| political institution, but also as socio-cultural phenomenon15.
Theoretical field
The guidance by sole, though perfectly organised, theoretical “grid”, while analysing the property relations as a complex socio-cultural phenomenon, may result in large deviation in research references and conclusions16. Pursuing to reduce the above-mentioned risk to maximum, it is indispensable to review the multiplex spectrum of the interdisciplinary researches, related to this phenomenon, as widely as possible17.
The model of State government and centrally planned economy in the Soviet Union abundantly differed from model of the market economy and democracy principles. Both Western countries and the Soviet Union justified the differences by a borderline, identifying the reasons why do “we” differ from “them”.
In both sides of the “iron curtain”, the theories on soviet block and the organisation of constitutive societies, after a number of social investigations, pinpoint to the aspect of property relations. The conceptions of K. Marx “Asian Mode of Production” and K. A. Wittfogel “Hydraulic State”, which became the most important and influential in the mid XX century in Western countries, explains the organisation of soviet society referring to a number of aspects of property relations and work planning18. In the other side of the “iron curtain” this question was analysed publicly as long as it fit in the narrow frames of Marxist/Leninist conception19.
In the end of the existence of Soviet block, a movement of anthropology transition period has formed, which elaborated the conception of the micro-level influence to the macro-level20. This makes a part of transitology, the research object of which is the socio-cultural reforms related to the change in power leverage and its reflections to micro-level, which take place in ex-soviet societies.
The research, described in the article, may correspond with the researches performed by the anthropologists Caroline Humphrey, Katerine Verdery, Chris Hann, Nancy Ries, which emphasise the importance of the role of formal and informal relations in societies. The anthropology of the transition highlights the survival of aspects of contacts formed during sovietism and the access to the resources, which still influence the evolution of postsoviet society and relevant reactions of the population to the changing environment. Other important aspect – the comparative researches of soviet and post-soviet economy management practices, which rather orients around the level of social consciousness more than the level of economy. The possibilities of change in already settled mental categories are revealed through the conflict of different practices of government. The researches of relationships formed during Sovietism and economy management practices incorporate the phenomenon of property relations21.
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15 Humphrey C., Verdery K. Introduction: Raising Questions about Property // Property in Question: Value Transformation in the Global Economy (ed. Caroline Humphrey, Katherine Verdery). Oxford. 2004, p. 2.
16 The major part of theoretic material concerning the topic was collected during the internship in the University of Fribourg in Swizerland.
17 Bourdieu P., Wacquant L. Įvadas į refleksyviąją sociologiją. Vilnius. 2003, p. 50–51.
18 Wittfogell K. Ibid, p. 104.
19 The above mentioned theorists are reflected only as the architects of the interdisciplinary predominated theoretical attitudes, guidelines and insights, strongly questioning their futurist and/or unifying models of society evolution.
20 Burawoy M., Verdery K. Introduction // Uncertain Tansition (ed. Katherine Verdery, Michael Burawoy). Oxford, 1999, p. 1–2.
21 Verdery K. Ethnic relations, economies of shortage, and the transition in Eastern Europe // Postsocialism: Ideals, Ideologies and Practices in Eurasia (ed. Chris Hann). New York, 2002, p. 174–175. |