Synopses & Reviews
and#147;Haitiand#8217;s catastrophic earthquake follows a decade of crisis in governance and in everyday social life. Erica Jamesand#8217;s powerful ethnographic study shows how insecurity has been created, victimhood shaped, and trauma mediated under long-term conditions of grinding poverty punctuated by periodic disaster and interventions both external and domestic. The international and unintended consequences have commodified suffering, institutionalized insecurity, and fashioned a troubling and troubled and#145;democracy.and#8217; This book is a major achievement!and#8221;and#151;Arthur Kleinman, author of
What Really Matters: Living a Moral Life amidst Uncertainty and Danger"This is a remarkable piece of scholarship. Erica James has raised the bar as far as solid ethnographic inquiry in Haiti goes and draws on a diverse set of theoretical traditions in anthropology and in social theory. Her research will, I predict, open new doors."and#151;Paul Farmer, Harvard University, founding director of Partners in Health
"Erica James' book is a vivid descent into the ordinary of violence and insecurity, of suffering and trauma, in a country that seems to have never completely recovered from past French exploitation and American imperialism. Based on an ethnography of neighborhoods as well as of aid agencies, the inquiry courageously questions our categories of thought and models of action to confront Haitian endless tragedies, from victimization to humanitarianism, bringing together, in an unprecedented analysis, what she calls the economies of terror and the economies of compassion."and#151;Didier Fassin, author of When Bodies Remember
"Democratic Insecurities is a work of extraordinary depth that sets new standards on the themes of violence and social suffering. The power of the book lies in the great attention to historical and ethnographic detail of Haitian society and politics through which the doing and undoing of violence is rendered knowable as well as its command over social theory."and#151;Veena Das, Johns Hopkins University
"James draws us in via an astonishingly vivid and unsettling account of her first weeks in Haiti. This book is a highly sophisticated, compelling, and instructive read and an outstanding example of ethnography by one of the leading anthropologists in the field of trauma."and#151;Mary-Jo DelVecchio Good, Harvard University
Review
and#8220;Highly recommended. . . by highlighting the vivi first-person accounts of female survivors, the author raises important questions about humanitarian aid, structural violence, and political insecurity, while simultaneously outlining some of the ethical quandaries arising from the uses and abuses of power.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Her account is both brave and unsettling. . . . Not only instructive for anthropologists . . . but also for humanitarian aid providers who momentarily work or are planning to work in Haiti.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;[This] is one of the most important books on the country published in years. . . . It radiates intelligence and understanding.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;[Caldwelland#8217;s] insight into Russian life is impressive. . . . The book undeniably deserves to be read and appreciated.and#8221;
Synopsis
What does it mean to be a compassionate, caring person in Russia, which has become a country of stark income inequalities and political restrictions? How might ethics and practices of kindness constitute a mode of civic participation in which doing good helping, caring for, and loving one another in a world marked by many problems and few easy solutions is a necessary part of being an active citizen?LivingFaithfullyin an Unjust Worldexplores how, following the retreat of the Russian state from social welfare services, Russians efforts to do the right thing for their communities have forged new modes of social justice and civic engagement. Through vivid ethnography based on twenty years of research within a thriving Moscow-based network of religious and secular charitable service providers, Melissa L. Caldwell examines how community members care for a broad range of Russia s population, in Moscow and beyond, through programs that range from basic health services to human rights advocacy. As the experiences of assistance workers, government officials, recipients, and supporters reveal, their work and beliefs are shaped by a practical philosophy of goodness and kindness. Despite the hardships these individuals witness on a regular basis, there is a pervasive sense of optimism that human kindness will prevail over poverty, injury, and injustice. Ultimately, what connects members of this diverse group is a shared belief that caring for others is not simply a practical matter or an idealistic vision but a project of faith and hope.Together care-seekers and care-givers destabilize and remake the meaning of faith and faith-based by putting into practice a vision of humanitarianism that transcends the boundaries between state and private, religious and secular."
Synopsis
Democratic Insecurities focuses on the ethics of military and humanitarian intervention in Haiti during and after Haiti's 1991 coup. In this remarkable ethnography of violence, Erica Caple James explores the traumas of Haitian victims whose experiences were denied by U.S. officials and recognized only selectively by other humanitarian providers. Using vivid first-person accounts from women survivors, James raises important new questions about humanitarian aid, structural violence, and political insecurity. She discusses the politics of postconflict assistance to Haiti and the challenges of promoting democracy, human rights, and justice in societies that experience chronic insecurity. Similarly, she finds that efforts to promote political development and psychosocial rehabilitation may fail because of competition, strife, and corruption among the individuals and institutions that implement such initiatives.
Synopsis
Dacha Idylls is a lively account of dacha life and how Russians experience this deeply rooted tradition of the summer cottage amid the changing cultural, economic, and political landscape of postsocialist Russia. Simultaneously beloved and reviled, dachas wield a power that makes owning and caring for them an essential part of life. In this book, Melissa L. Caldwell captures the dachaand#8217;s abiding traditions and demonstrates why Russians insist that these dwellings are key to understanding Russian life. She draws on literary texts as well as observations from dacha dwellers to highlight this enduring fact of Russian culture at a time when so much has changed. Caldwell presents the dacha world in all its richness and complexityand#151;a and#147;good lifeand#8221; that draws inspiration from the natural environment in which it is situated.
Synopsis
"Anyone who has spent time in Russia knows the importance of 'going to the dacha.' In this ethnography Melissa Caldwell reveals the mystique of rural life by exploring the social nature of gardening and making food, and Russian relationships to the land. It's truly an innovative study!"and#151;Catherine Wanner, author of
Communities of the Converted: Ukrainians and Global Evangelism"In this engaging ethnography, Melissa Caldwell brilliantly demonstrates what is peculiarly Russian about the dacha, long an object of literary and nostalgic imagining, while simultaneously situating the 'vacation cottage' within larger histories of leisure, consumption, home, and post-socialist transition. A must-read for scholars of Russia or tourism."and#151;Pamela Ballinger, author of History in Exile: Memory and Identity at the Borders of the Balkans
Synopsis
What Muscovites get in a soup kitchen run by the Christian Church of Moscow is something far more subtle and complexand#151;if no less necessary and nourishingand#151;than the food that feeds their hunger. In
Not by Bread Alone, the first full-length ethnographic study of poverty and social welfare in the postsocialist world, Melissa L. Caldwell focuses on the everyday operations and civil transactions at CCM soup kitchens to reveal the new realities, the enduring features, and the intriguing subtext of social support in Russia today.
In an international food aid community, Caldwell explores how Muscovites employ a number of improvisational tactics to satisfy their material needs. She shows how the relationships that develop among members of this communityand#151;elderly Muscovite recipients, Russian aid workers, African student volunteers, and North American and European donors and volunteersand#151;provide forms of social support that are highly valued and ultimately far more important than material resources. In Not by Bread Alone we see how the soup kitchens become sites of social stability and refuge for all who interact thereand#151;not just those with limited financial meansand#151;and how Muscovites articulate definitions of hunger and poverty that depend far more on the extent of oneand#8217;s social contacts than on material factors.
By rethinking the ways in which relationships between social and economic practices are theorizedand#151;by identifying social relations and social status as Russiaand#8217;s true economic currencyand#151;this book challenges prevailing ideas about the role of the state, the nature of poverty and welfare, the feasibility of Western-style reforms, and the primacy of social connections in the daily lives of ordinary people in post-Soviet Russia.
About the Author
Melissa L. Caldwell has recently been appointed Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, after serving as Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Northeastern University.
Table of Contents
Contents
List of Abbreviations
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Democracy, Insecurity, and the Commodification of Suffering
1. The Terror Apparatus
2. The Aid Apparatus and the Politics of Victimization
3. Routines of Rupture and Spaces of (In)Security
4. Double Binds in Audit Cultures
5. Bureaucraft, Accusations, and the Social Life of Aid
6. Sovereign Rule, Ensekirite, and Death
7. The Tyranny of the Gift
Notes
Glossary
Bibliography
Index