Needed by Nobody

by Höjdestrand, Tova

• ISBN13: 9780801475931
• ISBN10: 0801475937
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-09-01
• Publisher: Cornell Univ Pr

Summary

In Needed by Nobody, Tova Hojdestrand offers a nuanced portrait of homelessness in St. Petersburg. Based on ethnographic work at railway stations, soup kitchens, and other places where the homeless gather, Hojdestrand describes the material and mental world of this marginalized population. They are, she observes, "not needed" in two senses. The state considers them, in effect, as noncitizens. At the same time they stand outside the traditionally intimate social networks that are the real safety net of life in postsocialist Russia. As a result, they are deprived of the prerequisites for dealing with others in ways that they themselves value as "decent" and "human."

Author Biography

Tova Hojdestrand is Lecturer in the Department of Social Anthropology at Stockholm University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. vii
A Note on Transliteration and Translation	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
"Excrement of the State": The Soviet-Russian Production of Homelessness	p. 20
Refuse Economics: Getting By with the Help of Waste	p. 47
Perilous Places: The Use and Abuse of Space and Bodies	p. 77
No Close Ones: About (Absent) Families and Friends	p. 112
Friend or Foe? The Ambiguity of Homeless Togetherness	p. 135
Dirt, Degradation, and Death	p. 166
Conclusion	p. 193
Notes	p. 207
Bibliography	p. 217
Index	p. 227
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.