THE CULTURE OF SHORTAGE DURING STATE-SOCIALISM: CONSUMPTION PRACTICES IN A ROMANIAN VILLAGE IN THE 1980s

Abstract

This article argues that the situation of shortage that characterized state socialist societies for long periods of their existence could inform in meaningful ways the theory on consumption produced about non-socialist settings. Unlike the political economy studies of consumption during statesocialism that focus on social relations, this article assumes a more limited definition of consumption that focuses on objects and practices. Using data from a village in Romania whose inhabitants were engaged, in large numbers, in shopping across the Hungarian–Romanian border, the tribulations of obtaining consumer goods are described. The scarcity of such goods led to practices such as hoarding, rationing, intensive recycling and extensive repairs. This ethnographic case suggests that the dimension of transportation – extremely complicated by border surveillance – should be taken into account in broad definitions of consumption.