Social Surveys of Local Communities
The Laboratory held the II annual conference “Social Surveys of Local Communities” on December, 14, 2012.
Summer expeditions are considered to be the most effective way to study sociology in practice by SESL scholars. Students often receive more knowledge during this intensive 2 – week fieldwork than during lectures and seminars as they learn how to use theory and methods in reality. Summer expeditions also require such skills as teamwork, data gathering, analyzing and presenting the results to the research to the public.
Victoria Seneva, Maria Petrova and Ekaterina Shishova presented the first report at the conference. They told about the impact of infrastructural institutions (hospitals, ambulant clinics, schools, kindergartens, recreation centers) on social life of local communities. Local communities in rural Russia are often located in far-away districts, and their remoteness leads to special functioning of social institutions there. The resources, both financial and human, are often limited, and the same person can perform social roles in these communities. Sometimes social institutions are closed because of the small size of the community, and those people who keep working in the remaining ones are loaded with latent functions such as maintaining social order. Libraries commonly receive extra functions in Russian rural settlements as well as schools and recreational centers. The latter have room to invite various groups of locals who use it for meetings and discussions.
Ekaterina Shishova’s research was a case study in a village where the local authorities want to close the only school. She analyzed pros and contras in the discourse of the local population and found out a clash of the “home world” and the “industrial world” (according to Teveno and Boltansky). The school in non-effective and should be closed from the “industrial” point of view. In the “home world” discourse this school is an important part of the local world that helps to raise children and plays an important role in the life of the community.
Alexander Lukoyanov and Ksenia Tenisheva analyzed the issue of violation of social norms (e.g. rubbish on the streets). They conducted a survey in a village where they found an implication for the “broken windows” theory (by J. Wilson and G. Kelling). The researchers compared cases of Ruza and Dmitrov district where the Lab worked last summer.
Alexey Gorgadze, Irina Khvan and Ekaterina Trofimova studied migration in Ruza district which is economically developed and attractive for migrants. Alexey told in detail about the case of two retired women who leased their houses to numerous migrant workers (from 10 to 22 people). They stayed in these houses, and did it not only for economic reasons, but also because they were lonely and needed care and entertainment.
Alexandra Kiseleva and Sofia Semenova used content – analysis to reveal the most popular topic in the local mass-media which is politics. The topic of politics was also of interest for Kristina Popova who studied political relations, official statistics and opposition in Tuchkovo – the biggest town in Ruza district.
After lunch Moscow guests took the floor
Polina Vrublevskaya delivered a report on church wedding in individual biography. She obtained 5 in-depth interviews with couples who decided in favor of church wedding ceremony. Wedding was constructed in context of each partner’s religious practices and was analyzed from several points of view: decision-making, ritual and process.
Anna Zueva and Julia Konoshenko told about miracle-making icon of our Lady which is a famous relic of Staraya Russa. Their task was to establish the place of this icon in the religious practices of the local population. They interviewed 15 citizens and church representatives in the local library and analyzed literature. They revealed controversial historical narrative on this icon and tried to explain the existing practices using this data.
Maria Polikashina presented on the image of the town exemplified by the street renaming in Staraya Russa. Local government decided to change Soviet names for the old ones. Maria analyzed why it became important part of local political discourse and what agents influence this process using interviews with local authorities, scholars and other important actors.
Konstantin Gabov initiated a discussion about semantic meaning of “yard” in the contemporary city. He had shown pictures of some yards in Moscow and Staraya Russa to illustrate different functions of this space in small settlements and big cities.
Konstantin Glazkov, Victoria Gornostaeva and Anastasia Ugarova told about bus stops understood as important places in town. Staraya Russa was presented in this report as a transportation network with stops as nods. The researchers used transport system monitoring and bus stop observations. They also measured the distance from the bus stops to the most important social objects and institutions.
The talk of Varvara Kobischa closed the session. She reported on the impact of large events on local life exemplified by “Archstoyanie” landscape design festival in Staraya Russa. Varvara interviewed the locals and found out that many of them do not want this festival to be held in their town as it changes their normal patterns of walking and accessing social infrastructure.
The conference coincided with the 5th anniversary of the Lab and finished the celebration that lasted for a week.
We appreciate interesting reports that were delivered at the conference and thank all those researchers who managed to come.