Social Distinctions in Contemporary Russia
This book analyses social change in Russia, in particular the development of a middle class, one of the most important social and political projects of Putins administration.
Using unique survey data collected in 1998, 2007 and 2015, the authors make extensive and theoretically justified analyses of the changing social distinctions in Russia over the past 20 years. Offering a sophisticated analysis of classes and class they acknowledge that in class analysis there are different phases, requiring different concepts. The first phase is the analysis of class positions; the second is the study of the work and reproduction situations of class groups and the final step is the analysis of class interests. While acknowledging that there are a number of Russian-specific factors that seriously complicate traditional class analysis, the authors maintain that the basic tenets of class analysis still hold true.
The book will be of interest to students and scholars of sociology, political science, transition studies, social policy and Russian studies and anyone who wants to understand the internal divisions and organization of the middle class in Russia.
Jouko Nikula is Professor Emeritus of the Faculty of Arts, Aleksanteri Institute, the Finnish Centre for Russian and East European Studies, University of Helsinki.
Mikhail Chernysh is First Deputy Director of the Federal Centre of Theoretical and Applied Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences and a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Studies in Contemporary Russia
Series Editor: Markku Kivinen
Studies in Contemporary Russia is a series of cutting-edge, contemporary studies. These monographs, joint publications and edited volumes branch out into various disciplines, innovatively combining research methods and theories to approach the core questions of Russian modernisation; how do the dynamics of resources and rules affect the Russian economy and what are the prospects and needs of diversification? What is the impact of the changing state-society relationship? How does the emerging welfare regime work? What is the role of Russia in contemporary international relations? How should we understand the present Russian political system? What is the philosophical background of modernisation as a whole and its Russian version in particular?
The variety of opinions on these issues is vast. Some see increasingly less difference between contemporary Russia and the Soviet Union while, at the other extreme, prominent experts regard Russia as a more or less normal European state. At the same time new variants of modernisation are espoused as a result of Russian membership of the global BRIC powers. Combining aspects of Western and Soviet modernisation with some anti-modern or traditional tendencies the Russian case is ideal for probing deeper into the evolving nature of modernisation. Which of the available courses Russia will follow remains an open question, but these trajectories provide the alternatives available for discussion in this ground-breaking and authoritative series.
The editor and the editorial board of the series represent the Finnish Centre of Excellence in Russian Studies: Choices of Russian Modernisation.
The Soft Power of the Russian Language
Pluricentricity, Politics and Policies
Edited by Arto Mustajoki, Ekaterina Protassova and Maria Yelenevskaya
Social Distinctions in Contemporary Russia
Waiting for the Middle-Class Society?
Edited by Jouko Nikula and Mikhail Chernysh
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/series/ASHSER-1421
First published 2020
by Routledge
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2020 selection and editorial matter, Jouko Nikula and Mikhail Chernysh; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Jouko Nikula and Mikhail Chernysh to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Nikula, Jouko, editor. | Chernysh, M. F., editor.
Title: Social distinctions in contemporary Russia : waiting for the middle-
class society? / edited by Jouko Nikula and Mikhail Chernysh.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2020. | Series:
Studies in contemporary Russia | Includes bibliographical references
and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019059786 (print) | LCCN 2019059787 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780367465285 (hardback) | ISBN 9781003029298 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Social classesRussia (Federation) | Middle-class
Russia (Federation) | Social structureRussia (Federation) | Russia
(Federation)Social conditions1991
Classification: LCC HN530.2.Z9 S6665 2020 (print) | LCC HN530.2.Z9
(ebook) | DDC 305.50947dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019059786
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019059787
ISBN: 978-0-367-46528-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-02929-8 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
The editors
Mikhail Chernysh is First Deputy Director of the Federal Centre of Theoretical and Applied Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences and a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. His research interests revolve around issues related to social structure, mobility, social justice and social institutions. He is the author of 159 publications including two monographs, Social Institutions and Mobility in Contemporary Russia (2005) and The Coming of the Managerial Class in Russian Society (2000).
Jouko Nikula is Professor Emeritus of the Faculty of Arts, Aleksanteri Institute, the Finnish Centre for Russian and East European Studies, University of Helsinki. His research interests include the working class and trade unions in the Baltic countries and Russia and the evolution of entrepreneurship in post-socialist countries. He has been a member of the Finnish Centre of Excellence in Russian Studies Choices of Russian Modernisation (20122018) and the Nordic Network on Choices, Resources and Encounters in Russia and other European Post-Socialist States (CERES) (20102013).
