Power, State and Nationalism in East/Central Europe

An internet-assisted course

Finn Sivert Nielsen (Copenhagen) & Kristina Sliavaite (Vilnius)


Group 5. "Social suffering and visions of the good life in Russia"

Participants:
<< Due to Danish privacy regulations, names and emails of participants have been deleted. >>

First description of the project:
Place: Novosibirsk, Russia
Time Period: January to June 2003
The object of my study is the field of “social suffering” and the nature of its interpretation and expression from the point of departure of the experience of people themselves. I would like to look at people’s expectations (real or imagined) and to people’s abilities to influence the conditions of their lives.

- What is the relationship between ideas and practices?
- Is there a particularly Russian way of expressing suffering?
- Is this also a question of gender, social strata or a generational one?

Methodological approach:
Narratives, autobiographies and informal interviews. I would like to, if access is possible, visit institutions, such as prisons, elderly homes or boarding schools.

My topic is related to the anthropology of violence, of social suffering, phenomenology; the anthropology of eastern Europe, Narratives and hermeneutics.