SESSION 2
April 10, 2008
From State Socialism to Post-Socialism: Theory and Practice
Political Theories of State Socialism and Their Practical Critique (Lecture and Discussion, 14.30­15.50)
Economic Reforms, Consumer Socialism, Second Economy (Discussion, 16.05­17.25)
Theories and Histories of the Transition: A Great Transformation or a Return to Europe? (Lecture, 17.40­
19.00)
Assigned reading:
* Burawoy, Michael and János Lukács (1985) Mythologies of Work: A Comparison of
Firms in State Socialism and Advanced Capitalism. American Sociological Review, Vol. 50,
No. 6 (Dec. 1985), 723­737.
* Sampson, Steven L. (1987) The Second Economy of the Soviet Union and Eastern
Europe. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 493, The Informal
Economy (Sep. 1987), 120­136.
* Verdery, Katherine (1991) Theorizing Socialism: A Prologue to the `Transition'.
American Ethnologist, Vol. 18, No. 3, Representations of Europe: Transforming
State, Society, and Identity (Aug. 1991), 419­439.
* Lampland, Martha (1991) Pigs, Party Secretaries, and Private Lives in Hungary. American
Ethnologist, Vol. 18, No. 3, Representations of Europe: Transforming State, Society, and
Identity. (Aug. 1991), 459­479.
* Humphrey, Caroline (1991) `Icebergs', Barter, and the Mafia in Provincial Russia.
Anthropology Today, Vol. 7, No. 2 (Apr. 1991), 8­13.
* Verdery, Katherine (1996) What Was Socialism, and Why Did It Fall? In What Was
Socialism, and What Comes Next? (Princeton: Princeton University Press), 19­38.
* Burawoy, Michael and Katherine Verdery (1999) Introduction. In Michael
Burawoy and Katherine Verdery, eds., Uncertain Transition: Ethnographies of
Change in the Postsocialist World (Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield), 1­17. (*)
* Berdahl, Daphne (2000) Introduction: An Anthropology of Postsocialism. In
Daphne Berdahl, Matti Bunzl and Martha Lampland, eds., Altering States:
Ethnographies of Transition in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union.
Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1­13. (*)