Hunters Gatherers and Practitioners of Powerlessness

<p> The socio-economic transformations of the 1990s have forced many people in Poland into impoverishment. <em>Hunters Gatherers and Practitioners of Powerlessness</em> gives a dramatic account of life after this degradation tracking the experiences of unemployed miners scrap collectors and poverty-stricken village residents. Contrary to the images of passivity resignation and helplessness that have become powerful tropes in Polish journalism and academic writing Tomasz Rakowski traces the ways in which people actively reconfigure their lives. As it turns out the initial sense of degradation and helplessness often gives way to images of resourcefulness that reveal unusual hunting-and-gathering skills.</p>