The growth of assisted reproductive technologies (ART) such as in vitro fertilization (IVF), surrogate motherhood, etc, have changed our very idea of parentage. The concept of a parent as an integral and inseparable whole is now being broken down into a number of different roles – there are ‘genetic’ mothers, ‘birth’ mothers and ‘feeding’ mothers while fathers can be ‘genetic’ or ‘social’. This atomisation of parenthood explains the prevailing ambiguous attitude towards ART as Olga Isupova, Alexei Belianin and Anna Gusareva showed in their presentation at the HSE XV April International Conference ‘Economic and Social Development’, in the ‘Demography and Labour Markets’ Section.
Russians are failing to cope with debt; small town economies are lagging behind; the Russian market is not favourable for a defined-contribution pension system, and Russian statistics are unsuitable for analysis — these were the top 15 most interesting papers from the HSE's XV April Conference, according to Opec.ru
An aggressive low-achiever can be the most popular kid even in a class that’s highly motivated simply because teenagers admire his rugged machismo, while top-of-the-class pupils tend to be popular when their classmates study hard too. Daniil Alexandrov, Head of the Research Laboratory for Sociology in Education and Science at HSE St Petersburg and his colleagues, Chief Research Fellow Valeriya Ivanyushina and Junior Research Fellow Vera Titkova found this and more in their research.
Informal connections between a supervisor and direct reports increase an employee’s commitment to a company. The higher employees’ attachment to their leader, the more likely it is that they will work devotedly for the good of the company, noted Lusine Grigoryan, a junior researcher in HSE’s Faculty of Psychology, in a study entitled “Informal Connections and Organizational Loyalty: A Cross-cultural Analysis”.
Russian students may be materially and physically dependent on their parents, but unlike their american peers, it doesn’t stop them feeling they are socially independent beings. HSE student Ekaterina Novikova presented her research, 'Social Independence as a Consequence of Economic Independence; a Comparison between Russian and American Students'.
The informal nature of employment does not affect an employee's social status, because the differences between formal and informal employment are insignificant in Russia, says Anna Zudina, Junior Researcher at the HSE's Centre for Labour Market Studies.
Family and school are losing their influence over children’s upbringing, and the gap is being filled by mass media. Researchers Katerina Polivanova, Elena Sazonova, and Marta Shakarova have examined how contemporary culture is influencing children.
The government-set objectives for the health care system for the next three to five years barely conform tothe fiscal policy set for that period. In his report, ‘The Russian Health Care System: Problems and Prospects for Development’, Sergey Shishkin, Academic Supervisor of the HSE Institute for Health Economics, analysed the opportunities to meet these objectives in the context of the institutional changes taking place in that industry.
How to reform the labour market is one of the most discussed issues in Russian society. Germany introduced major labour market reforms in the 2000s and is one of the few countries that has achieved significant results in doing so. Here are some findings made by researcher Nina Vishnevskaya of the HSE Centre for Labour Studies.
Most law students develop a negative perception of their own profession while at law school. Taking advantage of loopholes in the law, cheating on clients, and being mistrusted are just a few negative aspects of the legal profession which law students should be prepared to face. A study by Anton Kazun, researcher at the HSE International Centre for the Study of Institutions and Development.
