Description
Book SynopsisThis ethnographic examination of a middle-class group that must re-position itself—schoolteachers in 1990s Russia—depicts the interplay between identity, morality and consumption.
Trade Review"The book makes an important contribution to the emerging analyses of middle-class culture in Russia, and highlights issues such as the shame associated with poverty that have been under-examined in previous works." -- Michele Rivkin-Fish, University of North Carolina * Chapel Hill *
"Patico has produced a richly textured analysis that rings true for a wider swath of society than that simply comprising her teachers." --
Foreign Affairs"This ethnographic study of Moscow public schoolteachers ... is a fascinating exploration of the teachers' perceptions of their place in the emerging market economy and resentment of the ostentatious, 'uncultured' post-Soviet nouveau riche. Well written and accessible, this book will be useful for anthropologists, economists, cultural historians, and scholars as well as student in Russian and postcolonial studies." -- A.H. Koblitz *
Choice *
"[F]resh and fascinating . . . Although many studies have shown that middle-class culture cannot be fully understood without examining consumption and consumerism, Patico's book is one of the few that makes a serious effort to theorize this linkage . . . [T]his is an ethnographically grounded and theoretically informed book that deepens our understanding of postsocialist transformations through the lens of a Russian middle-class culture. I would recommend it highly." -- Li Zhang *
Dialectical Anthropology *
"By unpacking consumption as a simultaneously pragmatic and emotional activity, Patico intervenes in current debates about how new post-Soviet persons are constituted, how consumers exercise choice and evaluate those choices, and the new meanings that commodities and practices of consumption acquire in rapidly changing societies. Ultimately, she offers a fascinating and timely glimpse into a Russia that is undergoing profound changes." -- Melissa L. Caldwell, University of California * Santa Cruz *
