Global and Transnational Social Policy is in the Focus of Researchers' Attention at the XXIII Yasin International Academic Conference on Economic and Social Development

The topic of the session 'Global and transnational social policies,' organized by the International Laboratory for Social Integration Research and the Human Capital Multidisciplinary Research Center, covered a wide range of social issues that were raised by foreign researchers.

The session was opened by a report on the topic 'Trying to Reverse Demographic Decline In Russia and Poland.' As noted by the author of the report, the research supervisor of the HSE Research Institute, Professor at Brown University (USA) Linda J. Cook, during the 2000s, the governments of Russia and Poland reacted to the population decline and the demographic emergency by adopting pro-natalist and repatriation policies.

The pro-natalist policy included family benefits, employment protection for mothers, childcare services and other incentives combined with new restrictions on reproductive rights. At the same time, both governments pursued a repatriation policy in the form of encouraging the return of compatriots living abroad: the program "Resettlement of Compatriots" from Russia and the program "Polish Card" from Poland. According to the author, both policies were based on nationalist ideologies and promoted by political leaders, while both directed limited social security resources to generous, usually non-targeted benefits for families.

The researchers concluded that the pro-natalist and repatriation policies were maintained and expanded in Russia and Poland during periods of austerity and spending cuts in other areas of social security, which demonstrates their importance.

The report presented the main actors and processes contributing to policy change, as well as examined the policies themselves through the prism of interconnections. The research is based mainly on qualitative methods, including content analysis of government and legislative documents, expert research and public statements by decision makers, as well as secondary sources in English, Polish and Russian.

Professor Elena Iarskaia-Smirnova, Head of the International Laboratory for Social Integration Research, revealed the similarities and differences of discourses that create fruitful ground for pronatalism in both countries: these are, first of all, conservative anti-gender and nationalist narratives, including Euroscepticism, anti-colonialism, as well as the leitmotif of 'traditional values.' The common basis for the integration of various center-right discourses is consolidation against neoliberal capitalism, however, the ideologies of pronatalism are not inclusive.

Researcher from Finland Olga Ulybina (Tampere University) presented a report on 'Children in Care: Explaining the cross-national pattern of policy change,' conducted jointly with Rhodri Mansell (Aalto University). The authors investigate the driving forces guiding national policy in the post-Soviet space towards deinstitutionalization of childcare (DI), that is, the transition from institutional to community provision for children left without parental care.

Under what conditions are reforms in the field of deinstitutionalization of childcare accelerated or slowed down in post-Soviet countries? And what conditions lead to faster or slower implementation of this policy? To answer these questions, the authors used a qualitative comparative analysis of data on 15 former Soviet republics.

One of the results of the study was the identification of a key condition affecting the timing of the adoption of the policy of deinstitutionalization of childcare – the presence of links with international organizations. It should be noted that this is the first medium–term comparative study of the adoption and implementation of the policy of deinstitutionalization of childcare - the most important area of international policy affecting millions of children around the world. This is also the first study to conduct a systematic comparative analysis of out-of-home childcare policies in post-Soviet countries, including Central Asian countries.

The final report of the session was presented by the Scientific Director of the Human Capital Multidisciplinary Research Center working group on inclusive employment, Associate Professor of the HSE Christian Fröhlich. He shared the results of the study 'Attitudes Towards International Norms of Diversity Management among Russian HR-manager and Its Impact on Social Inclusion at the Company-level,' conducted within the HSE NCMU project. Marina Alexandrova, an intern researcher at the International Laboratory for Social Integration Research, took part in the preparation of the report and answers to questions.

The author demonstrated the use of a new approach to the problem of implementing diversity management and social integration in organizations, which focuses on individual actions within companies. The neo-institutional perspective allowed a new look at the attitude of Russian HR managers to international institutions, such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and the attitude of managers to changes in the field of diversity management and social integration in companies outside Russia. The report presented data from a unique all-Russian representative survey conducted at the end of 2021 among 2,050 employees of the personnel department of small, medium and large companies in eight federal administrative districts of the Russian Federation.

The session ended with a discussion of the reports. The participants of the session actively shared their opinions on new research prospects. It was noted that global and transnational social policy has its own peculiarities at the national level, which reflects the trend of glocalization. This fact underlines the importance of studying the national aspects of the implementation of global social policy. The discussion on some problems of global and transnational social policy allowed researchers to take a broader look at global trends and the situation in Russia.