Overview

Julie Hemment provides a fresh perspective on the controversial nationalist youth projects that have proliferated in Russia in the Putin era, examining them from the point of view of their participants and offering provocative insights into their origins and significance. The pro-Kremlin organization Nashi (""Ours"") and other state-run initiatives to mobilize Russian youth have been widely reviled in the West, seen as Soviet throwbacks and evidence of Russia's authoritarian turn. By contrast, Hemment's detailed ethnographic analysis finds an astute global awareness and a paradoxical kinship with the international democracy-promoting interventions of the 1990s. Drawing on Soviet political forms but responding to 21st-century disenchantments with the neoliberal state, these projects seek to produce not only patriots, but also volunteers, entrepreneurs, and activists.

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9780253017727

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Reviews

[A] truly pioneering work.... [A] fabulous work of anthropology, done with conceptual sophistication and an eye for ethnographic detail that are truly remarkable. Hemment makes a great case for the need to approach Russia not as a basket case understandable only on its own terms, but as a polity that shares many of its features... with neoliberal states elsewhere. Olga Shevchenko, author of Crisis and the Everyday in Postsocialist Moscow

[A] truly pioneering work... [A] fabulous work of anthropology, done with conceptual sophistication and an eye for ethnographic detail that are truly remarkable. Hemment makes a great case for the need to approach Russia not as a 'basket case' understandable only on its own terms, but as a polity that shares many of its features... with neoliberal states elsewhere. -Olga Shevchenko, author of Crisis and the Everyday in Postsocialist Moscow

Hemment's research counters the larger myth of an all-powerful state pulling the strings of civic activism. She skillfully weaves together a complex picture from multiple encounters and collaborations of what does and does not motivate Russia's young future leaders, many of whom are thoughtfully struggling with what they want out of life and how that may contribute to improving the lives of those around them. * Russian Review * Hemment's book makes a strong case for the importance of continuing to think, listen, and work with one another across conventional divides, both conceptual and geopolitical. Hemment argues that it is intellectually necessary and politically imperative to challenge a resurgent Cold War rhetoric. Her book points to a way forward on both fronts. In this important contribution to the anthropology of postsocialist state, Julie Hemment explores the terrain of state-run youth projects in Vladimir Putin's Russia, providing a sophisticated, elaborated, and differentiated account of highly controversial projects initiated by the Kremlin in the 2000s analyzed in the context of global neoliberal forces and trends. * American Anthropologist * This fascinating book presents a highly original account of the similarities between youth policies in Russia and around the world, and gives us a novel, grounded analysis of Russian provincial youth. It is a welcome and major contribution to the study of comparative youth policies. * American Ethnologist *

Hemment's research counters the larger myth of an all-powerful state pulling the strings of civic activism. She skillfully weaves together a complex picture from multiple encounters and collaborations of what does and does not motivate Russia's young future leaders, many of whom are thoughtfully struggling with what they want out of life and how that may contribute to improving the lives of those around them. * Russian Review * Hemment's book makes a strong case for the importance of continuing to think, listen, and work with one another across conventional divides, both conceptual and geopolitical. Hemment argues that it is intellectually necessary and politically imperative to challenge a resurgent Cold War rhetoric. Her book points to a way forward on both fronts. -- Indiana University Press In this important contribution to the anthropology of postsocialist state, Julie Hemment explores the terrain of state-run youth projects in Vladimir Putin's Russia, providing a sophisticated, elaborated, and differentiated account of highly controversial projects initiated by the Kremlin in the 2000s analyzed in the context of global neoliberal forces and trends. * American Anthropologist * This fascinating book presents a highly original account of the similarities between youth policies in Russia and around the world, and gives us a novel, grounded analysis of Russian provincial youth. It is a welcome and major contribution to the study of comparative youth policies. * American Ethnologist *

Author Information

Julie Hemment is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Massachusetts and author of Empowering Women in Russia: Activism, Aid, and NGOs (IUP, 2007).

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