CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2013
| Author | Artiukh, Volodymyr |
|---|---|
| Title | COPING STRATEGIES AND WORKING CLASS FORMATION IN POST-SOVIET UKRAINE: A CASE OF BILA TSERKVA TIRE FACTORY |
| Summary | The way households secure their subsistence apart from wages and social security (household strategies, strategies of survival, coping strategies) has been substantially explored in relation to post-Soviet countries, especially Russia, and to a lesser extent, Ukraine. Common deficiency of these inquiries is that they ignore or pay too little attention to political-economic role of coping strategies in working class formation. In this study, I analyze coping strategies in post-Soviet Ukraine basing on my ethnographic field-work at Rosava tire factory (Bila Tserkva) and uncover mechanisms by which these practices enter class formation on the levels of relations of productions, ways of life, cultural dispositions and social organization. My theoretical framework comprises classical Marxist notions of class, over-exploitation, accumulation of capital, and mode of production, complemented by Claude Meillasoux's insight about the articulation of domestic mode of production with the dominant capitalist mode of production and Ira Katznelson's theorization of the levels of class formation. My analysis shows that 1) coping strategies do not represent tactics of resistance and workers' agency, they are rather structurally determined and conducive to 2) over-exploitation of workers by capital, and therefore not antagonistic to the interests of the capitalist class; 3) they are associated with certain forms of ideology, such as religiosity, conspiracy theories, xenophobia and identification with labor process and 4) have negative impact on class struggle in a number of ways. |
| Supervisor | Rigi, Jacob; Kalb, Don |
| Department | Sociology MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2013/artiukh_volodymyr.pdf |
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