Democratization and Gender in Contemporary Russia

by Salmenniemi; Suvi

• ISBN13: 9780415441124
• ISBN10: 0415441129
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-07-14
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This book examines civic activism, democratization and gender in contemporary Russian society. It describes the character and central organizing principles of Russian democratic civic life, considering how it has developed since the Soviet period, and analyzing the goals and identities of important civic groups - including trade unions - and the meanings they have acquired in the context of wider Russian society. In particular, Suvi Salmenniemi investigates the gender dimensions, both masculine and feminine, of socio-political participation in Russia, considering what kinds of gendered meanings are given to civic organizations and formal politics, and how femininity and masculinity are represented in this context. Exploring the role of state institutions in the development of democratic civic life, the volume shows how, under the increasingly authoritarian Putin regime and its policy of 'managed democracy', independent civic activism is both thriving yet at the same constrained. Basedon extensive fieldwork research, it provides much needed information on how Russians themselves view these developments, both from the perspective of civic activists and the local authorities.

Author Biography

Suvi Salmenniemi is a Research Fellow at the University of Helsinki.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	p. xii
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
Theorizing civic activity: civil society	p. 5
Theoretical framework of the study	p. 10
Researching the Russian province: field, data and methodology	p. 19
Outline of the book	p. 29
Patterns of civic activity in Soviet and post-Soviet Russia	p. 31
Citizens' activism in the Soviet Union	p. 31
Basic characteristics of post-Soviet civic activity	p. 33
Civic activity in Tver': structures, practices, actors	p. 35
Conclusion	p. 52
Gender in socio-political activity: power, participation and agency	p. 54
The Soviet gender system and its post-Soviet contestation	p. 55
Interpretative repertoires	p. 57
The character repertoire: gendered qualities and orientations	p. 58
The spatial repertoire: renegotiation of the public-private boundary	p. 64
The socio-structural repertoire and the feminist challenge	p. 70
The inescapable difference	p. 76
Why these repertoires?	p. 79
Gendered practices of participation	p. 82
Conclusion	p. 87
Action and affective ties: identity formation of the Centre for Women's History and Gender Studies	p. 89
Resistance from the margins	p. 90
The CGS: Civic organization and educational unit	p. 95
In search of a new subject: the aims of the CGS	p. 97
Means to an end: activities of the CGS	p. 103
Open and civil society	p. 107
Feminism: a stigmatized and liberating identity	p. 112
Allies and adversaries	p. 116
We as a team and collective: emotional capital and affective ties	p. 120
Negotiating teamwork and hierarchy	p. 123
Conclusion	p. 128
The weakness of collective identity: the Trade Union of Health Care Workers	p. 131
History of the Russian trade union movement	p. 132
Unions and health care in flux	p. 134
Protection and help: the goals of the TUHW	p. 136
Negotiating occupational ethos and collective: morality, dusha and generation	p. 141
Forms of activities: continuities and breaks	p. 146
We as narod: the all-inclusive membership	p. 152
Significant silence: gender	p. 158
Grappling with politics	p. 159
Conclusion	p. 162
Redefining citizenship: views of the authorities	p. 166
Public discourses: civil society, the third sector and social partnership	p. 167
Practices of interaction: from distance to selective partnership	p. 169
Officials and structures	p. 171
Minimal state and extensive third sector	p. 173
Civic organizations as complementing the state	p. 182
Representation and mediation	p. 184
Can organizations make a difference?	p. 187
Conclusion	p. 192
Collaboration and contestation: views of the activists	p. 195
Tactical collaboration and the strategy of involvement	p. 195
Partnership and the redefinition of responsibilities	p. 198
Benevolent indifference and exploitation	p. 201
Collaboration and consensus	p. 204
Contestation and opposition	p. 207
Unraveling and rebuilding co-operation	p. 209
The CGS and the primacy of individual influence	p. 214
The TUHW and institutional influence	p. 217
Conclusion	p. 221
Conclusion	p. 223
Notes	p. 232
Bibliography	p. 246
Index	p. 259
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