Year: 1996
Type: book
Abstract: the loss of former identities and the acquisition of new ones.For them, the world has been turned upside down.Post-Communist societies have vastly enlarged the possibilities for people to redefine their identity through new kinds of employment (or unemployment), new types of organizations, new lifestyles, and new ideologies.Today, many people in the region are searching for new identities, but as the Russian scholar Alexander Etkind has observed, "Identities, like new shoes, do not always fit.People are still groping for a self they can be proud of or at least comfortable with." 2 How can we chart the formation of new identities among the people of Russia and Eastern Europe?In his monumental study of the English working class, Edward Thompson uses two criteria to establish the growth of what he calls class consciousness-but what we might just as well label collective identity-among workers in the first third of the nineteenth century.First, he looks for evidence that workers have a "consciousness of identity of interests among themselves and against the interests of other classes."Second, he looks for "the growth of corresponding forms of political and industrial organization."3 Thompson's approach may be applied to the changing identities among Russians and East Europeans.It prompts us to look for evidence that people have begun to perceive in new ways their identification with a group (based on nation, ethnicity, religion, gender, class, or politics) and to create and participate in corresponding organizations, such as a church, a political party, a women's group, or a business organization.The essays in this volume grapple, in various ways, with the issues of personal and collective identity and the ways people have found to express their allegiances in post-Communist societies.The collection consists of parallel essays-dealing with Russia and Eastern Europe-on five themes relating to identities in transition: class, gender, nationality, religion, and politics.Each author was asked to provide the reader with an overview of the subject and to address the general questions: How and why have identities been changing in the post-Communist era and with what consequences?The essays in the volume were originally presented at a conference, Identities in Transition, held in April 1995 at the University of California, Berkeley.Organized by the Center for Slavic and East viii Preface European Studies, the conference was part of an ongoing effort to provide educational outreach for the benefit of teachers and the wider community.We are grateful to the Title VI Program of the U.S. Department of Education for support of the conference and partial support of this publication.Anna Wertz, Ph.D. candidate in the Department of History, ably provided editorial and production assistance.
Author: Victoria E. Bonnell
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2109063598