Gerer son immeuble comme une "affaire"?

In: Politix: revue des sciences sociales du politique, Heft 1, S. 161-182

Abstract

The privatization of the apartments for the benefit of their legal occupants has made the once Soviet residential buildings into multi-owners properties (or condominiums). This article explores the appropriation of a new legal and economic model of building management by ordinary people living in Moscow. In line of literature that places the emphasis on the historical and social forces driving the economic exchanges, we note that some individuals are more likely to seize the new model. To show this, we start off from an in-depth, comparative case study of two women hailing from different social milieu that got involved in their building's affairs. In turn, these extreme cases function as a magnifying prism of ordinary situations, and help us shed light on intermediate cases as well. They underline how social and residential trajectories shape the ordinary interpretation and uses of law. We take them as an original way to study social construction of condominiums in post-communist Russia. Adapted from the source document.