Kristen R. Ghodsee Book order

Anthropologist Kristen Ghodsee looks at pioneering experiments in communal living to present a rousing argument for rethinking what we mean by home. 'A must-read' THOMAS PIKETTY 'Just wonderful' ANGELA SAINI Throughout history and around the world today, forward-thinking communities have pioneered alternative ways of living together, sharing property and raising children. In Everyday Utopia, anthropologist Kristen Ghodsee explores what we can learn from these experiments - from the ancient Greek commune founded by Pythagoras to the trail-blazing feminists of the French Revolution, from the cohousing movement in contemporary Denmark to the flourishing ecovillages of Colombia and Portugal. She shows why utopian thinking is essential to making a fairer world and that many of the best ways of getting there begin at home. 'This warm, intelligent and lucid book takes us on a deep dive into how people have created better systems for living - systems that actually work' ROBERT WALDINGER, author of The Good Life and director of the Harvard Study of Adult Developmet 'Exhilarating. A powerful reminder that dreaming of better worlds is not just some fantastical project but also a very serious political one' REBECCA TRAISTER, author of Good and Mad 'Splendid. Invigorating writing for a cheerless era' YANIS VAROUFAKIS, author of Technofeudalism 'A vision of what our future could be if we dare to dream' SUSAN NEIMAN, Left Is Not Woke

Why the most radical feminists were also communists

"Using an interdisciplinary approach, this book evaluates the social consequences of the post-1989 transition from state socialism to free market capitalism across Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Blending ethnographic accounts with economic, demographic, and public opinion data, Ghodsee and Orenstein provide insight into the development of new, unequal, social orders. It explores the contradictory narratives on transition promoted by Western international institutions and their opponents, one of qualified success and another of epic catastrophe, and surprisingly shows that data support both narratives, for different countries, regions, and people. While many citizens of the postsocialist countries experienced significant progress in living standards and life satisfaction, enabling them to catch up with the West after a relatively brief recession, others suffered demographic and social collapses resulting from rising economic precarity; large scale degradation of social welfare that came with privatization; and growing gender, class, and regional disparities that have accompanied neoliberal reforms. Transition recessions lasted for decades in many countries, exceeding the US Great Depression in severity. Some countries still have not returned to pre-1989 levels of economic production or mortality; some have lost more than one-fifth of their population and are projected to lose more. Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, this book deploys a sweeping array of data from different social science fields to provide a more holistic perspective on the successes and failures of transition, while unpacking the failed assumptions and narratives of Western institutions, Eastern policymakers, and citizens of former socialist states"-- Provided by publisher

A spirited, witty, deeply researched exploration of why socialism, when done right, can lead to economic independence, better work-life balance, and, yes, even better sex

The activism of women from Eastern Europe, particularly during the 1975 United Nations International Year of Women and the following Decade for Women, is the focus of this exploration. Kristen Ghodsee highlights the significant yet overlooked contributions of socialist women from Bulgaria and Zambia, revealing how their networks challenged the dominance of Western feminists. Through interviews and archival research, the book illustrates how the ideological rivalry between capitalism and socialism influenced contemporary women's movements globally.

'Funny, angry, urgent. Ghodsee is going to start a revolution' Daisy Buchanan, author of The Sisterhood A witty, fiercely intelligent exploration of why capitalism is rigged against women and what we can do about it. Unregulated capitalism is bad for women. Socialism, if done properly, leads to economic independence, better labour conditions, better work/family balance and, yes, even better sex. If you like the idea of such outcomes, then come along for an exploration of how we can change women's lives for the better.

Kristen Ghodsee examines the legacies of twentieth-century communism on the contemporary political landscape twenty-five years after the Berlin Wall fell, reflecting on the lived experience of postsocialism and how many ordinary men and women across Eastern Europe suffered from the massive social and economic upheavals in their lives after 1989.

Ethnography centers on the culture of everyday life. So it is ironic that most scholars who do research on the intimate experiences of ordinary people write their books in a style that those people cannot understand. In recent years, the ethnographic method has spread from its original home in cultural anthropology to fields such as sociology, marketing, media studies, law, criminology, education, cultural studies, history, geography, and political science. Yet, while more and more students and practitioners are learning how to write ethnographies, there is little or no training on how to write ethnographies well. From Notes to Narrative picks up where methodological training leaves off. Kristen Ghodsee, an award-winning ethnographer, addresses common issues that arise in ethnographic writing. Ghodsee works through sentence-level details, such as word choice and structure. She also tackles bigger-picture elements, such as how to incorporate theory and ethnographic details, how to effectively deploy dialogue, and how to avoid distracting elements such as long block quotations and in-text citations. She includes excerpts and examples from model ethnographies. The book concludes with a bibliography of other useful writing guides and nearly one hundred examples of eminently readable ethnographic books.

Kristen Ghodsee tells the stories of fighters and activists who worked for Communist ideals in Bulgaria and shows how the dreams of the Communist past hold enduring appeal for those currently disappointed by the promises of democracy.