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Fieldwork 2006

Anna Agafonofa and Olga Vasilyeva: 2006 Fieldwork.

Anna Agafonofa and Olga Vasilyeva: 2006 Fieldwork


Our sociological fieldwork arose from participating in the project УPoverty in a Post-Soviet Capitalist SocietyФ. In the summer of 2006 we were among five students from the sociology faculty of HSE Ц St. Petersburg working on this project. This research was sponsored by the УKhamovnikiФ fund headed by Daniel Alexandrov.

The project was conducted from May 2006 to October 2007 by project researchers working in different parts of Russia. The head of the Russian project (with HSE Ц St. Petersburg researchers) was Nalalya Danilova. We were among the members working with Svetlana Savelieva and Maria Safonova.

Our fieldwork took place in two settlements of the Priosersk region not far from St. Petersburg. Owing to the fact that bus transportation is very poor there we had no other option than to hitchhike. However, it turned out to be a good way of getting to know the locals Ц we managed to arrange interviews and to get to know many interesting things about the region in a very short period.

Interviewing was just a part of our work, though. Our work began with an attempt to determine the structure of the settlements, and with observations of the inhabitants. We wandered the streets and wrote down all the necessary and important information in our notebooks. We also observed popular public places like the area in front of the store, and prepared and conducted interviews. In addition to our fieldwork, we spent much time writing observation journals and field reports.

The eldest of us were 2nd year students at that time and, to be quite honest, we had only a vague idea about sociological research and the connection of the theories we had learnt in lectures with sociological research practice. Without question, we learned a lot, although at the beginning we had to break some inner barriers: it was not so easy to start talking to strangers and making new acquaintances.

Besides the two flats where we were staying, Cafe УSorokaФ was our meeting place. Here we discussed our work and shared our observations with each other, and as a result new ideas were born. Sociologists from other cities were also invited to seminars, i.e. Specialist in Youth Sociology Elena Omelchenko (Science Innovation Center, Ulyanovsk), Migration Process Researcher Deliya Rakhmonova (Biliefeld University, Germany). Moscow HSE student Elena Surina also participated in our research work.

When the fieldwork was complete, we took part in European University Seminars, and in spring 2007 presented our work at the HSE conference.

2006 Fieldwork Participants

Anna Agafonova
Anna Alekseeva
Olga Vasilyeva
Evgenii Kochkin
Olga Shonova