Join us on a literary world trip!
Add this book to bookshelf
Grey
Write a new comment Default profile 50px
Grey
Subscribe to read the full book or read the first pages for free!
I want to read the book!
All characters reduced
Balkan Blues - Consumer Politics after State Socialism - cover

Balkan Blues - Consumer Politics after State Socialism

Yuson Jung

Publisher: Indiana University Press

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

Summary

An exploration of how a state transitions from the collectivized production and distribution of socialism to the consumer-focused culture of capitalism. 
 
In Balkan Blues, Yuson Jung considers the state as an economic agent in upholding rights and responsibilities in the shift to a global market. Taking Bulgaria as her focus, Jung shows how impoverished Bulgarians developed a consumer-oriented society and how the concept of “need’ adapted in surprising ways to accommodate this new culture. 
 
Different legal frameworks arose to ensure the rights of vulnerable or deceived consumers. Consumer advocacy NGOs and government officers scrambled to navigate unfamiliar EU-imposed models for consumer affairs departments. All of these changes involved issues of responsibility, accountability, and civic engagement, which brought Bulgarians new ways of viewing both their identities and their sense of agency. Yet these opportunities also raised questions of inequality, injustice, and social stratification. Jung’s study provides a compelling argument for reconsidering of the role of the state in the construction of twenty-first-century consumer cultures. 
 
“A good contribution to post-socialist and Balkan studies, showing well that the concept of post-socialism can still be useful not only in the context of Central and Eastern Europe, but also in the Balkans. The book is based on long-term, deep ethnography and is well written . . . I recommend it to anyone who wants to try to understand social, political, and economic differences in Europe and everyday practices related to the (imaginaries of the) state.” —Karolina Bielenin-Lenczowska, Ethnologia Polona
Available since: 02/01/2019.
Print length: 203 pages.

Other books that might interest you

  • The Politicos Guide to the 2015 General Election - cover

    The Politicos Guide to the 2015...

    Iain Dale

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    As the 2015 general election looms on the horizon, the only thing anyone can seem to agree on is that it will be unpredictable, not least because, for the first time in our history, we are experiencing the brave new world of four-party politics. Here, in one volume, is everything you need to know about what is shaping up to be one of the most exciting general elections of the last twenty years. In this unique guide to the state of the parties, policies and polls, you'll find expert predictions and commentary from political pundits, as well as all the facts and figures you need to make an informed decision at the ballot box.
This essential guide includes:

- Analysis of key marginal seats
- Information about demographics, voting intentions and past electoral behaviour
- Examples of historical precedent
- Lists of prospective candidates
- Profiles of the main party leaders
- Articles on the role of social media and the traditional media
- Breakdowns of regional and constituency data.A book that will appeal to enthusiastic politicos and inquisitive voters alike, this is the essential guide to the most eagerly awaited general election in recent history.
    Show book
  • Loyal to the Sky - Notes from an Activist - cover

    Loyal to the Sky - Notes from an...

    Marisa Handler

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    “In this brightly detailed blend of personal memoir and political reportage, Handler recounts her life of activism . . . [an] absorbing call to action.” —Booklist 
 
Born in apartheid South Africa, Marisa Handler emigrated to Southern California at the age of twelve. Her gradual realization that injustice existed even in this more open, democratic society spurred a lifelong commitment to activism that would take her around the world and back again. 
 
Handler shares intimate details of her life as a global justice activist to offer a revealing perspective on what drives the movement. Tracing her own evolution as an activist, her story crisscrosses the globe, examining current sociopolitical issues from apartheid and racism to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, corporate globalization, and the wars of the Bush administration. Along the way, Handler paints compelling portraits of the people she’s encountered, shares gritty details of the sometimes-harrowing events that have changed and shaped her, and describes how she came to advocate a spiritually based, nonviolent activism as the best means for building the kind of world we wish to see. 
 
“[Handler’s] wisdom transcends her youthfulness; she writes with grace and insight, and she never stumbles over her own self-importance.” —San Francisco Chronicle 
 
“Marisa Handler takes a brutally honest look at herself, the activist community, and the world. She writes with wit and beauty, preaches with passion and love.” —Medea Benjamin, Cofounder, Global Exchange and CODEPINK 
 
“Handler has put her values into action with tenacious creativity. She ably conveys the histories of places many people couldn’t find on a map in a lively, moving and funny voice.” —Publishers Weekly
    Show book
  • Ask a North Korean - Defectors Talk About Their Lives Inside the World's Most Secretive Nation - cover

    Ask a North Korean - Defectors...

    Daniel Tudor

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    Understanding North Korean Through the Eyes of Defectors. 
The weekly column Ask a North Korean, published by NK News, invites readers from around the world to pose questions to North Korean defectors. By way of these fascinating interviews, the North Koreans themselves provide authentic firsthand testimonies about what is happening inside the "Hermit Kingdom." 
North Korean contributors to this book include:"Seong" who came to South Korea after dropping out during his final year of his university. He is now training to be an elementary school teacher."Kang" who left North Korea in 2005. He now lives in London, England."Cheol" who was from South Hamgyeong in North Korea and is now a second-year university student in Seoul."Park" worked and studied in Pyongyang before defecting to the U.S. in 2011. He is now studying at a U.S. college. 
This book sheds critical light on all aspects of North Korean politics and society and shows that even in the world's most authoritarian regime, life goes on in ways that are very different from what you may think.
    Show book
  • Iraq and the Lessons of Vietnam - Or How Not to Learn from the Past - cover

    Iraq and the Lessons of Vietnam...

    Lloyd C. Gardner, Marilyn B. Young

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    Essays by Christian G. Appy, Andrew J. Bacevich, John Prados, and others offer “history at its best, meaning, at its most useful.” —Howard Zinn   From the launch of the “Shock and Awe” invasion in March 2003 through President George W. Bush’s declaration of “Mission Accomplished” two months later, the war in Iraq was meant to demonstrate definitively that the United States had learned the lessons of Vietnam. This new book makes clear that something closer to the opposite is true—that US foreign policy makers have learned little from the past, even as they have been obsessed with the “Vietnam Syndrome.”  Iraq and the Lessons of Vietnam brings together the country’s leading historians of the Vietnam experience. Examining the profound changes that have occurred in the country and the military since the Vietnam War, this book assembles a distinguished group to consider how America found itself once again in the midst of a quagmire—and the continuing debate about the purpose and exercise of American power.   Also includes contributions from: Alex Danchev * David Elliott * Elizabeth L. Hillman * Gabriel Kolko * Walter LaFeber * Wilfried Mausbach * Alfred W. McCoy * Gareth Porter   “Essential.” —Bill Moyers
    Show book
  • The Rise of the American Corporate Security State - Six Reasons to Be Afraid - cover

    The Rise of the American...

    Beatrice Edwards

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    “A vital book about the ridiculously cozy relationship between corporate wealth and government power and how it only seems to be getting worse” (William Cohan, author of Money and Power). 
 
In the United States today we have good reasons to be afraid. Our Bill of Rights has been rendered powerless by ubiquitous surveillance and our freedoms are impaired by government control of information, systemic financial corruption, and unfettered corporate influence in our elections. Behind a thinning veneer of democracy, the Corporate Security State is tipping the balance between the self-interest of a governing corporate elite and the rights of the people to freedom, safety, and fairness.  
 
In Rise of The American Corporate Security State, Beatrice Edwards examines the real reasons to be afraid in twentyt-first century America, and outlines how we can address them.  Our first steps in the right direction may be small, but they are important. They are based on the principle that we have a right to know what our government is doing and to speak openly about it. Creeping censorship, secret courts, and clandestine corporate control are all anathema to democratic practices and must be corrected now—before this last chance to redeem our rights is lost.
    Show book
  • Sex Trafficking - Inside the Business of Modern Slavery - cover

    Sex Trafficking - Inside the...

    Siddharth Kara

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    “The best book ever written on human trafficking for sexual exploitation”—the basis for the feature film, Trafficked, starring Ashley Judd (Kevin Bales, president of Free the Slaves).   Every year, hundreds of thousands of women and children are abducted, deceived, seduced, or sold into forced prostitution. These trafficked sex slaves form the backbone of one of the world’s most profitable illicit enterprises and generate huge profits for their exploiters, for unlike narcotics, which must be grown, harvested, refined, and packaged, sex slaves require no such “processing,” and can be repeatedly “consumed.” In this book, Kara provides a riveting account of his four-continent journey into this unconscionable industry, sharing the moving stories of its victims and revealing the shocking conditions of their exploitation. He draws on his background in finance, economics, and law to provide the first ever business analysis of contemporary slavery worldwide, focusing on its most profitable and barbaric form: sex trafficking. Kara describes the local factors and global economic forces that gave rise to this and other forms of modern slavery over the past two decades and quantifies, for the first time, the size, growth, and profitability of each industry. Finally, he identifies the sectors of the sex trafficking industry that would be hardest hit by specifically designed interventions and recommends the specific legal, tactical, and policy measures that would target these vulnerable sectors and help to abolish this form of slavery, once and for all.The author will donate a portion of the proceeds of this book to the anti-slavery organization, Free the Slaves.   “Sex trafficking is more of a problem than most people realize. Read this well-written book and find out.”—Kirk Douglas
    Show book