comparative) ethnographic
  setting
• Ethnography Seminar I
• 8-10 pages
• at least four sources
• Ethnography Seminar II
• 12-15 pages
• at least six sources
• in English or in Finnish
• Due on 9 May
• Late submission penalties (5 per day but
  altogether not more than 40)
• Last deadline 31 May
• Topic
• Related to a lecture topic

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Seminars

• 14.3-2.5
• Participation is mandatory
• presentations oppositions general discussion

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Seminar presentations

• Based on the prospective research paper
• Can be rather preliminary
• not expected to send out a final paper
• outline at least 5 pages of reasonably polished
  text
• To be sent to everyone by 12 am on Monday
  preceding the presentation date
• Presentation
• max 10-15 minutes
• short summary of main arguments
• explanation of why and how the topic is relevant
• putting the topic into a wider context of
  post-communist studies
• powerpoint or overheads
• Presentations schedule to be decided upon on 28
  February

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Seminar oppositions

• Opposition
• 5-10 minutes
• focus on the strengths and weaknesses of the
  presented paper and the topic
• Trigger for the subsequent general discussion
• Oppositions schedule to be decided upon on 28
  February

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Seminar discussions

• All course participants
• expected to read the submitted texts prior to
  coming to the seminar
• expected to give feedback to the presenter

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Evaluation

• Research paper - 50
• (10 for presentation 40 for paper)
• Reflection papers - 30
• (6 x 5 for each reflection paper)
• Participation - 20
• (10 for opposition 10 for discussion)

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Texts and reading materials

• Required readings
• listed in the course schedule
• 3 for each lecture
• 1 general 2 ethnographic
• not all are strictly "anthropological"
• master copies by D112 at Unioninkatu 38
• EBSCO database articles marked with an asterisk
  ()
• Suggested literature for research papers
• at http//www.helsinki.fi/antropologia/opetus.htm
• Background literature
• general readers and edited volumes

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2. Anthropological study of post-communist
transition (24.1)

• Key words
• Transition, social change, socialism, communism,
  post-communism
• Readings
• Hann, Chris 1994. After Communism Reflections on
  East European Anthropology and the Transition.
  Social Anthropology, vol 2, no 3.
• Verdery, Katherine 1996. What Was Socialism and
  Why Did It Fall? In What Was Socialism, and What
  Comes Next? Princeton, N.J. Princeton University
  Press.
• Nazpary, Joma 2002. Bardak Elements of Chaos (Ch
  3). In Post-Soviet Chaos Violence and
  Dispossession in Kazakhstan. London Pluto.

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3. Collective memory and narratives of the self
(31.1)

• Key words
• Identity, collective memory, collective
  amnesia, nationalism, nation-building,
  myth-making
• Readings
• Ash, Timothy Garton 2004. Trials, Purges and
  History Lessons Treating a Difficult Past in
  Post-Communist Europe. In J.-W. Müller (ed.)
  Memory, and Power in Post-War Europe. Cambridge
  Cambridge University Press.
• Berdahl, Daphne 1999. '(N)Ostalgie' for the
  Present Memory, Longing, and East German Things.
  Ethnos, Vol. 642.
• Skultans, Vieda 2001. Arguing with the KGB
  Archives. Archival and Narrative Memory in
  Post-Soviet Latvia. Ethnos, Vol. 663.

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4. Ethnic and center-periphery relations (7.2)

• Key words
• Ethnicity, ethnic groups, state, violence, war
• Readings
• Brzezinski, Zbigniew 1989. Post-Communist
  Nationalism. Foreign Affairs Vol. 68 No 5
• Bax, Mart 2000. Planned Policy or Primitive
  Balkanism? A Local Contribution to the
  Ethnography of the War in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
  Ethnos, Vol. 653, pp. 317-340.
• Remnick, David 1998. Yeltsin's Vietnam. In
  Resurrection The Struggle for a New Russia. New
  York Vintage Books.
• Film
• Children of the Refugee Camp (2001)

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5. Social stratification the bottom end (14.2)

• Key words
• Survival strategies, networks, blat, economies of
  shortage, gifts, informal economy
• Readings
• Pine, Frances, and Sue Bridger 1998.
  Introduction Transitions to Post-Socialism and
  Cultures of Survival. In Bridger, Sue, and
  Frances Pine (eds). Surviving Post-Socialism
  Local Strategies and Regional Responses in
  Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union.
  London Routledge.
• Nazpary, Joma 2002. Networking as a Response to
  Chaos (Ch 4). In Post-Soviet Chaos Violence and
  Dispossession in Kazakhstan. London Pluto.
• Walker, Michael 1998. Survival Strategies in an
  Industrial Town in East Ukraine. In Bridger, Sue,
  and Frances Pine (eds). Surviving Post-Socialism
  Local Strategies and Regional Responses in
  Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union.
  London Routledge.

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6. Social stratification the top end (21.2)

• Key words
• Elites, new rich, conspicuous consumption,
  corruption, mafia, crime, violence
• Readings
• Sampson, Steven L. 1994. Money Without Culture,
  Culture Without Money. Eastern Europe's Nouveaux
  Riches. Anthropological Journal on European
  Cultures, Vol. 3, No. 1, p.7-29.
• Balzer, Harley 2003. Routinization of the New
  Russians? The Russian Review 63, pp. 15-36.
• Varese, Federico 2001. The Mafia in Perm (Ch 6).
  In The Russian Mafia Private Protection in a New
  Market Economy. Oxford Oxford University Press.

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7. Gender relations (28.2)

• Key words
• Women, gender roles and stereotypes, religion,
  culture, media
• Readings
• Eisenstein, Zillah 1993. Eastern European Male
  Democracies A Problem of Unequal Equality. In
  Funk, Nanette, and Magda Mueller (eds) 1993.
  Gender Politics and Post-Communism Reflections
  of Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union.
  New York Routledge.
• Akiner, Shirin 1997. Between Tradition and
  Modernity The Dilemma Facing Contemporary
  Central Asian Women. In Buckley, Mary (ed.)
  Post-Soviet Women. New York Cambridge University
  Press.
• Kay, Rebecca 1997. Images of an Ideal Woman
  Perception of Russian Womanhood through the
  Media, Education and Women's Own Eyes. In
  Buckley, Mary (ed.).
• Film
• Noble Virgins (2002)

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• 7.3
• No class
• 14.3-2.5
• Seminars
• 9.5
• Deadline for research paper submission
• 16.5
• Grades posted in the department