Abstract
The conclusion reconstructs the differentiated accounts of the changes and continuities in consumption, domesticity, and material culture from socialism until today into a general diagnosis of contemporary Romanian society. It underlines socialist and postsocialist hybrid forms of consumption and domesticity, desynchronized relations between global trends and local practices, and the disjuncture between discourses from the public realm and practices found in private spaces. It also indicates the potential of objects to create and consolidate social relations, thus contributing to a more egalitarian and less fragmented society. The chapter emphasizes the ability and responsibility of anthropology to contribute to this political conceptualization.
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Cristache, M. (2021). Postsocialist Challenges and the Social Potential of Objects. In: Domesticity on Display. Consumption and Public Life. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78783-7_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78783-7_8
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