Understanding the moral economy of post-Soviet societies: an investigation into moral sentiments and material interests in Kyrgyzstan

The article offers three competing conceptual approaches to the moral economy in post-Soviet societies: the economic market, the socially embedded and the moral sentiments approaches. We aim to contribute to the debate on how post-Soviet economies are socially constituted, paying particular attention to their moral and ethical aspects, and arguing for a cross-disciplinary account of Kyrgyzstani market society that engages with political economy, post-communism and moral philosophy. We analyse how, as vulnerable and dependent human beings, we care for and have responsibilities for others, though it is a struggle to pursue these concerns and commitments and to have compassion in a harsh economic environment. We suggest that the moral sentiments approach reveals how moral emotions inform and motivate economic behaviour and affect human well-being. By analysing the transition in the public sector, social networks and real markets in Kyrgyzstan, this perspective explains how shame, frustration and anger dominate people's lives and how corruption emerges in the absence of both positive moral emotions and human capabilities

Beyond coping? Alternatives to consumption within a social network of Russian workers

Research on the post-socialist lived experience of the working poor often focuses on reciprocity and economic survival. It is equally important to examine how social networks facilitate self-provisioning and mutual-aid practices for non-subsistence consumption (decorative, non-utility items) in the face of material want. The ethnography presented here of manufacturing workers in a Russian province shows how selfresourced homemaking and decorative practices, after MacIntyre (1981), constitute an ‘internal good’ – a social activity valued for itself as much as the domestic production it results in. This good is important for workers’ mutual recognition as providers and their status as sufficiently resourceful subjects suitable for inclusion within a social network – itself an important resource for the working poor. The network provides opportunities for alternatives to consumption outside the market economy. Worker identities at work cannot be detached from those at leisure and at home, and even the meaning of the workplace is problematized by its special place within the network