is professor of philosophy at Ural State University, Ekaterinburg, Russia. Her research deals broadly with social theory, urban and cultural studies, and the interactions between urban space and subjectivity. She has been visiting scholar at Bauhaus-Dessau, IFK (Vienna), and Harvard University. She is co-organizer of the interdisciplinary international project “Diverse Cultures in the Contemporary World”, sponsored by the Kennan Institute, and the Russian-Finnish project on the Russian media coverage of the ideas of the good life and post-Soviet subjectivities.
Established transitional narratives of “then and now” omit a central attribute of “normality” that existed during socialism: materiality, or the chance to establish oneself as an owner and maker of things. Elena Trubina suggests that it was eastern Europeans’ resourcefulness during times of scarcity that prepared them for the change and ensured the continuity of experience.