The growth of assisted reproductive technologies (ART) such as in vitro fertilization (IVF), surrogate motherhood, etc, have changed our very idea of parentage. The concept of a parent as an integral and inseparable whole is now being broken down into a number of different roles – there are ‘genetic’ mothers, ‘birth’ mothers and ‘feeding’ mothers while fathers can be ‘genetic’ or ‘social’. This atomisation of parenthood explains the prevailing ambiguous attitude towards ART as Olga Isupova, Alexei Belianin and Anna Gusareva showed in their presentation at the HSE XV April International Conference ‘Economic and Social Development’, in the ‘Demography and Labour Markets’ Section

The living standards of Russian schoolteachers vary significantly across regions due to varied economic, social, environmental, and cultural circumstances. Having examined teacher salariesin the first nine months of 2013, Leading Research Fellow at the HSE Center for Applied Economic Research Pavel Derkachev has made certain recommendations

The average value of a statistical life in Russia stands at some $1.6 million, which is eight times less than in the U.K. and four times less than in the U.S. In countries where little value is attached to individual lives, the state is sending a signal that it is not planning to invest substantially in efforts to improve the life expectancy and safety of its citizens, conclude Tatiana Karabchuk, Marina Nikitina, Victoria Remezkova, and Natalia Soboleva in a paper published in the HSE's Economic Sociology journal

Political activity in social networks is often the result of professionals skillfully manipulating the information space, groups, and users. Consumers tend to vote for the current government, while those dissatisfied with everyday problems tend to vote for the opposition, and only nationalists are active supporters of their own ideas – such are the findings of Galina Gradoselskaya, Associate Professor of the HSE Department of Sociological Research Methods

It may appear at first glance that most Russians don’t have too great a loan debt burden. However, outstanding individual debt in Russia is dominated by short-term consumer loans with high interest rates, and a significant percentage of borrowers spend at least half of their earnings paying off debt. HSE experts have examined the use of bank loans and outstanding debt rates as part of Monitoring the Public’s Financial Behaviour

Russians under 45, top-managers, public sector employees, and people with high incomes are more involved in civil society practices than others. As Irina Mersiyanova and Irina Korneeva found out in their research, getting involved with nonprofit organisations greatly determines people’s civil activity

Not everyone in Russia is willing to stand up for their labour rights when those rights are violated. In many cases, employees allow their grievances to build up in silence, while company owners feel free to ignore labour legislation. Such situations can lead to spontaneous protests, finds Professor Irina Kozina of the HSE Faculty of Sociology in her study of labour disputes in Russia

The tension between migrants from the North Caucasus and local residents in Russia is due to cultural and value differences. Migrants share collectivist values, while the local population is more individualistic. Olga Verbilovich and Viktoria Galyapina, researchers at the HSE Laboratory for Socio-cultural Research, investigated the specifics of the mutual attitude between migrants and local residents in Moscow and Stavropol Krai through the use of focus groups

An unregistered marriage or partnership can be similar to an official marriage or to being single. In her article «We Just Live Together», Olga Isupova, Senior Research Fellow at the HSE Centre for Demographical Studies, examines the reasons for the growing popularity of cohabitation

Many Russians, when asked  whether certain occupations, particularly those of a politician or an academic, are prestigious or desirable,will give a different answer depending on whether they are refering to their own attitudes, perceived societal attitudes, or preferred career choices for their children. So Konstantin Fursov and Valentina Polyakova, research fellows at the HSE's ISSEK, found in their study Monitoring Innovative Behaviour in the Russian Population

Moscow has to attract more residents to the centre, to improve social infrastructure, to turn the  monotonous multi-storied suburbs into nice-looking  low-rise areas , and to develop creative clusters with a high concentration of workplaces in former industrial areas. This way the Russian capital will become more comfortable for living, and transport flows will be more varied, Tatiana Polidi concluded at a roundtable discussion on urban studies, as part of the Fifth Annual Conference ‘Saburov Readings’

Nationalism in the post-Soviet republics did not arise solely as a result of the economic and political crisis in the Soviet Union. The longstanding policy of the Soviet elite aimed at forming a multinational state is what enabled it. Authorities sought to use ethnic diversity to strengthen the state structure, but the result was exactly the opposite. A study by Andrey Shcherbak, senior research fellow at the HSE’s Laboratory for Comparative Social Research (LCSR)*