Michaelmas 2019

Socialisms and Postsocialisms in a Global Context forum

6 Nov
COMPAS Boardroom, 58 Banbury Road, Oxford

Convened by: Dace Dzenovska & Nicolette Makovicky

We are very pleased to announce the schedule of the Socialisms and Postsocialisms in a Global Context “work-in-progress” forum for Michaelmas 2019.

Socialisms and Postsocialisms in a Global Context is a forum for sharing and discussing work with colleagues working on resonant themes. It is also a shared space for intellectual conversation about the contributions the studies of socialism and postsocialism can make in and across different disciplines – anthropology, history, socio-legal studies, sociology, political science and international relations. We are particularly interested in thinking about what insights derived from studies of socialism and postsocialism can offer with regard to understanding the current historical moment.

We do not consider socialism and postsocialism to be a geographically delimited area of inquiry, but understand it as global and diverse phenomenon and therefore invite participation of faculty and students across disciplinary and regional expertise. We particularly welcome advanced DPhil students who want to share their research and ideas in a constructive and supportive environment. The group is convened through a collaboration between faculty members affiliated with the School of Interdisciplinary Area Studies and the School Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, but is open to all interested faculty and graduate students. Information about upcoming events will be circulated through the RSC and COMPAS mailing lists. If you would like to present your work in future sessions, please send an email to Dace Dzenovska.

Sessions will take place on Wednesdays of Weeks 4 and 7 at 15:00 in the COMPAS Board Room, 58 Banbury Road.

We look forward to an exciting conversation!

Nicolette Makovicky, Oxford School of Global and Area Studies (OSGA)
Dace Dzenovska, School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography (SAME)

Sessions

06/11/2019

‘Experiment on Ourselves:’ Collective housing, Self-Help Construction and Self-Management in Youth Residential Complex (MZhK) Housing Movement in the Late-Soviet Russia, 1969-1992

Nikolay Erofeev, Faculty of History, University of Oxford

In the Soviet era, a long-lasting idea of housing with collective services was implemented in various forms, starting from widely discussed but rarely actually constructed constructivist ‘house-communes’ (doma-kommuny) of the 1920s. This paper focuses on the less known late-Soviet realisations of a collective housing project, in the case of ‘Youth Residential Complexes’ (MZhKs). Starting in 1969, this project was declared as an experiment, in which residents had to participate in the process of design, organisation, and management of their ‘housing complexes.’ Candidates for residency also had to work on the construction site for several years, building housing with their labour, earning in such a way, the right to live in it. The paper traces the story of the project from early experiments to the very end of the Soviet times, when it became a mass movement, with more than 700 housing estates constructed across the USSR. Based on the case of a housing complex in Ekaterinburg (1977–1982), the paper analyses both practical motives of grass-roots organisation and an ideological side of the project, looking how official narratives of communal housing and visions of emancipation were re-interpreted and re-articulated by the residents. With the examples of housing complexes, actually-functioning in post-socialist time and even today, the paper seeks to produce a picture not only of how socialism projected housing utopias but also of what it actually achieved.

Climate Migrants

Hilary 2022

Gender, Love and Migration

Michaelmas 2021

Special Guest Seminars

Trinity Term 2019

In Discussion with Gulwali Passarlay

MSc. Student-led Series

Four one-off seminars

Trinity Term 2018

Beyond Impact?

Hilary Term 2018

person finding a way out

Refugees and the Economy

Michaelmas Term 2017

Talking Oxford

Trinity Term 2017

Migration Research – where next?

Michaelmas Term 2016

Wellbeing and Migration in the UK

Michaelmas Term 2015

Arrival Cities

Michaelmas term 2014

Borders of the welfare state

Trinity term 2014

Boundaries of Freedom

Hilary term 2014

Rethinking Migration

Trinity term 2013

Migration Journeys

Seminar Series Michaelmas 2012

Everyday multiculturalism

Seminar Series Trinity 2012

Gender, Migration and Citizenship

Gender, Migration and Citizenship

Seminar Series Michaelmas 2009

Immigration and Low-wage Labour Markets

Immigration and Low-wage Labour Markets

Seminar Series Hilary Term 2009

Migration, Welfare and Inequalities

Migration, Welfare and Inequalities

Seminar Series Michaelmas Term 2008

Migration and Cultural Production

Migration and Cultural Production

Seminar Series Trinity Term 2008

Critical Epistemologies of Migration

Critical Epistemologies of Migration

Seminar Series Hilary Term 2008

New Trends in Contemporary Migration

New Trends in Contemporary Migration

Seminar Series Michaelmas Term 2007

Perspectives on African Migration

Perspectives on African Migration

Seminar Series Trinity Term 2007

States and Emigrants

States and Emigrants

Seminar Series Trinity Term 2006

Racism and the new immigration: theories and practices

Racism and the new immigration: theories and practices

Seminar Series Michaelmas Term 2005

The Anthropology of Migration and Multiculturalism

The Anthropology of Migration and Multiculturalism

Seminar Series Trinity Term 2005

Contemporary International Migration – Key Issues

Contemporary International Migration – Key Issues

Seminar Series Hilary Term 2005