'Urban Movements and Local Civic Activism are the Most Flourishing and Productive Sides of Contemporary Russian Society'
Christian Frohlich has been a Research Fellow at the Centre for Studies of Civil Society and Non-Profit Sector since 2014. This year he is being fast tracked for tenure in the HSE Faculty of Social Sciences in the School of Sociology. Dr Frohlich has a DPhil in Sociology from Leipzig University, Germany. He spoke to HSE English News about his research into civic activism in Russia and about why he likes living and working in Moscow.
— You studied Sociology and Cultural Studies at the University of Leipzig and completed a one-year study abroad exchange programme at the State University, St. Petersburg. The development of Russian civil society has been the focus of your attention for a couple of years. Could you please share your ideas and findings on your project on urban social movements and local activism in Moscow?
— During my university studies and research for my PhD I was mainly interested in the more formal side of Russian civil society. I studied disability and how Russian NGOs try to enhance the life of the disabled while navigating between domestic and international opportunity structures and demands. Later I began to study urban movements in Russia and realized that this is a more informal sphere of civic activism without institutionalized organizational structures, but based on liquid, often temporary, initiative groups of people which came together spontaneously and by chance. This is especially true for Moscow, where the institutional structures of local self-management of housing are much weaker than in Russia’s regions. These people encounter one another on a very apolitical basis, because they want to solve problems in their immediate living environment. But the way city officials and bureaucrats meet their attempts to engage in urban policy quite often politicize their demands and behavior. In general, urban movements and local civic activism are the most flourishing and productive sides of contemporary Russian society. In the aftermath of the (for many people) very disappointing protests against election fraud in 2011-13, which are often considered as urban movements, and in times of limited access to policy and highly normative domestic and foreign politics, Russian citizens very actively turn to their immediate urban environment, and have been doing so for more than 20 years.
Urban movements in Russia is a more informal sphere of civic activism without institutionalized organizational structures, but based on liquid, often temporary, initiative groups of people which came together spontaneously and by chance
— What is your area of research interest now?
— I mostly continue along the lines of my previous research. I am interested in how both parts of civil society, the formal and the informal, co-exist and co-operate and how this affects the mediation function of civil society as a whole between the state and citizens´ interests. Moreover, I will engage more into both spheres, by asking, on the one hand, how alternative approaches to society by radical social movements survive in Russia despite their little success. On the other hand, I will deepen my research into NGOs by researching the professional identities of NGO leaders and how these identities are influenced by big social changes, such as Perestroika, capitalist restructuring during the 1990s or the re-nationalization and re-centralization of society since the 2000s.
— What will be the focus of your work at HSE?
— The upcoming months will be occupied mostly by writing papers and publishing my research. But I am very happy to teach again, since I missed this for a rather long time. In addition, I will be heading the international Master’s programme in Comparative Social Research, which is very exciting.
I am German, I have studied in Germany, but I have worked for the last four years for a Swedish university. Therefore, another focus will be connecting my German and Swedish colleagues with HSE. As a first step we will organize a line of German-Russian networking workshops in 2016 and 2017 in Moscow and Chemnitz in order to discuss the development of post-socialist civil societies in a comparative perspective.
The exciting part of living in Russia is probably the chance to witness and experience constant and profound change
— What do you find challenging and what excites you about living and working in Russia?
— The huge distances you have to overcome in Moscow and in Russia make your life surely more difficult than in Western Europe. And there are some cultural differences how to behave yourself in public which can make the life of a foreigner quite exhausting. To some extent, limited knowledge of Russian can also be a problem.
The exciting part of living in Russia is probably the chance to witness and experience constant and profound change. Despite all the worrying developments with new laws and restrictions of public and private space, it is still true: Nothing is impossible in Russia!
— What is attractive for a young professional expat these days in Moscow?
— In times of increasing conflicts and confrontations on the geo-political level, professional expats are an important axis for international contact and cooperation, for “keeping the door open”. Moscow as a global megapolis is very open for international dialogue, it offers expats a lot of opportunities and takes their interests seriously. In turn, expats have the chance to meet open-minded young Russian professionals and engage with them in highly fruitful discussions and projects.
On a more profane level, Moscow is, of course, a very exciting big city. As foreigner you can constantly explore and never be bored. The city offers all features of its western counterparts, but still adds a unique flavor to it.
Anna Chernyakhovskaya, specially for HSE news service
See also:
Researchers Discuss How the Pandemic Is Changing Civic Activism
In October, HSE University held the 10th Conference of Civil Society Researchers, organized by the Centre for Studies of Civil Society and Nonprofit Sector. The main topic of this anniversary forum was ‘The impact of the crisis on the development of the nonprofit sector and citizen self-organization in Russia: New realities and prospects’. The conference was co-organized by the Association "European University for Volunteering" (EUV) and the United Nations Volunteers Programme (UNV), a long-time partner of the centre.
12th ISTR Conference: HSE Researchers Presented Record Number of Papers
The 12th International Society for Third Sector Research (ISTR) Conference took place in Stockholm and was entitled ‘The Third Sector in Transition:Accountability, Transparency, and Social Inclusion’. The conference is held biannually and is a major academic event in its field.
Central Asians Happier Than Russians
In Central Asia, subjective wellbeing and life satisfaction tend to be higher than objective wellbeing, and people in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan appear to be more content than Russians about their material circumstances and life in general. According to Tatiana Karabchuk, Deputy Head of the HSE Laboratory for Comparative Social Research (LCSR), and Daria Salnikova, Research Assistant of the same laboratory, relatively low levels of economic inequality in Central Asian countries may be one of the reasons for this paradox.
Settlement History Determines Regional Development
In many countries, including but not limited to Russia, frontier regions, populated more recently than the country's core territory, tend to lag behind in terms of socio-economic development. This phenomenon can be explained by legacies such as state formation in remote regions and the autonomy traditionally enjoyed by new settlers, according to Roberto Foa (Harvard University) and Anna Nemirovskaya, Senior Research Fellow of the HSE Laboratory for Comparative Social Research (LCSR).
Mapping Social Mechanisms in a Civilized Public Sphere
On March 16, Apostolis Papakostas, Professor of Sociology at Södertörn University in Stockholm, Sweden gave a presentation of his book ‘Civilizing the Public Sphere: Distrust, Trust and Corruption’ at the HSE Laboratory for Comparative Social Research. Examining the interplay between distrust, trust and corruption, this book maps out the social mechanisms that make actors and organizations in the public sphere perform their activities in a civilized manner.
Social Well-being Worsens with Age
An elderly person can be described as aging successfully when they maintain good health and engage in fulfilling social activities. According to Larisa Kosova, Director of the HSE Joint Economic and Social Data Archive, poor health and a lack of savings often prevent older people in Russia from enjoying retirement.
76%
of Russians believe that ordinary customers shouldn’t worry about product manufacturing having a negative effect on the environment, people or animals. Instead, they believe that this should be a concern for the state and businesses.
Education as a Vehicle for Peace
The 5th annual LCSR conference was organized from 15th - 21st November at HSE. One of the keynote speakers at the conference on Cultural and Economic Changes under Cross-national Perspective is the Director of the Social and Economic Survey Research Institute at Qatar University, Darwish Al Emadi. Dr. Al Emadi’s talk was on The Challenges of Surveying in Countries with Unorthodox Population Pyramids. He spoke to HSE English News about his long term goal to improve education on a global level and about his cooperation with HSE.
Migrant Flow from Central Asia to Russia Will Increase
In the near future, the number of migrants from Central Asia coming to work in Russia will increase – particularly from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, countries where remittances from their citizens working in Russia stand at almost half of their respective GDPs, according to a joint study by the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the HSE Laboratory for Comparative Social Research (LCSR), and the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS).
42%
of Russians are not currently willing to pay additionally for goods that are produced in line with ethical principles (e.g., respect for the environment, respect for workers' rights, refusal to test cosmetics on animals, etc.).