Surviving Post-Socialism: Coping Practices in East-Central Europe

Abstract

This article evaluates the coping practices adopted by households in East‐Central Europe following the collapse of the socialist bloc. Drawing upon the New Democracies Barometer (NDB) survey, it is here revealed that although a common assumption is that post‐socialist societies have under gone a transition to greater reliance on the market, an analysis of household coping practices provides little evidence that this is widely the case. Instead, households in most post‐socialist societies continue to rely heavily on a multiplicity of economic practices in order to secure their livelihoods with little, if any, shift over time towards the use of the formal economy in general and the market in particular. The outcome is a call for recognition and appreciation of the heterogeneous economic practices being used by households in East‐Central Europe and for greater consideration to be given to the contributions of the in formal sector in securing livelihoods.