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Regular version of the site

Joint Expedition to the Town of Torghok with Journalists of "Russian Reporter"

On October, 28-30 the students of HSE and SESL researchers went to the town of Torghok with journalists of "Russian Reporter" magazine to study local communities.

“Russian Reporter” magazine and HSE organized a common project, the aim of which is to explore structure and stratification of contemporary Russian society, lifestyles of different people in a small town. The project is being conducted by students who study sociology and journalism as well as by their experienced colleagues. 

A team of journalists and sociologists started their expedition on October, 28 and stayed in Torghok for 3 days. HSE-St.Petersburg was represented by 3 first-year bachelor students: Anna Timofeeva, Denis Veselov and Konstantin Soloviev. Irina Khvan and Alexey Gorgadze who have been working for the Lab for a year already also joined the expedition. Evgeny Varshaver was the head of the student research group.

Daniel Alexandrov, the head of the Lab, and Vitaliy Leibin, chief editor of RR, participated in the fieldwork and organized evening seminars where every participant had to present his daily results.

Fedor Veselov, 1st year bachelor student:
I hardly imagined how the expedition will be organized before we came to there. I was interested in practice in sociology, that’s why I wanted to go to a small Russian town. At the lectures one can't feel what it is to be a sociologist.I was definitely attracted when heard about "Russian Reporter" as this is a very famous magazine.

The first day was very busy. We received our first tasks, and the whole idea of the project was detalized. We divided into groups of 2, took cameras and started our journey around Torghok. We described how the city looks like, interviewed people and asked them about their neighborhoods. We met a lot of interesting people and took lots of amazing pictures that reflect specific characteristics of the town and its people to some extent. In the evening every group had to present all the results on the seminar and to tell about the findings. 

The next day was great as well. We focused on interviewing people right on the streets, in shops and yards. Thus, we've learned a lot about social structure of this town. During the evening seminar Professor Daniel Alexandrov told us more about the theory of the fieldwork and we presented our results to each other as the day before. 

On the third day we tried to speak to busynessmen who onw small firms, shops, restaurants and factories in the town. Not in all the places we met the owners as it was Sunday, but we still managed to get an impression of the state of the small busyness in the town. I feel that experience will help me a lot in the future, and it was a great fun. If there is another opportunity to join such an expedition, I will do it for sure.

Konstantin Soloviev, 1st year bachelor student:
I do not know exactly what I expected from the trip, I had no experience of sociological expedition, and the goals of our journey were vague for up to the departure.
In addition to our  St.Petersburg party, people from Moscow and Tver were working with us. All in all there were 30 people in our research group which was headed by Vitaly Leibin and Daniel Alexandrov. Evgeny Varshaver was supervising students' work.

Speaking of the data that we collected, it is hard to describe it briefly, but in general we can make some observations. First, Torzhok is a very beautiful small town. There are nine functioning churches, and lots of abandoned ones. These churches and temples are everywhere. Secondly, the city is terribly poor. The only exception is a local plant that produces fire extinguishers. And, thirdly, the people in Torzhok are mostly not very happy, but none of its natives whom we managed to talk to, do not want to leave their town for something else.

Anna Timofeeva, 1st year bachelor student:

This expedition to Torzhok was my first chance to experience the profession of sociologist that was successfully implemented. We were pleased with the organization: a clear day schedule and guidance as well as senior mentors with whom we put in teams. In the first day we started interviewing people, and it turned out to be very interesting. Torzhok for me is a town of friendly people, whitewater river Tvertsa in the downtown, peace and quiet all around. This is a piece of Russia that was lyricized in  Bunin's and Esenin's poetry.

Alexey Gorgadze, 2nd year bachelor student:

The trip was a great practice for all of us. Each day was filled up and differed from the previous ones. On the first day we mostly observed and took only a few interviews, on the second day we focused on more in-depth interviews. The last day was the time when we consolidated everything that we collected, and each group focused on one issue.

There was a whole story with getting to Torzhok. I think this trip will be remembered by every person of our group. By the way, our freshmen have shown their best side. Everyone felt what it means to be a sociologist, and they adequately coped with all the problems. I hope this is not my last trip with them and look forward to continue fieldwork!

Irina Khvan, 4th year bachelor student:
It was very interesting to conduct fieldwork in Torzhok. In 3 days we managed to collect much information about the town, to talk to the rich and the poor, to the old people and teenagers.All the students, and especially freshmen, have shown themselves responsible, hard-working and enthusiastic people. They got involved into the fieldwork very fast and did not differ from their experienced colleagues. When the work was over, and the most researchers left, we still had about 8 hours before the arrival of our train. In the time remained we walked around the city together, played poker, and even continued to  interview two teenagers who told us where some young people have fun in the town, what are the conflicts between yards and, finally, about some places where one can find forbidden substances. It would be nice if everyone who starts to work in sociology, will receive such an experience.

Evgeny Varshaver, HSE Ph.D.student:

SESL and “Russian Reporter" magazine combined the format of Mediapoligon (more on this at http://russianreporter.livejournal.com/122623.html) and student expedition. During the first day we were mapping the town, and in the evening every participant presented her/his pictures of certain small neighborhoods and told of the first sociological impressions. As a result each participant got used to such a kind of sociological fieldwork. The objective of the second day was to find out what "towns" (isolated communities) can be found in Torzhok in the sociological and structural sense. We do not have enough results to sum them up in a publication, but the work will continue at the end of the year. During the next attempt the participants will be able to answer the questions that have arisen in the course of collecting data.

We lived at the embankment of Tvertsa river, in the hotel of the largest enterprise of Torzhok called "Pozhtekhnika" (Fireproof Technics) and were happy with the time we spent there.

Professor Daniel Alexandrov's commentary:
Here, in the small town of Torzhok, quite a unique project was launched. Students -journalists and sociologists, as well as experienced researchers and journalists are involved in the research fieldwork.This is only the first step of work in Torzhok, the next is planned for December. More experienced researchers who participated in the work were the professors of culturology from HSE - Kurennoy, Hestanov, chief editor of "RR" Leibin. We and the staff of the magazine "Russian Reporter" visited and collected interviews together.
Vitaly Leibin and I visited the hospital where the doctors were interviewed. After that we went to a travel agency, where the owner formulated,  which categories of citizens  buy tours abroad. In her opinion, one of the groups - are educated retirees who buy cheap tours to Europe, the other - these are people who come to rest in Egypt and other popular resorts, which bring the greatest profit travel agency. Third - it's an art school students who go on the road Prague - Dresden - Munich in the world famous museums on the bus with their parents. That's fine. When you learn how it works in a small town, that they make cheap tours to get more children, it gratifies one.

From these conversations with people who are, for example, selling wedding dresses or trips, we can learn how to construct status and class organization of a small town, down to what groups have hidden income that they can spend on expensive tours. Nobody asks any names, as for sociology only group characteristics are needed. There is a rapport between the respondent and the interviewer, one understands that we do not seek incriminatory evidence, but are trying to understand how people live there. I am sure that this collective work will grow as scientific publications, as well as a good journalism.

Small towns are the platform on which sociology and journalism converge, because here their waysof work are the same: a conversation with people in order to understand how life works of a settlement which can be visited for a few days. Joint trips to interviews with journalists are very effective, because we have a little different look. Scientists have determined that the theoretical language that could see the overall scheme of the journalists - a fast approach to any person because accumulated vast experience interviewing.
However, we share the delight of a few phrases thrown into the interview opens a window into a special world.

Such collaborative research projects are important and valuable for several reasons: firstly, they are interesting from a scientific point of view, and secondly, they provide the popularization of scientific knowledge through quality media, and thirdly, they are useful for the moral health.
As for the scientific value, there is a strong tradition of research of this kind, particularly in England and in America, we will continue. Also, working in this direction Moscow colleagues, who conducted a study this summer in Gorokhovets.In November we held a joint conference in Moscow devoted to these projects. Laboratory staff will talk about research on the Dmitrovsky district, Moscow colleagues about Gorokhovets, now Torzhok will be added to this list, in the next year some other city. After a while we come to a new level of understanding, because we'll learn more than one town, and we will be able to compare the different camps. Moreover, compared with the results of field studies, rather than with dry statistics of municipalities, which does not represent the real processes.
Such studies are needed for scientific work, because there regardless of whether it is qualitative or quantitative research, we are close to the respondents and can see how the theory refracted in real space, at the individual level. Torzhok - this is a pedestrian city, you can bypass it for a few days, people are more or less knows each other.

Speaking of popularization of science, we should note that this is a complicated process. Often this is due to the fact that scientists are reluctant to work with journalists, and it is difficult for journalists to work with scientists. My experience with the "Russian reporter" for the study of poverty has shown that it is best to involve stakeholders in the study of journalists from the beginning, and share with them not only information but also ways of working. Journalists writing on social issues, is also interesting and helpful to work with scientists throughout the study, rather than at the end when they ask experts to comment on the finished material. The journal "Russian Reporter" - is a unique publication, because it is the best reporter's journalism of the country, and they are really interested in such an interaction, for example, they spend the summer field schools in Maksatikha.

Third, work in these small towns and villages is useful for the moral and emotional state. If I did not go every summer in rural areas or small towns, I would have felt a deep sense of social depression. If you read the media and look at the federal level policy, it inevitably causes depression. In large cities, the human dimension is often lost because of the city - an anonymous machine that produce anonymity. When I was at least a few days to sink the small town life, then I find out something, which is encouraging. People try to successfully survive and help each other. There are stories quickly successful operation of community and mutual aid.

Very indicative in this sense is a story that our students have found. A man who worked as  electrician, lost his wife, suffering from alcoholism, and was left with two children. As the man was released from prison a few years before marriage and having children, and the woman was always drunk;  the family was considered dysfunctional, and it was on the list in social services. After the death of his wife social care service decided to take his children away to orphanage. As the man said during the interview, the two streets got together to defend him and leave his children with him. We haven’t left it without checking. The next day young journalists and sociologists have walked these streets through and found two people who stood up for this man. Moreover, it appears that a few houses down the street are still collecting money to help them, and neighbors feed his children and look after them when this man is at work.
It's a wonderful story which one can rarely hear in big, fussy and busy cities. I think, it is very useful for future scientists and journalists to get in situations where they can find such stories to share, and see that life is not as bad as it might seem from watching television and reading newspapers.