Profit or Duty: Formal and Substantive Rationality of Bashkortostan Doctors during the COVID-19 Pandemic and after it

This study examines doctors working in Bashkortostan to understand whether this professional group experienced the transition from formal to substantive rationality (Weber, 1964) during the COVID-19 pandemic and after it. This change defines deprofessionalization on the empirical level (Ritzer, Walczak, 1988). Based on 15 semi-structured interviews with health workers working in special COVID-19 hospitals and common medical centres we develop a taxonomy of doctors' motives of transferring to special COVID-19 hospitals. We argue that both formal and substantive types of rationality are present in the work of Bashkortostan health workers. Although some attributes of deprofessionalization of this professional group are evident, it cannot be assumed this phenomenon is fully characteristic of Bashkortostan doctors' work life. We also explore the prospects for future research.