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Employment Restructuring and Household Survival in ‘Postcommunist Transition’: Rethinking Economic Practices in Eastern Europe

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  • Adrian Smith

    (School of Social Sciences, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QN, England)

Abstract

Within the context of rapid structural adjustment and the onslaught of neoliberal policies, this paper explores the varied trajectories and processes of employment restructuring in ‘postcommunist’ East-Central Europe. I first examine some of the comparative dimensions of employment and labour-market change in the region. The differential links between uneven employment loss and unemployment are explored to highlight the diverse national experiences of labour restructuring. I then go on to assess the links between employment restructuring and increasing nonparticipation in the labour market, again highlighting the importance of national differences which belie neoliberal notions of a unidimensional transition to capitalist employment relations. Having established the severity of the ‘employment shocks' across East-Central Europe, I then go on to examine the links between labour-market restructuring and emergent social inequality since 1989. The polarisation of employment opportunities and constraints provides a context for discussing the development of household economic practices that lie outside the ‘formal’, emergent capitalist economy. Through an exploration of a household data set for Bulgaria I examine the ways in which households in different labour-market positions have developed ‘strategies' that involve economic activities constituted outside of formal capitalist, market relations. On the basis of this analysis I argue that a theoretical space becomes opened, through which it is possible to situate household economic practices not solely as ‘responses' to the austerity of transition, but as constitutive of alternative sites of economic relations with their own autonomies and histories.

Suggested Citation

  • Adrian Smith, 2000. "Employment Restructuring and Household Survival in ‘Postcommunist Transition’: Rethinking Economic Practices in Eastern Europe," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 32(10), pages 1759-1780, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:32:y:2000:i:10:p:1759-1780
    DOI: 10.1068/a32101
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Adrian Smith, 1998. "Reconstructing the Regional Economy," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 1322.
    2. Seeth, Harm Tho & Chachnov, Sergei & Surinov, Alexander & Von Braun, Joachim, 1998. "Russian poverty: Muddling through economic transition with garden plots," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 26(9), pages 1611-1624, September.
    3. Helen Jarvis, 1997. "Housing, Labour Markets and Household Structure: Questioning the Role of Secondary Data Analysis in Sustaining the Polarization," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(5), pages 521-531.
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