Being There as Socialism Unravels

Early studies of the transition after 1989 focused primarily on the national and international consequences of bank reform, marketization, and political realignments. Far less attention was paid to the everyday experiences of those living through these momentous events. The work of anthropologists, in contrast, was concerned with the mundane hassles and existential quandaries people were facing, while never losing sight of the broader processes underway. Four ethnographies based on field work in this early period are discussed to illustrate how this focus reveals complex accounts of the transition as a dynamic and often contradictory series of events: border realignment, privatization of industry, decollectivization, and the restructuring of class relations.