Theorising Social Change in Post-Soviet Countries

The book traces three main approaches to the sociology of post-Soviet societies: studies guided by neoliberal theory and/or practice; work which may be termed neoconservative in orientation, and which is often a response to the first; and a third type of work that is considered both critical and reflexive, and which seeks to transcend the limitations of the other approaches. The book is divided into three parts, addressing polity, culture and economy. In each section, authors endeavour to transcend both neoliberalism and neoconservatism, and reach for a third approach, ‘critical social science’. This is a broad movement, and the authors vary in their own explanatory and normative ideas as they carve out frameworks that will enable them to develop a more rigorous and at the same time more comprehensive and critical understanding of social change.

The Editors: Balihar Sanghera studied economics and sociology in Lancaster and development economics at Oxford. He has taught political economy at the universities of Birmingham, Novosibirsk and Bishkek. He is currently a lecturer in sociology at the University of Kent, UK. His current research is on the moral and ethical aspects of political economy.
Sarah Amsler studied sociology at the London School of Economics. She is now a lecturer in sociology at Kingston University, UK. Her fields of expertise are the sociology of knowledge in cultural institutions (the university, the museum, and the school) and the politics of science, particularly in post-colonial and post-Soviet societies.
Tatiana Yarkova studied sociology at the Central European University and the Centre for Social Studies, Warsaw. She currently works as a senior program manager at the Special and Extension Programs, Central European University. Her research interests include political sociology, Eastern European and Central Asian studies.