6. Something like Happiness

Abstract

This book draws on a wide range of theoreti cal perspecti ves – from Chaney and Bourdieu to Berger, Sontag and Bakhti n – and from ideas about nostalgia to theories of consumpti on, nati on, and ethnicity. The ethnographic detail in each chapter is impressive, and in my view is the real core of the book. It is a resource which will be widely used by Russian, Soviet and postsocialist specialists, by anthropologists, sociologists and geographers, and by anyone interested in cultural studies, material culture and consumpti on, and place and ethnicity.