Resources and Everyday Conflicts in Rural Ukraine

Theorizing Social Change

When the Bulgarian minority in Bessarabia was exposed to the dual forces of globalizing political economy and the nationalizing Ukrainian state, life-worlds and resource use changed radically. Kaneff’s study is both an important addition to the literature on postsocialist transformation and, with its sophisticated conceptualization of resources, a truly original contribution to the analysis of social change generally.
Chris Hann, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

Social change is a topic of central interest in the social sciences. The upheavals and reforms that swept across former socialist states in Eurasia offer a rich array of case studies to deepen our understanding of this phenomenon. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in an ethnically Bulgarian community in rural Ukraine, Deema Kaneff uniquely brings to light a range of hidden conflicts and everyday tensions, as well as new alliances and solidarities resulting from the redistribution of resources following Ukrainian independence. A focus on five key resources provides a means to explore the way in which relationships were contested and renegotiated in this small community, with implications that go far beyond those boundaries.

300 Pages, 6 x 9 in.

December, 2025

isbn : 9780822967736

about the author

Deema Kaneff

Deema Kaneff is a reader in social anthropology at the University of Birmingham in the UK and an associate at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle, Germany. She is the series editor for the book series Anthropologies of Eurasia: Ethnographic Encounters of Social Change and a member of the editorial board for the book series European Studies in Socio-Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology. She is the author of Who Owns the Past? The Politics of Time in a “Model” Bulgarian Village, as well as numerous other edited volumes and journal publications.

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Deema Kaneff