Routes into activism in post-Soviet Russia: habitus, homology, hysteresis

Abstract

This paper develops Bourdieusian notions of habitus, capital and field, along with the allied concepts of hysteresis and homology, to examine routes into public activism in post-Soviet Russia. Focusing on a neighbourhood campaign against construction projects in the Moscow district of Izmailovo, we argue that mobilization was driven by activists whose formative years took place during the Soviet period, and this resultant Soviet habitus enabled them to sustain their mobilization, despite the unpropitious circumstances. Our data shows that activists’ engagement was first triggered by perceived discrepancies between Soviet ideals and post-Soviet realities (hysteresis), and then supported by the mutual recognition of actors whose grievances echoed similarities in their structural positions (homologies). However, although mobilization gained momentum, it was unable to achieve definitive success in the face of negative social capital, or what Russians call administrativniy resurs: the arbitrary use of public office power that characterizes a number of social fields in post-Soviet Russia. We argue that understanding post-Soviet mobilization requires an understanding of the continued significance of Soviet ideals, as well of the role of the intergenerational transfer of civic ideals amid Bourdieusian ‘class struggle’.