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
March 24, 2014
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
March 18, 2014
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
March 11, 2014
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
March 06, 2014
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”
February 18, 2014
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
February 14, 2014
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'
February 12, 2014
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’
February 11, 2014
Russia’s regional centres are growing and improving their demographics by attracting active young people from the provinces – which, in contrast, are ageing and experiencing depopulation. This subject is the focus of an article by Nikita Mkrtchyan and Lilia Karachurina, first published in the HSE's Demoscope Weekly
December 20, 2013
It is a myth that civil society is underdeveloped in Russia – more than a third of Russians take part in solving problems in their communities, and 3% volunteer for some or other organization. Elena Petrenko, Assistant Professor at the HSE Faculty of Sociology presented her report 'The Russian Volunteer Movement, Its Actors and Environment' at the Tenth National Conference on Voluntary work
November 15, 2013
Every day, about one million residents of Moscow’s surrounding regions commute to work in the city. Remote districts are losing prospective labour resources, and the contrast between the quality of life in Moscow’s centre and its outskirts is growing increasingly more noticeable. The HSE online journal Demoscope Weekly analysed the commuting practices of Moscow region residents
October 30, 2013
Social networks are one of the reasons for the growing demand for professional photography. Social networks allow anyone to create their public image in a virtual reality. Anastiasia Evstratova has been studying the mechanisms of demand on the photo market, as well as the functions of photography for photographers and their clients
October 25, 2013