Beyond the Bailouts: The Anthropology and History of the Greek Crisis (International Library of Economics)

Since the nineteenth century, Greek financial and economic crises have been an enduring problem, most recently engulfing the European Union and EU member states. The latest crisis, beginning in 2010, has been - and continues to be - a headline news story across the continent. With a radically different approach and methodology, this anthropological study brings new insights to our understanding of the Greek crises by combining historical material from before and after the nineteenth century War of Independence with extensive longitudinal ethnographic research. The ethnography covers two distinct periods - the 1980s and the current crisis years - and compares Mystras and Kefala, two villages in southern Greece, each of which has responded quite differently to economic circumstances. Analysis of this divergence highlights the book's central point that an ideology of aspiration to work in the public sector, pervasive in Greek society since the nineteenth century, has been a major contributor to Greece's problematic economic development. Shedding new light on previously under-researched anthropological and sociological aspects of the Greek economic crisis, this book will be essential reading for economists, anthropologists and historians.

Business & Money

Waal, Clarissa De

Economics

I.B.Tauris

Iran is a country which, despite its extensive coverage in the media, is often regarded as 'mysterious', 'exotic' and 'other-worldly'. This attitude often stems from a focus on the rhetoric of controversial figures in Iranian politics, rather than looking at the everyday lives of Iranians themselves. Clarissa de Waal uses her training as an anthropologist to examine the experiences of individuals, with a focus of the province of Fars in southwest Iran. This serves to highlight contemporary Iran outside of the capital, which so often dominates western understanding of the country. Using a wide range of subjects, from public sector workers and entrepreneurs to Qashqa'i tribes people (both settled and nomadic), students and the unemployed, de Waal examines the everyday existence Iran's population from a variety of backgrounds. She offers analysis and insights concerning ordinary Iranians' lives and the impact the state has on them economically, socially and religiously.

Everyday Iran: A Provincial Portrait of the Islamic Republic (International Library of Iranian Studies)

History

Africa

This new book examines Albania's transition from Communism via the experiences of a diverse range of families, highland villagers, urban elite, shanty dwellers--Clarissa de Wall has followed the lives of Albanians there since 1992. As such, this is a history--of economic, social and political change--told from the perspective of the participants. We see how far the archaic world of customary law continues to pervade highland life, from dispute settlement to arranged marriages. At the same time, the author shows us members of the ex-communist elite in Tirana embracing rentier capitalism, while squatters on state farmland live under constant threat of eviction. Albania, the author suggests, is a country wracked by contradictions: in flight from its Communists past and yet still beholden to its rural traditions; keen to embrace free markets but without foregoing the security of central planning. I.B.Tauris in association with the Centre for Albanian Studies

Albania Today: A Portrait of Post-communist Turbulence

Europe

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Books by Waal, Clarissa De