Paper short abstract:

The paper addresses “crisis” as a complex phenomenon in capitalism which changes the socialist perspective of problem-solving and introduces new divisions of responsibility residing in an individual and responsible self.

Paper long abstract:

The introduction of capitalism in Latvia in 1990ies has also opened doors to “crisis” in various areas of life - economic, moral and the family. Family crisis centres can be seen as much taken for granted reality in the Western world, however, when compared to the socialist period imaginations of family troubles, the “crisis” opens up a new complex configuration of responsibilities. During the late socialism, research showed that alcohol abuse and cramped living conditions were responsible for the falling birth rate and under Marxism-Leninism ideology, materialistic solutions of the reduction of alcohol consumption and apartment construction programmes were applied. Based on media text analysis and ethnographic fieldwork data collected by a team of researchers in several regions of Latvia during 2019-20, the paper argues that the definition and management of “crisis” allow individualising cases of violence and obscures its causes. Women and children as victims of violence are entitled to short stays and free of charge social rehabilitation at institutions literally called “crisis centres”, where the state and municipalities take the responsibility, however, expecting the victims, women and children alike, adhere to the imposed order both by proving their societal value and vulnerability and by taking responsibility for their future lives, restoring the ideal of an individual, independent and neoliberal self. The crisis management thus strengthens the idea of the violence as individual responsibility of the victim; allowing overall social fabric and structural causes of violence remain intact.