Between profitability and subsistence

Varia
An ethnography of the domestic sale of agricultural goods in rural Russia
By Glenn Mainguy
English

This paper analyzes the contemporary economic transformations of the khoziaistva nacelenia under the impetus of market expansion in post-Soviet Russia. Based on an ethnography of marketing processes and inspired by “ethno-accounting,” the author examines the multitude of reference systems involved in establishing a fair price for agricultural goods sold from the home. While economic imperatives and profitability play an indisputable role in the calculation of a fair price, this study also highlights the use of a set of non-economic imperatives attached to the sharing of a precarious common situation, to the food-producing origin of agriculture, and to the social significance of the act of selling.

  • Rural precariat
  • Post-Soviet Russia
  • Merchandising
  • Domestic agricultural production
  • Ethno-accounting
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