Reasons for the (Un)Successful Solidarity of Civil Society in Russia: Professionalism Without Altruism
Research Article
How to Cite
Yaroshenko S.S., Lytkina T.S. Reasons for the (Un)Successful Solidarity of Civil Society in Russia: Professionalism Without Altruism. Interaction. Interview. Interpretation. 2023. Vol. 15. No. 4. P. 75-96. DOI: https://doi.org/10.19181/inter.2023.15.4.4 (in Russ.).
Abstract
The article provides a comparative analysis of the results of two case studies in public organizations in Russia, conducted by the authors from 2010 to 2020. It is argued that two forms of civic solidarization coexist in Russian society: moral and professional. Both are oriented towards solving social problems caused by the reproduction of poverty. Both were created in the form of civic initiatives oriented to help others in difficult life situations. However, along with professionalization comes a shift in emphasis from helping others to personal achievement, and the boundaries between professionals and those in need of help are created. Helping others turns out to be non-functional in a market society, but it is in demand among the poor, who are interested in overcoming structures of inequality through mutual aid and co-operation. Moral solidarity, although self-sufficient, is not supported by neoliberal ideology and the state also. Professional solidarity is consistent with the market logic, but it is created at a distance from both the state and social organizations with other values. As a result, closed solidarity communities are formed, limited in their influence.
Keywords:
civic solidarization, moral and professional solidarity, involution, neo-liberal policies, postsocialism
References
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Yaroshenko S. (2005) Bednost v postsocialisticheskoj Rossii [Poverty in Post-Socialist Russia]. Syktyvkar: Komi NC UrO RAN. (In Russ.)
Yaroshenko S. (2013) “Zhenskaya rabota” i lichnoe blagopoluchie. Tekhnologii isklyucheniya v postsovetskoy Rossii [“Women's work” and Personal Well-Being: Technology of Exclusion in Post-Soviet Russia]. Ekonomicheskaya sotstiologiya [Journal of Economic Sociology]. Vol. 14. No. 5. P. 23—59. (In Russ.)
Yaroshenko S., Schorn А. (2020) Socialnyj cirk v postsocialisticheskoj Rossii: kejs-stadi novoj solidarnosti [The Social Circus in Post-Socialist Russia: A Case Study of New Solidarity]. Zhurnal issledovanij socialnoj politiki [The Journal of Social Policy Studies]. Vol. 18. No. 3. P. 491—508. (In Russ.) DOI: https://doi.org/10.17323/727-0634-2020-18-3-491-508
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Bourdieu P. (1986) The Forms of Capital. In: Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education. New York: Greenwood.
Burawoy М. (1998) Razvernutoe monograficheskoe issledovanie: mezhdu pozitivizmom i postmodernizmom [The Extended Case Method: Steering a Course Between Positivism and Postmodernism]. Rubezh [Rubezh]. No. 10—11. P. 154—176. (In Russ.)
Burawoy M. (2000) A Sociology for the Second Great Transformation? Annual Review of Sociology. Vol. 26. P. 693—695.
Burawoy М. (2000) Velikaya involyuciya: Reakciya Rossii na rynok [Great Involution: Russia’s Response to the Market]. Rubezh [Rubezh]. No. 15. P. 5—35. (In Russ.)
Burawoy M. (2009) The Extended Case Method. Four Countries, Four Decades, Four Great Transformations, and One Theoretical Tradition. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Clarke S. (1995) Management and Industry in Russia: Formal and Informal Relations in the Period of Transition. Brookfield: Ashgate
Coleman J. (2001) Kapital socialnyj i chelovecheskij [Social and Human Capital]. Obshchestvennye nauki i sovremennost [Social Sciences and Contemporary World]. No. 3. P. 121—139. (In Russ.)
Durkheim E. (1991) O razdelenii obshchestvennogo truda. Metod sociologii [The Division of Labor in Society. Method of Sociology]. Moscow: Nauka. (In Russ.)
Florida R. (2002) The Rise of the Creative Class. And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure and Everyday Life. New York: Basic Books.
Freire P. (2018) Pedagogika ugnetennyh [Pedagogy of the Oppressed]. Moscow: KoLibri, Azbuka-Attikus. (In Russ.)
Freire P., Ramos M.B. (2009) Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Chapter 2. Race/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts. Vol. 2. No. 2. P. 163—174.
Harvey D. (2005) A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199283262.001.0001
Lytkina T.S. (2005) Ekonomicheskoe povedenie “novyh bednyh” v usloviyah socialnoj transformacii [Economic Behavior of the “New Poor” in Conditions of Social Transformation]. Dis. kand. nauk. Moscow: SGU im. Pitirima Sorokina. (In Russ.)
Lytkina T.S. (2011) Socialnaya biografiya isklyucheniya v postsovetskoj Rossii [The Biography of Social Exclusion in Post-Soviet Russia]. Zhurnal sociologii i socialnoj antropologii [The Journal of Sociology and Social Anthropology]. Vol. 14. No. 1. P. 87—109 (In Russ.)
Lytkina T.S. (2012) Socialnyj kapital v reshenii socialnyh problem: praktiki solidarnosti bednyh v Respublike Komi [Social Capital in Solving Social Problems: Solidarity of the Poor in the Komi Republic]. Zhurnal sociologii i socialnoj antropologii [The Journal of Sociology and Social Anthropology]. Vol. 15. No. 3. P. 130—154 (In Russ.)
Lytkina T.S., Yaroshenko S.S. (2019) Vozmozhna li sociologiya dlya trudyashchihsya klassov segodnya? [Is Sociology for the Working Classes Possible Today?]. Mir Rossii [Universe of Russia]. Vol. 28. No. 1. P. 101—123. (In Russ.) DOI: https://doi.org/10.17323/1811-038X-2019-28-1-101-123
Lytkina T., Yaroshenko S. (2023) Vytesnenie Rossiyskogo Severa: isklyuchenie bez prava na resursy [Expulsions of the Russian North: Exclusion Without Rights to Resources]. Ekonomicheskaya sotsiologiya [Journal of Economic Sociology]. Vol. 24. No. 5. P. 93—127. (In Russ.) DOI: http://doi.org/10.17323/1726-3247-2023-5-93-127
Marshall G. (1994) The Concise Dictionary of Sociology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Polanyi K. (2002). Velikaya transformaciya. Politicheskie i ekonomicheskie istoki nashego vremeni [The Great Transformation: the Political and Economic Origins of Our Time]. St. Petersburg: Aletejya. (In Russ.)
Putnam R.D. (1995) Turning In, Turning Out: The Strange Disappearance of Social Capital in America. Political Science and Politics. Vol. 28. No. 4. P. 664—683.
Putnam R.D. (1996) Chtoby demokratiya srabotala. Grazhdanskie tradicii v sovremennoj Italii. [Making Democracy Work. Civic Traditions in Modem Italy]. Moscow: Ad Marginem. (In Russ.).
Schorn A. (2012) Sozialer Zirkus zwischen pädagogischen Utopien und marktwirtschaftlicher Realität. Ein Fallbeispiel: Zirkus UPSALA im federleichten Spagat zwischen künstlerischer und sozialer Arbeit mit Kindern und Jugendlichen!? [A Social Circus Between Educational Utopias and Market Economic Reality. A case study: Circus UPSALA in a Featherweight Balancing Act between Artistic and Social Work with Children and Young People!?]. Zeitschrift für Theaterpädagogik [Journal for Theatre Education — Correspondence]. No. 61. P. 40—44. (In Germ.)
Shabanova M.A. (2017). Tradicionnye i novye solidarnosti v prostranstve potrebitelskih blag i resursov [Traditional and New Solidarity Practices in the Universe of Consumer Goods and Resources]. Sotsiologicheskie Issledovaniia [Sociological Studies]. No. 8. P. 31—44.
Smith D.E. (2005) Institutional Ethnography: A Sociology for People. Toronto: AltaMira Press.
Sorokin P. (1950) Altruistic Love: A Study of American “Good Neighbours” and Christian Saints. Boston: Beacon Press.
Sorokin P.A. (1994) Obshchedostupnyj uchebnik sociologii. Stati raznyh let [A Publicly Accessible Textbook of Sociology. Articles from Different Years]. Moscow: Institut Sociologii RAN. (In Russ.)
Tilly Сh. (1983) Speaking Your Mind Without Elections, Surveys or Social Movements. Public Opinion Quarterly. Vol. 47. No. 4. Р. 461—78
Touraine A. (1999) Sposobny li my zhit vmeste? Ravnye i razlichnye [Are We Able to Live Together? Equal and Different]. In: V.L. Inozemcev (ed.) Novaya postindustrialnaya volna na Zapade. Antologiya [The New Post-Industrial Wave in the West. Anthology]. Мoscow: Асаdemia. (In Russ.)
Wright E.O. (2007) Guidelines for Envisioning Real Utopias. Soundings. No. 36. P. 26—39. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3898/136266207820465778
Wright E.O. (2010) Envisioning Real Utopias. London: Verso.
Yaroshenko S. (2005) Bednost v postsocialisticheskoj Rossii [Poverty in Post-Socialist Russia]. Syktyvkar: Komi NC UrO RAN. (In Russ.)
Yaroshenko S. (2013) “Zhenskaya rabota” i lichnoe blagopoluchie. Tekhnologii isklyucheniya v postsovetskoy Rossii [“Women's work” and Personal Well-Being: Technology of Exclusion in Post-Soviet Russia]. Ekonomicheskaya sotstiologiya [Journal of Economic Sociology]. Vol. 14. No. 5. P. 23—59. (In Russ.)
Yaroshenko S., Schorn А. (2020) Socialnyj cirk v postsocialisticheskoj Rossii: kejs-stadi novoj solidarnosti [The Social Circus in Post-Socialist Russia: A Case Study of New Solidarity]. Zhurnal issledovanij socialnoj politiki [The Journal of Social Policy Studies]. Vol. 18. No. 3. P. 491—508. (In Russ.) DOI: https://doi.org/10.17323/727-0634-2020-18-3-491-508
Zdravomyslova E., Yaroshenko S. (2022) Publichnaya sociologiya v Rossijskom kontekste [Public Sociology in the Russian Context]. Globalnyj dialog [Global Dialogue]. Vol. 12. No. 3. P. 8—10. (In Russ.)
Article
Received: 30.09.2023
Accepted: 29.12.2023
Citation Formats
Other cite formats:
APA
Yaroshenko, S. S., & Lytkina, T. S. (2023). Reasons for the (Un)Successful Solidarity of Civil Society in Russia: Professionalism Without Altruism. Interaction. Interview. Interpretation, 15(4), 75-96. https://doi.org/10.19181/inter.2023.15.4.4
Section
Field work research
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