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"This book is an ethnography of the politics of waiting. While the global political economy is usually imagined through metaphors of acceleration and speed, Ozolina's book reveals waiting as the shadow temporality of the contemporary logic of governance. The ethnographic site for this analysis is a state-run unemployment office in Latvia. This site not only grants the author unique access to observing everyday implementation of social assistance programmes that use acceleration and waiting as forms of control, but also serves as a vantage point from which to compare Western and post-Soviet welfare policy designs. The book thus contributes to current debates across sociology and anthropology around the increasingly coercive forms of social control, by examining ethnographic forms of statecraft that have emerged over several decades of neoliberalism. The ethnographic perspective reveals how time shapes a nation's identity, as well as one's sense of self, in culturally specific ways. The book traces how both the Soviet past, with its narratives of building communism at an accelerated speed while waiting patiently for a better future, as well as the post-Soviet nationalist narratives of waiting as a sacrifice for freedom, come to play a role in this particular case of the politics of waiting. This book will be essential reading for students and scholars interested in contemporary forms of state power, temporal politics, and political subjectivity formation, as well as comparisons between Western and post-Soviet welfare reforms." -- Back cover. This book is an ethnography of politics of waiting. While the global political economy is usually imagined through metaphors of acceleration and speed, this book reveals waiting as the shadow temporality of the contemporary logics of governance. The ethnographic site for this analysis is a state-run unemployment office in Latvia, serving as a vantage point from which to observe how welfare programmes use acceleration and waiting as forms of control as well as to compare Western and post-Soviet welfare policy designs. The book is therefore a timely sociological critique of the forms of statecraft that have emerged in the aftermath of neoliberalism. The key audiences for this book are students and scholars of sociology, anthropology, social policy, and social and political theory, as well as policymakers and activists with an interest in welfare reforms and comparisons between Western and post-Soviet welfare designs.

Unemployment. --- Joblessness --- Employment (Economic theory) --- Full employment policies --- Labor supply --- Manpower policy --- Underemployment --- Unemployment --- Public welfare --- Benevolent institutions --- Poor relief --- Public assistance --- Public charities --- Public relief --- Public welfare reform --- Relief (Aid) --- Social welfare --- Welfare (Public assistance) --- Welfare reform --- Human services --- Social service --- Political aspects --- Government policy --- E-books --- Polittics. --- Public welfare. --- POLITICAL SCIENCE / Comparative Politics. --- Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography. --- Political aspects. --- Latvia. --- Lifli︠a︡ndskai︠a︡ gubernīi︠a︡ (Russia) --- Ostland --- L.P.S.R. --- Läti Nõukogude Sotsialistlik Vabariik --- Latvian S.S.R. --- Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic --- Latvian SSR --- Latvii︠a︡ --- Latviĭskai︠a︡ Respublika --- Latviĭskai︠a︡ Sovetskai︠a︡ Sot︠s︡ialisticheskai︠a︡ Respublika --- Latviĭskai︠a︡ SSR --- Latvija --- Latvijas Padomju Socialistiska Republika --- Latvijas PSR --- Latvijas Republika --- Laṭviyah --- Latviyskaya Sovetskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika --- Leṭland --- Letònia --- Lettland --- Lettonie --- Łotwa --- LPSR --- Repubblica Socialista Sovietica della Lettonia --- Republic of Latvia --- Латвия --- Latvii͡ --- Latviĭskai͡a Respublika --- Latviĭskai͡a Sovetskai͡a Sot͡sialisticheskai͡a Respublika --- Latviĭskai͡a SSR --- Russia (Federation) --- Europe --- Polittics --- Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography --- POLITICAL SCIENCE / Comparative Politics --- Austerity. --- Ethics. --- Ethnography. --- Post-Soviet. --- Waiting. --- Workfare.