Power, State and Nationalism in East/Central Europe

An internet-assisted course

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


Monographic studies

Partapuoli, Kari Helene (1998): A Place of Globalization. Cross-Cultural Cooperation between Estonian and Norwegian Business People in Tallinn, Tromsø: Hovedfagsavhandling, Institutt for sosialantropologi. (134 p.).

Mariann Herloff Mortensen (1999): The Latvian Thing: Narratives of Place and Identity among Local and Diasporic Latvians. Copenhagen: Specialeafhandling, Institut for antropologi. (100 s.)


I. Theme One: Power

Power – a general theoretical and methodological perspective:

Abu-Lughod, Lila (1990): "The Romance of Resistance. Tracing Transformations of Power through Bedouin Women", American Ethnologist, Vol. 17, No. 1, p.41-53.

The power system in Soviet times and its transformation:

Nielsen, Finn Sivert (1999): "Preface to the Russian Edition (1999)", in: The Eye of the Whirlwind: Russian Identity and Soviet Nation-Building. Quests for Meaning in a Soviet Metropolis, p.1-22, Oslo (1987), Tromsø (2002), St. Petersburg (2002): Manuscript. Russian translation in press. (Published on: www.anthrobase.com.)

Humphrey, Caroline (1996-97): "Myth-Making, Narratives, and the Dispossessed in Russia", Cambridge Anthropology, Vol. 19, No. 2, p.70-92.

Case studies of power today:

1. New classes

Humphrey, Caroline (2002): "The Villas of the 'New Russians': A Sketch of Consumption and Cultural Identity in Post-Soviet Landscapes", in: The Unmaking of Soviet Life, p.175-201, Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Koehler, Jan (1999): "The School of the Street: Organising Diversity and Training Polytaxis in a (Post-)Soviet Periphery", The Anthropology of East Europe Review: Central Europe, Eastern Europe and Eurasia, Vol. 17, No. 2 (Autumn), p.39-51.

2. Civil Society, activism, resistance

Cellarius, Barbara A. (1998): "Linking Global Priorities and Local Realities: Nongovernmental Organizations and the Conservation of Nature in Bulgaria", in Krassimira Paskaleva, Philip Shapira, John Pickles & Boian Koulov (ed.): Bulgaria in Transition: Environmental Consequences of Political and Economic Transformation, p.57-82, Aldershot: Ashgate, Studies in Green Research.

Harper, Krista M. (2001): "Chernobyl Stories and Anthropological Shock in Hungary", Anthropological Quarterly, Vol. 74, No. 3, p.114-123.

Hinterhuber, Eva Maria (2001): "Between Neotraditionalism and New Resistance - Soldiers' Mothers of St. Petersburg", The Anthropology of East Europe Review: Central Europe, Eastern Europe and Eurasia, Vol. 19, No. 1 (Spring), p.139-152.

3. Culture and power

Condee, Nancy and Vladimir Padunov (eds.) (1995): "The ABC of Russian Consumer Culture: Readings, Ratings, and Real Estate", in Nancy Condee (ed.): Soviet Hieroglyphics: Visual Culture in Late Twentieth-Century Russia, p.130-172, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Kaneff, Deema (2002): "Why People don't Die 'Naturally' any more: Changing Relations between 'the Individual' and 'the State' in Post-Socialist Bulgaria", The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Vol. 8, No. 1, p.89-105.

4. EU Integration

Feldman, Gregory (2000): "Constructing the 'Non-Estonian': The Policy and Politics of Ethnic and European Integration in Estonia", The Anthropology of East Europe Review: Central Europe, Eastern Europe and Eurasia, Vol. 18, No. 2, p.93-101.

Linnet, Jeppe T. (2002): "An Everyday Moral Economy: NGO Activism among Young Latvians", Forthcoming in: Arnstberg & Borén (eds.): The Everyday Economy of Russia, Poland and the Baltic States. (p.1-18)


II. Theme Two: Nationalism

1. Ethnicity and nationalism: a general theoretical perspective

Lindholm, Helena (1993): "Introduction: A Conceptual Discussion", in: Helena Lindholm (ed.) Ethnicity and Nationalism. Formation of Identity and Dynamics of Conflict in the 1990s. Nordnes, p. 1-39.

Appadurai, Arjun (1997): "Patriotism and Its Futures", in Arjun Appadurai. Modernity at Large. Cultural Dimensions of Globalization. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press. (20 pages)

2. Nationalism and national identities in East Central Europe in historical perspective

Roszkowski, Wojciech (1995):"Nationalism in East Central Europe: Old Wine in New Bottles?" in Paul Latawski (ed.) Contemporary Nationalism in East Central Europe. London: Macmillan. p. 13-23.

Roepstorff, Andreas and Simoniukstyte, Ausra (2002) "Cherishing Nation's Time and Space - the Tradition Maintaining Lithuanian Identity". The article will be published in Ton Otto and Poul Pedersen (eds.) Anthropology and the Revival of Tradition. Aarhus University Press (24 pages).

3. Nationalism and socialist state

Verdery, Katherine (1991): "The Supression and Reassertion of National Values in Socialist Romania". In Katherine Verdery. National Ideology Under Socialism. Identity and Cultural Politics in Ceausescu's Romania. Berkeley, Los Angeles, Oxford: University of California Press: p. 98-134.

Verdery, Katherine (1996): "Nationalism and National Sentiment in Postsocialist Romania". In Katherine Verdery. What was Socialism and What Comes Next. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. p. 83-103.

4. New identities and ethnic conflicts in post-Socialist countries

Tereskinas, Arturas. (1999): "Between Soup and Soap: Iconic Nationality, Mass Media and Pop Culture in Contemporary Lithuania". Artium Unitio. <www.artium.lt> No. 1. (24 pages)

Senjkovic, Reana (1995) : "The Use, Interpretation and Symbolization of the National. Croatia 1990/92". In Ethnologia Europaea, Vol. 25, No. 1, p. 69-79.