VDNH
5 December, Friday
Conference Opening
White Hall
Center Res Publica
Why Does Russia have so Much in Common and Yet so Little Communal?
This section will discuss the center’s ongoing project with the goal of publication. During
the laturovsky analysis of the ZhKH reforms in the Russian city, the researchers came across the
phenomenon of respondents’ often pointing to a contrast between common and communal
(“общее/общественное”) when describing situations of behavior of the urban population in city
life. Yet if the respondent understood places of common use as necessary – and that these are
many in Russian cities – then the transition from action on the level of purely using these spaces
to more communal behavior was problematic. Kharkhordin, Kalugin, and Gladarev will discuss
the progress of research about past and present commons and community in Russia’s past and
present. (Victor Kaplun and Fedorova Kapitolina are also participants in this research project,
but will not be presenting.)
North-West Russia: Region or Regions?
The Center for European Studies would like to organize a separate panel in the VDNH
conference. The panel will be titled, “North-West Russia: Region or Regions?” The main
purposes of the this panel: first, to present research conducted by CES on the topic of regional
identity, interregional relations, interaction of non-profits, the state, and young politicians in the
North-West. Secondly, to place on the day’s agenda the question of whether the North-West can
be studied as a singular social and political space (a macro-regional approach), or rather as
community of several distinct regions with significant social and political differences?
Golden Hall
Project: “In-Depth Investigation of the Young Russian Women and Gender
Discrimination” (April 2007 – April 2008)
This project was conducted in cooperation with the Center for Strategic and International
Studies (CSIS), USA. Program directors: Dr. Sarah Mendelson (CSIS, Washington DC, USA)
and Professor Ted Gerber (Dep. of Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA).
Research conducted in Saint Petersburg and Moscow, Russia.
The project aimed to investigate the occurrence of gender-based discrimination against
young women in Russia. The goal was to uncover the overall of discrimination and the factors
and implications of gender discrimination and sexual harassment in the work place as well as
place of study. Empirical data was collected from focus groups, interviews, and surveys.
Gender Studies Round Table
The empirical results of the study of various aspects of the formation of the “new life” in
contemporary Russia will be presented at this round table. This research has become the base of
the collective monograph, New Life in Contemporary Russia: Gender Studies of Everyday Life,
edited by E. Zdravomyslova, A. Rotkirgh, and A. Temkina.
The authors collected in this monograph focus on the changes in gender structures of
private life. The bourgeois private sphere implies persona freedom, the value of intimacy, and
new gender roles that characterize the vanguard of the urban middle class. The post-socialist
everyday life is developing in the context of social stratification and the establishment of a
hierarchy of everyday concerns as well as the commercialization of everyday life. Intimate life is
becoming an important cultural code of contemporary Russian capitalism. The private space and
consumption patterns are changing. There is a new formation of identity as well as reproductive
and sexual behavior of men and women. Researchers are now studying habitual practices such as
household repairs, hired household help, first sexual experiences, contraception, childbirth
experiences, and childcare.
6 December, Saturday
Conference Hall
Social and Language Problems of Education
Contemporary post-industrial society is constantly running into problems of variation in
language and culture. The sphere of education, particularly secondary school, is primarily built
on the system of social appraisal the result of which is constantly in the public eye. Language
differences and their resulting inequality is the most observable phenomenon: in the process
through which children learn different social customs; how these children are received and
evaluated by their teachers; which languages are taught in schools; how languages are taught;
and finally, which language is used as the primary language in the school and how it organizes
the school’s day-to-day life. At the same time, particularly in among national academics, the link
between language and cultural problems and educations is only just beginning to be considered
in a theoretical framework. Presentations in this section will concern different aspects of the
interaction of language, culture, social thought in the education sphere.
White Hall
The Image of the Other in the Media: Methodology and Results
The Petersburg researchers (including several graduates and faculty from EUSP) in the
project INTAS Tolerance and Intolerance in the Post-Soviet Press: Applying New Methods of
Measurement and Evaluation will present their findings.
One of the key presentations will describe the methodological development of the
quantitative index of (in)tolerance in the press as well the restrictions to its implementation. The
index permits the evaluation of text for tolerance and to establish criteria for the concept of
(in)tolerant press. It also problematizes the possible methods of conveying material and receiving
(in)tolerant messages used to judge the levels of intolerant coverage of different groups. Results
will be presented from the application of the Index to socio-humanitarian legal evaluations as
well as its application to the pro-government press in St. Petersburg. The questions posed were:
how does the coverage in pro-government press change in tolerance level in the presentation of
different subject; how is the Us-Them opposition built up across various time periods, how it is
characterized and also how it is conveyed in the written form.
The last presentation will consist of conclusions of the interregional study of the press of
seven regions of the Russian Federation on the topic of homelessness. This study demonstrates
the overvaluation of the treatment of homeless people in the press over the treatment of
homelessness as a problem and the construction of the image of the “dirty lazy bum” in striking
contrast to “normal” people.
Pressing Problems of Macroeconomics
The Department of Economics at EUSP is one of the leading centers for research and
education in Russia. The department is actively developing partnerships with Russian and
international colleagues.
The main task of any elected government in today’s society is to increase the standard of
living of its population. Related to this key question of macroeconomic is the issue of economic
growth and the study of the factors which affect that growth. Inflation is one of the main
macroeconomic factors affecting a country’s economic growth and individuals’ standard of
living. In turn, inflation depends on the efficiency of the conduct of capital investment politics.
The direct relationship between GDP and individual standard of living is primarily determined
by the distribution of national income. This section will discuss these macroeconomic issues
from theoretical perspectives and examples from the Russian economy.
Golden Hall
Models of Patronage in the Context of European and Russian History of the 16-19th
Centuries
This section will consist of presentations discussing the phenomenon of patronage,
specifically, informal relations of patronage in Western Europe and Russia during the 16th-19th
centuries. As yet, very little attention has been paid to this field by national historians.
Furthermore, patronage had been the main mechanism for recruiting cadres in the Russian
government, army, and navy for several centuries in Muscovy and later the Russian Empire with
comparable practices in France and Great Britain. M. M. Krom will analyze patron-client
networks among the Moscow aristocracy of the 16-17th centuries and draw parallels with
analogous occurrences in Europe during that time. D. N. Kopeleva will use the prism of client
relations to focus on the global circumnavigations of F. Drake (1577-1580) and E. F.
Kruzenshtern? (1803-1806). The author with underline the role of family clans and business in
the processes of European expansion.
Architectural Legacy of Leningrad Constructivism: from Social to Artistic Value
Art History Department panel. Soviet architecture of the 1920’s-early 1930’s is a unique in
both social and artistic aspects and a particularly interesting example of the solution of social
issues with new architectural devices. The research of current students and recent graduates of
the faculty attempts to establish the relationship of the two context of avant garde architecture:
social and artistic.
Irina Saits will look at these two main tenets of constructivism in the example of mass
residential construction in Leningrad; comparison with international practices illustrates
similarities as well as differences in both the social pragmatism and architectural conceptions of
the designers in the artistic language.
Dimitrii Kozlov will present a unique total systematization of the heritage of Leningrad
Constructivism. His catalogue of buildings organized by functional-typological principles was
the first such attempt at presenting a complete, not selective, picture of the work of Leningrad
architect of the 1920’s-early 1930’s.
Вадим Басс в кратком сообщении обозначит проблему разграничения социальной и
художественной ценности авангардного наследия, вопрос о механизмах общественной
валоризации архитектуры модернизма, о специфике осмысления ленинградского
конструктивизма сравнительно с другими школами.
Vadim Bass will briefly outline the problem of the division of social and artistic valuations
of the avant garde legacy and the question of the mechanisms of societal valorization of
architectural modernism and specific thoughts about Leningrad Constructivism in comparison
with other schools.
The History of Russian Road: Space, People, Technology
This panel will consist of presentations of interdisciplinary research in social,
technological, and environmental history. This new and dynamically developing direction of
historical research looks at roads as “large technological systems” forming enduring networks of
power which significantly influence the formation of the societal life of the country and regions
and determines the interaction of the surrounding environment.
Reforms of ZhKX (communal housing) and the Fate of Local Self-Government in Russia
Reform of local self-government and communal housing is ongoing throughout Russia,
though at varying levels of intensity. The perceptions of various technical and legal reforms as
well as the conditions under which these reforms are realized play a significant role in
determining the effectiveness of the reforms.
Currently, the potential for self-government on different levels from municipal to
neighborhood organizations remains an interest not only for social researchers, but for the actual
participants in the reforms. Presentations in this session will discuss several aspects of
implementing reforms on local and municipal levels of self-government; such as the tendencies
towards development of local self-government, the formation of local communities, and the
conditions for realization of communal housing reforms.