The postsocialist agrarian question

„. anthropology needs a broader vision. It needs to shake off its strong association with the primitive and the exotic and become genuinely global in its comparisons. From this perspective, more sustained attention to Eurasia and a renewed focus on its underlying unity might launch the transformation of our parochial scholarly traditions into a mature cosmopolitan science.“ - Chris Hann, in his Preface to this series This is an age of neo-liberalism, in which the advantages and virtues of private property are often taken for granted. Postsocialist governments have privatized and broken up state farms and socialist cooperatives. However, economic outcomes and the social insecurity now experienced by many rural inhabitants highlight the need for a broader anthropological analysis of property relations, which goes beyond changes in legal form. A century after Kautsky addressed 'The Agrarian Question' in Germany, it is therefore necessary to address a postsocialist Agrarian Question throughout Central and Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union and China. The studies collected here derive from the first cycle of projects at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology. They are prefaced by a substantial Introduction by Chris Hann, a Founding Director of the Institute. Contributors: Susanne Brandtstädter, Andrew Cartwright, Barbara A. Cellarius, John Eidson, Patty A. Gray, Chris Hann, Patrick Heady, Deema Kaneff, Alexander D. King, Carolin Leutloff, Liesl L. Gambold Miller, Gordon Milligan, Mihály Sárkány, Florian Stammler, Wolde Gossa Tadesse, Davide Torsello, Aimar Ventsel, Lale Yalçn-Heckmann, John P. Ziker