The Urban Life of Workers in Post-Soviet Russia

This book provides a novel approach towards the urban life of working-class communities, using the example of Russia’s post-industrial cities. Focusing on the sensual, imaginary and practical aspects of everyday struggles, this approach helps explain how workers produce micro-change in urban space under neoliberal neo-authoritarianism. -- .

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Despite the intense processes of deindustrialisation around the world, the working class continues to play an important role in post-industrial societies. However, working-class people are often stigmatised, morally judged and depicted negatively in dominant discourses.

This book challenges stereotypical representations of workers, building on research into the everyday worlds of working-class and ordinary people in Russia’s post-industrial cities. The urban life of workers in post-Soviet Russia is centred on the stories of local communities engaged in the everyday struggles that occur in deindustrialising settings under neoliberal neo-authoritarianism.

The book suggests a novel approach to everyday life in post-industrial cities. Drawing on an ethnographic study with elements of arts-based research, the book presents a new genre of writing about workers influenced by the avant-garde documentary tradition and working-class literature. -- .