Some 45% of residents in Russia’s small towns live with loans, and 23% have problems with repayments. A lack of financial literacy is the main cause of the problem. Formal credit has replaced informal borrowing and lending between community members and local retailers, Grigory Yudin* and Ivan Pavlyutkin found in their study 'Debt and the Community: Two Debt-driven Economies of Small Towns'

The more individual social capital people possess, the more effort they will be able to make when it comes to starting their own business. Friends offer support, as do social media acquaintances. Society views businesspeople negatively, and family is often unable to help. Alexander Tatarko, lead researcher at the HSE’s International Scientific-Educational Laboratory for Socio-Cultural Research, recently released a study entitled “Individual Social Capital as a Success Factor in Starting a New Business”

In countries which have gone through transition from communism to capitalism people are now facing inner conflict. The new capitalist economy creates individualists with conflicting values torn between family and work, close relationships and self-development, money and morality. Christopher S. Swader, Senior Research Fellow of the HSE Laboratory for Comparative Social Research (LCSR) and Assistant Professor of the Faculty of Sociology, writes about these tensions in his book The Capitalist Personality: Face-to-Face Sociality and Economic Change in the Post-Communist World

An aggressive low-achiever can be the most popular kid even in a class that’s highly motivated simply because teenagers admire his rugged machismo, while top-of-the-class pupils tend to be popular when their classmates study hard too. Daniil Alexandrov, Head of the Research Laboratory for Sociology in Education and Science at HSE St Petersburg and his colleagues, Chief Research Fellow Valeriya Ivanyushina and Junior Research Fellow Vera Titkova found this and more in their research

According to many researchers and politicians, inequality can be a serious problem for society and can even provoke social catastrophe. Others, however, fail to see a direct link here. Whatever the case, our subjective perception of inequality may have little to do with the actual situation, according to Vladimir Gimpelson, Director of the HSE's Laboratory for Labour Market Studies, and Galina Monusova, Senior Researcher at the HSE's Laboratory for Comparative Studies in Mass Consciousness, in their paper 'Attitudes to Inequality and Social Mobility'

Alcohol consumption in Russia depends on the individual’s social status, age, and education. Successful, educated, married middle-aged men drink more. They prefer wine, whiskey, rum, and tequila. Less successful individuals choose cheap local brands, mostly beer and vodka, Petr Martynenko and Yana Roshchina say in their study ‘Alcohol consumption as a social group indicator in modern Russian cities’

Hierarchical relationships and outdated methods of internal communication prevail in many Russian companies. Less common are participatory communication, collegiality, and a commitment to negotiation and conflict prevention, suggests the study 'Internal Communication and Internal Marketing as Tools for Advancing Corporate Mission and Strategy' conducted by the HSE’s Higher School of Marketing and Business Development

Russian light industry is slowly dying, and the only way for it to survive is to become integrated into the global supply chain. Support measures, other than keeping businesses afloat for a while, are not likely to make a difference, states the report 'Is it Possible to Save Russia's Light Industry?', presented by Vadim Radaev, the HSE's First Vice Rector and Head of the Laboratory for Economic and Social Research

Russian students may be materially and physically dependent on their parents, but unlike their american peers, it doesn’t stop them feeling they are socially independent beings. HSE student Ekaterina Novikova presented her research, «Social independence as a consequence of economic independence; a comparison between Russian and American students»

Informal connections between a supervisor and direct reports increase an employee’s commitment to a company. The higher employees’ attachment to their leader, the more likely it is that they will work devotedly for the good of the company, noted Lusine Grigoryan, a junior researcher in HSE’s Faculty of Psychology, in a study entitled “Informal Connections and Organizational Loyalty: A Cross-cultural Analysis”

The informal nature of employment does not affect an employee's social status, because the differences between formal and informal employment are insignificant in Russia, says Anna Zudina, Junior Researcher at the HSE's Centre for Labour Market Studies

Family and school are losing their influence over children’s upbringing, and the gap is being filled by mass media. Bedtime stories are being replaced by cartoon series, the best of which are facilitating the development of children’s emotions. And, fantasy novels are satisfying teenagers’ cravings for action. Researchers Katerina Polivanova, Elena Sazonova, and Marta Shakarova have examined how contemporary culture is influencing children