{"title":"Books by Kristen Ghodsee","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781847927170","title":"Everyday Utopia","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAnthropologist Kristen Ghodsee looks at pioneering experiments in communal living to present a rousing argument for rethinking what we mean by home.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘A must-read’ \u003cb\u003eTHOMAS PIKETTY\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘Just wonderful’ \u003cb\u003eANGELA SAINI\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThroughout history and around the world today, forward-thinking communities have pioneered alternative ways of living together, sharing property and raising children. In \u003ci\u003eEveryday Utopia\u003c\/i\u003e, anthropologist Kristen Ghodsee explores what we can learn from these experiments – from the ancient Greek commune founded by Pythagoras to the trail-blazing feminists of the French Revolution, from the cohousing movement in contemporary Denmark to the flourishing ecovillages of Colombia and Portugal. She shows why utopian thinking is essential to making a fairer world and that many of the best ways of getting there begin at home.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e‘This warm, intelligent and lucid book takes us on a deep dive into how people have created better systems for living – systems that actually work’ \u003c\/b\u003eROBERT WALDINGER, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Good Life \u003c\/i\u003eand director of the Harvard Study of Adult Developmet\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e‘Exhilarating. A powerful reminder that dreaming of better worlds is not just some fantastical project but also a very serious political one’\u003c\/b\u003e REBECCA TRAISTER, author of \u003ci\u003eGood and Mad\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e‘Splendid. Invigorating writing for a cheerless era'\u003c\/b\u003e YANIS VAROUFAKIS, author of \u003ci\u003eTechnofeudalism\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e‘A vision of what our future could be if we dare to dream’\u003c\/b\u003e SUSAN NEIMAN, Left Is Not Woke\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":57685903442293,"sku":"9781529925487","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":43128012046514,"sku":"9781847927170","price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781529925487.jpg?v=1792599137"},{"product_id":"9781529110579","title":"Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e 'Funny, angry, urgent. Ghodsee is going to start a revolution' Daisy Buchanan, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Sisterhood \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA witty, fiercely intelligent exploration of why capitalism is rigged against women and what we can do about it.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eUnregulated capitalism is bad for women. Socialism, if done properly, leads to economic independence, better labour conditions, better work\/family balance and, yes, even better sex. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIf you like the idea of such outcomes, then come along for an exploration of how we can change women’s lives for the better.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43204607639730,"sku":"9781529110579","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781529110579_0cbc92fb-5783-40f4-aa83-d4262d1f6cf2.jpg?v=1786022525"},{"product_id":"9780197549230","title":"Taking Stock of Shock","description":"Kristen Ghodsee and Mitchell A. Orenstein blend empirical data with lived experiences to produce a robust picture of who won and who lost in post-communist transition, contextualizing the rise of populism in Eastern Europe.  After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, more than 400 million people suddenly found themselves in a new reality, a dramatic transition from state socialist and centrally planned workers' states to liberal democracy (in most cases) and free markets. Thirty years later, postsocialist citizens remain sharply divided on the legacies of transition. Was it a success that produced great progress after a short recession, or a socio-economic catastrophe foisted on the East by Western capitalists? Taking Stock of Shock aims to uncover the truth using a unique, interdisciplinary investigation into the social consequences of transition—including the rise of authoritarian populism and xenophobia. Showing that economic, demographic, sociological, political scientific, and ethnographic research produce contradictory results based on different disciplinary methods and data, Kristen Ghodsee and Mitchell Orenstein triangulate the results. They find that both the J-curve model, which anticipates sustained growth after a sharp downturn, and the \"disaster capitalism\" perspective, which posits that neoliberalism led to devastating outcomes, have significant basis in fact. While substantial percentages of the populations across a variety of postsocialist countries enjoyed remarkable success, prosperity, and progress, many others suffered an unprecedented socio-economic catastrophe. Ghodsee and Orenstein conclude that the promise of transition still remains elusive for many and offer policy ideas for overcoming negative social and political consequences.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":57688227774837,"sku":"9780197549247","price":25.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":56226171060597,"sku":"9780197549230","price":98.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780197549247.jpg?v=1792686166"},{"product_id":"9780226257556","title":"From Notes to Narrative – Writing Ethnographies That Everyone Can Read","description":"Ethnography centers on the culture of everyday life. So it is ironic that most scholars who do research on the intimate experiences of ordinary people write their books in a style that those people cannot understand. In recent years, the ethnographic method has spread from its original home in cultural anthropology to fields such as sociology, marketing, media studies, law, criminology, education, cultural studies, history, geography, and political science.  Yet, while more and more students and practitioners are learning how to write ethnographies, there is little or no training on how to write ethnographies well.     From Notes to Narrative picks up where methodological training leaves off.  Kristen Ghodsee, an award-winning ethnographer, addresses common issues that arise in ethnographic writing. Ghodsee works through sentence-level details, such as word choice and structure. She also tackles bigger-picture elements, such as how to incorporate theory and ethnographic details, how to effectively deploy dialogue, and how to avoid distracting elements such as long block quotations and in-text citations. She includes excerpts and examples from model ethnographies. The book concludes with a bibliography of other useful writing guides and nearly one hundred examples of eminently readable ethnographic books.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56227514024309,"sku":"9780226257556","price":16.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780226257556_3b70c150-5561-40a8-a269-afbb6b985892.jpg?v=1786012357"},{"product_id":"9781478001812","title":"Second World, Second Sex","description":"\u003cp\u003eWomen from the state socialist countries in Eastern Europe-what used to be called the Second World-once dominated women’s activism at the United Nations, but their contributions have been largely forgotten or deemed insignificant in comparison with those of Western feminists. In \u003ci\u003eSecond World, Second Sex\u003c\/i\u003e Kristen Ghodsee rescues some of this lost history by tracing the activism of Eastern European and African women during the 1975 United Nations International Year of Women and the subsequent Decade for Women (1976-1985). Focusing on case studies of state socialist Bulgaria and nonaligned but socialist-leaning Zambia, Ghodsee examines the feminist networks that developed between the Second and Third Worlds and shows how alliances between socialist women challenged American women’s leadership of the global women’s movement. Drawing on interviews and archival research across three continents, Ghodsee argues that international ideological competition between capitalism and socialism profoundly shaped the world women inhabit today.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56301124845941,"sku":"9781478001812","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781478001812_cf812f09-8ffd-4013-9467-1909d37acd7c.jpg?v=1786020841"},{"product_id":"red-valkyries","title":"Red Valkyries","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe lives of five socialist women and their legacy for modern-day feminists\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRed Valkyries\u003c\/i\u003e explores the history of socialist feminism in Eastern Europe. Through the revolutionary careers of five prominent socialist women active in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries—the aristocratic Bolshevik Alexandra Kollontai; the radical pedagogue Nadezhda Krupskaya; the polyamorous firebrand Inessa Armand; the deadly sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko; and the partisan, scientist, and global women’s activist Elena Lagadinova—Kristen Ghodsee tells the story of the personal challenges faced by earlier generations of radicals.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e None of these women was a perfect leftist. Their lives were filled with inner conflicts, contradictions, and sometimes outrageous privilege. But they managed to fight for their own political projects with perseverance and dedication. Always walking a fine line between the need for class solidarity and the desire to force their sometimes callous male colleagues to take women’s issues seriously, these women pursued novel solutions with many lessons for those who might follow in their footsteps.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":57685676589429,"sku":"9781839766619","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":57490277433717,"sku":"9781839766602","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781839766619_c1856847-398d-4e5e-a0c5-25b3df621a22.jpg?v=1792598820"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-kristen-ghodsee.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}