[...]... Since 1995 she has been an independent consultant to the World Bank, conducting and overseeing research on a variety of projects relating to transition and poverty in Ukraine xiv | When Things Fall Apart When Things Fall Apart | xv An ethnic Russian pensioner in Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic sells her personal and household belongings in a public park Photo by Kathleen Kuehnast Introduction: A Qualitative... studies there when this volume was planned The fundamental nature of the changes under way in the FSU, including changes in attitudes and perceptions, called for an approach that could illuminate and enrich the data derived from quantitative poverty surveys The W The original studies excerpted in this book can be accessed at www.worldbank.org/eca/poverty/ compendium 1 2 | When Things Fall Apart studies... were less likely to give assistance to 14 | When Things Fall Apart needy elderly people who had adult children, on the grounds that it was the responsibility of the children to support their parent Likewise, certain people—in one case, a disabled couple who had married and had children— were seen as “undeserving” of assistance and therefore were allowed to fall into deplorable conditions Qualitative...x | When Things Fall Apart support throughout the long publication process, and Laura Tuck, current sector manager of ECSSD, for her strong support during the final phase of publication The Office of the United Nations... studies of transition and poverty in Albania, Armenia, Georgia, Latvia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, and Ukraine, as well as studies on the social impacts of transition xii | When Things Fall Apart on rural life, education, and social structure Recent publications include an edited volume, Fieldwork Dilemmas: Anthropologists in Postsocialist States (with Hermine G De Soto, 2000) and... of poverty since the collapse of the Soviet Union have contributed to a profound shift in values and in people’s perceptions about economic and social reality Unlike in poor countries else- 4 | When Things Fall Apart where in the world, poverty in the FSU struck people who had been well integrated into their society For the most part, the newly poor had enjoyed secure employment, access to basic services,... tools to complement the LSMS is particularly pressing in societies in transition from socialist central planning, where the rapidity of change and the dearth of information about the R 9 10 | When Things Fall Apart direction of change or the extent of local variation can seriously undermine the reliability of the usual categories and definitions that such surveys employ This chapter identifies some... quantitative methods are only as good as the instruments used and the interviewers who use them Because qualitative methods are inherently flexible, and their data analysis is less systematized than 12 | When Things Fall Apart that for quantitative research, their success in providing valid and useful findings depends perhaps even more heavily than that of quantitative methods on the interviewing and reporting... the recipient of IREX, Wenner-Gren, Social Science Research Council, and other research grants and fellowships, including most recently a Mellon Foreign Area Fellowship at the Library of Con- When Things Fall Apart | xiii gress, where she researched the topic of “Islam and the New Politics of Gender Ideologies in Central Asia.” With Carol Nechemias she is co-editing a volume, The Role of Women in the... her own reality In addition, local specialists or socially recognized experts are often able to provide a broader or more analytical, even if locally rooted, perspective on a given topic 16 | When Things Fall Apart Qualitative interview methods encourage flexibility and allow researchers to reflect upon their observations and use their intuition to question (but not argue with) interviewees’ responses . a variety of projects relating to transition and poverty in Ukraine. xiv | When Things Fall Apart When Things Fall Apart | xv An ethnic Russian pensioner in Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic sells her. 95 Doing Business in Uzbekistan Elizabeth Gomart Contents vi | When Things Fall Apart PART III. ARMENIA AND GEORGIA 113 Chapter 6: When the Lights Went Out: Poverty in Armenia 117 Nora Dudwick Chapter. Naylor Design, Inc., Washington, DC Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data When things fall apart: qualitative studies of poverty in the former Soviet Union / edited by Nora Dudwick,