SESSION 2

2. From State Socialism to Post-Socialism: Theory and Practice


Political and Economic Theories of State Socialism (Lecture and Discussion, 14.30–15.50)

Practical Critique: Economic Reforms, Consumer Socialism, Second Economy (Discussion, 16.05–17.25)

Theories and Histories of the Transition: A Great Transformation or a Return to Europe? (Lecture,
17.40–19.00)


* 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),
723–737. (HU)

* 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),
120–136.

+ 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), 419–439.

* 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), 459–479. (HU)

* Humphrey, Caroline (1991) ‘Icebergs’, Barter, and the Mafia in Provincial Russia. Anthropology
Today, Vol. 7, No. 2 (Apr. 1991), 8–13. (RU)

+ Verdery, Katherine (1996) What Was Socialism, and Why Did It Fall? In What Was Socialism, and
What Comes Next? (Princeton: Princeton University Press), 19–38.

+ 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), 1–17. ***

+ 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, 1–13.****



*** Available in FSS library, an on-site loan

**** Available in FA library, a month‘s loan