This volume investigates how local populations in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union adapted to the systemic collapse of socialist economic and political structures. The authors, Frances Pine and Sue Bridger, utilize ethnographic research and regional case studies to examine the transition from state-controlled economies to market-oriented systems. They argue that survival strategies were not uniform but were deeply contingent upon local social networks, historical context, and the specific nature of regional institutional decay.

Experts in post-Soviet studies identify this text as a significant contribution to the understanding of micro-level economic shifts following the fall of the Iron Curtain. Scholars frequently cite the work for its detailed ethnographic approach to a period often analyzed solely through macro-economic data.