post-Soviet Context Research Articles

Female academic leadership in the post-Soviet context

Using a qualitative interview approach, this study analyzes the experiences of women in academic leadership positions in post-Soviet Kazakhstan. An exploration of the extent of the relevance of Western research on female academic leadership is used to explain the experiences of female leaders in Kazakhstan. The results of the study are consistent with the results of prior studies conducted in other countries and can be largely explained by existing theories. One distinctive feature of the experiences of female leaders in Kazakhstan is the superimposition of three dominant cultures – traditional, Soviet, and Westernized neo-liberal, which impose multiple conflicting expectations. Kazakhstani women are obliged to maintain multiple identities when communicating with their colleagues, superiors and extended family members. The exact outcome of the work–life balance negotiation depends, among other factors, on the type of ownership and geographic region of a university. The study also reveals that neo-institutional theory, not conventionally used in the analysis of female leadership in academia in the West, may be particularly relevant for explaining female experiences in transitional and developing contexts; specifically, in explaining the constraints imposed by informal policy networks and corruption.

Uzbek re-modeled

AbstractThis study investigates the relationship between Russian language use and language planning in the context of newly independent, post-soviet Uzbekistan (1991–1992). It is guided by the question:In what ways does the use of Russian loanwords in Uzbek language newspapers accomplish language planning in newly independent Uzbekistan?The main finding from this analysis is that post-independence use of Russian loanwords from particular semantic classes in particular contexts reinforce overtly stated ideologies about Russian and construct difference between soviet Uzbekistan and independent Uzbekistan. These findings demonstrate the need to reexamine the role of Russian language in post-soviet contexts, and they contribute a unique approach to analyzing links between lexical items and ideology in language planning.

Putting the pieces together: 40 years of fertility trends across 19 post-socialist countries

Demographic change has been a key consequence of transition, but few studies trace fertility trends across countries over time. We describe fertility trends immediately before and after the fall of state socialism across 19 Central and Eastern European and Central Asian countries. We found a few common patterns that may reflect economic and political developments. The countries that experienced the most successful transitions and integration into the EU experienced marked postponement of parenthood and a moderate decline in second and third births. Little economic change in the poorest transition countries was accompanied by less dramatic changes in childbearing behavior. In western post-Soviet contexts, and somewhat in Bulgaria and Romania, women became more likely to only have one child but parenthood was not substantially postponed. This unique demographic pattern seems to reflect an unwavering commitment to parenthood but economic conditions and opportunities that did not support having more than one child. In addition, we identify countries that would provide fruitful case studies because they do not fit general patterns.

Review: The Invention of Religion: Desecularization in the Post-Soviet Context[Russian] edited by Zhanna Kormina, Aleksander A. Panchenko, and Sergei Shtyrkov

Review: The Invention of Religion: Desecularization in the Post-Soviet Context[Russian] edited by Zhanna Kormina, Aleksander A. Panchenko, and Sergei Shtyrkov

Youth Cultures in Eastern Europe

Youth Cultures in Eastern Europe Frank Henschel Matthias Schwartz and Heike Winkel, eds., Eastern European Youth Cultures in a Global Context. xii + 374 pp., ill. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. ISBN-13 978-1137385123. £21.24. Children and youth, their social roles and relevance for politics, and their education and socialization in modern societies are recently undergoing a huge increase of interest in both media and research.1 The book under review takes up some of these issues and focuses on a hitherto rather neglected region by asking what is going on with East European youth. Why is there no upheaval against the establishment, against parents and the government, against growing inequality, unemployment, omnipresent nationalism, and discrimination? Why do Russian teenagers admire the authoritarian, reactionary regime headed by Vladimir Putin?2 In (Western) discourses, youth is always connected with the new, the fresh, the innovative. But it seems that East European, especially Russian and Ukrainian, youth have decided to take the other side: “We see young adults acting as agents of political mainstream and civil affairs rather than a generation of youth that [End Page 210] is willing to think and act differently than their parents’ generation” (2). This diagnosis of a “conformist youth” (14), primarily referring to the Ukrainian-Russian conflict in Crimea in 2014 and the particular role of youth in the media campaigns surrounding the military conflict, is the starting point for this edited volume, consisting of 18 contributions by an international team of researchers from (mostly) sociology, cultural theory, literature, linguistics, and political science. The main theoretical and methodological focus that most articles share is to introduce the notions of “youth” and “generation,” as coined by the sociologist Karl Mannheim, for a description of contemporary East European cultural and political phenomena related to age cohort and generational order.3 In doing so, the book implicitly follows the two questions grounding the German postwar sociological study of youth stated by Helmut Schelsky in 1957 in his Die skeptische Generation (The Skeptical Generation): “What does youth mean to society?” and “What does society mean to youth?”4 The aim of the volume, as stated in the introduction, is to grasp the mainstream of East European youth culture beyond the radical, rebellious, artsy exceptions like Pussy Riot, who may have gained attention in a global context but do not represent the majority of East European youth. To understand the widespread conformism and traditionalism among youngsters in Russia and Ukraine and in Central European countries like Poland or the Czech Republic, the book is structured in four sections, all shedding different lights on phenomena of youth culture, primarily in the form of involvement in social or political movements as well as literature, music, or sports. The first two essays set the terminological and analytical frame in which analysis of East European youth culture should find an adequate context. Catriona Kelly carefully examines the meaning of “childhood” and “youth” in a Soviet and post-Soviet context (21–44), whereas Ken Roberts questions the characterization of East European societies as still going through transition and the mistaken expectations of an active and politicized youth in this region, standing up against the inequalities and discriminations of their governments. He argues that Western sociology does not provide adequate instruments for analyzing and describing either these societies or their youth, who experience situations very different from those in Western societies and [End Page 211] thus develop such unexpected behaviors of conformism. However, when we take into account that since the 1980s Western late capitalist societies have been undergoing rapid economic and political change toward neoliberalism, bringing social insecurity, changing labor opportunities, and shattered lives, this assumption turns out to be quite one-sided. His argument fails to consider that in both East and West the experiences of people born in the late 1970s or 1980s differ considerably from those of their parents, who grew up in the postwar atmosphere of belief in steady progress and improvement, of stable life paths and clear social belongings and roles.5 Roberts nevertheless calls for a new perspective on the East that could explain the contradiction that on the one hand, Eastern youth tend to support their current governments...

“Consuming” national identity in Western Ukraine

This paper represents an attempt to study national identity in the post-Soviet context through the lens of everyday life practices. Building on ideas of banal nationalism and consumer citizenship, and with support of empirical evidence collected in l'viv, Ukraine, this paper demonstrates how national identity becomes materialized in everyday life through consumption practices and objects of consumption. While exploring objects and practices that are not originally national in scope but infused with national meanings by ordinary people, it will be shown how consumption becomes an arena for the expression and renegotiation of national self-portraits. Differences in national meanings among residents of l'viv belonging to two different language groups will highlight the diversity of ways and means by which people express their national sensibilities. By exploring national meanings in everyday consumption practices of Ukrainian citizens, this study aims to provide an alternative perspective on post-Soviet nation-building and contribute to the current debate on the position and identity of the Russian-speaking population of Ukraine.

The osce’s Mediation in the Transdniestrian Settlement Process

This article focuses on challenges to peace mediation in the post-Soviet context by looking at the the case study of the Transdniestrian (td) settlement process. It offers a brief overview of the osce led td process and aims to explain why the conflict has failed to “respond” to the osce (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) led mediation efforts. Highlighting key process design shortcomings, the article offers a series of recommendations to practitioners to improve mediation processes in the osce context.

Societal culture and the changing role of school principals in the post-Soviet era

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of societal and cultural factors on the practices and perceptions of school principals in Kazakhstan. Design/methodology/approach The paper draws on empirical data collected in Kazakhstan over two years in the course of an international, collaborative, multi-stranded project. Findings The findings support the claim that educational policies and practice are deeply embedded in the national culture, which is an evolving mixture of traditional Kazakh, Russian and diverse ethnic, Soviet and paternalistic cultures. These various societal characteristics exemplify various aspects of the tensions between traditional forms of social organisation, the Soviet legacy, and the sort of educational development promoted by Western educational and international organisations, which now plays an important role in Kazakhstan. Research limitations/implications The analysis, though limited in scope, has nevertheless yielded insights into important differences and similarities amongst rural and urban schools and explored the effects of societal cultural factors that shape the practices of school leaders on the periphery of the system. Originality/value The paper provides an empirically grounded illustration of the way in which societal culture and cultural norms shape the role of school principals, and how schools cope with a top-down policy in Kazakhstan. By contrasting the norms that shape both existing practice and the reform agenda, the paper offers some explanations for how cultural norms represent both strengths and weaknesses when applied to the process of change in a post-Soviet context.

A state of limbo: the politics of waiting in neo-liberal Latvia.

This article presents an ethnographic study of politics of waiting in a post-Soviet context. While activation has been explored in sociological and anthropological literature as a neo-liberal governmental technology and its application in post-socialist context has also been compellingly documented, waiting as a political artefact has only recently been receiving increased scholarly attention. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork at a state-run unemployment office in Riga, this article shows how, alongside activation, state welfare policies also produce passivity and waiting. Engaging with the small but developing field of sociological literature on the politics of waiting, I argue that, rather than interpreting it as a clash between 'neo-liberal' and 'Soviet' regimes, we should understand the double-move of activation and imposition of waiting as a key mechanism of neo-liberal biopolitics. This article thus extends the existing theorizations of the temporal politics of neo-liberalism.

The Ideological and Political Dimensions of the Anti-Smoking and Anti-Drinking Video Advertisements in the Republic of Moldova

ABSTRACTBased on the critical approach in health communication, along with Habermas’s theory of legitimation and Ellul’s theory of propaganda, this qualitative study analyzes the political and ideological dimensions of the video advertisements used in the 2012 anti-smoking and 2014 anti-drinking campaigns in the Republic of Moldova. This analysis shows that these health videos support male domination and exclusion of the poor and legitimate the current political leadership with its declared pro-European orientation. This study uniquely contributes to the critical approach in health communication by focusing on the post-Soviet context in which statehood and national identity are unstable and societies are torn between the Russian and (post-)Soviet influences on one hand and European aspirations on the other. Drawing on critical scholarship in global health communication, this article calls for greater respect and recognition of Moldova’s local culture and definition of health.

Language and Identity Explored

<p>The relationship between language and identity is widely discussed in applied linguistics, sociology, communications and other related scholarly fields. Furthermore, many researchers have focused on the post-Soviet region, which given its unique historical context allows for testing of this relationship. The widespread bilingualism as a result of historical russification and the linguistic transformations that occurred after the collapse of the Soviet Union make the region a ‘sociolinguistic playground’. Recent events in Ukraine have given grounds to further explore this relationship, now in attempt to link language and identity as potential forces for geopolitical change in the region. This paper presents an overview of existing research, theories, and opposing perspectives related to the relationship between language and identity, and considers complications such as historical russification, religious influence, socioeconomic factors, and education with regards to the Ukrainian and post-Soviet context. I aim to illustrate the significance of language and its effects on socio-political change in the case of Ukraine, by presenting arguments and complications in support of the relationship between language and identity.</p>

How to Make Good Kids with Books: Post-Soviet Parenting and the Commodification of Children’s Literature

This article examines the place of children’s books in parenting strategies in Russian families. It approaches children’s books and their circulation in post-socialist Russia as one of the cultural sites where social distinction and gender are negotiated and articulated. It argues, in particular, that the importance of children’s books in post-Soviet parenting is related to a perceived insecurity of one’s social status and aspirations for a higher, or more secure, social position for themselves and their children. Genealogically, this importance draws on the Soviet-era understanding of books as a universal cultural value equally available to every Soviet citizen, but in this post-Soviet context, this idea is internalized and appropriated by the urban middle class as a means of creating and supporting social distinction.

The Emergence of Transfeminism in Russia

Abstract Trans* issues became visible in Russian feminist communities only in 2013. In Russia, transfeminism was not a reaction against the explicit exclusion of trans* people from feminist spaces; on the contrary, transphobia in feminism arose after an attempt to introduce transfeminism. Both sides currently borrow their arguments from texts by US authors, without significant adaptation to the post-Soviet context. According to the results of a survey conducted among Russian-speaking feminists, the acceptance of trans* people depends on social privilege and education, with more privileged and educated feminists being more conservative. On the other hand, the support for existing gender roles in Russian trans* communities is rather high, although it was shown to be lower than in the general population. Assaults from cisnormative feminists and trans* people, together with the tough political situation, make the survival of transfeminism questionable in Russia.

The art of goalkeeping: memorializing Lev Yashin

Lev Yashin remains, in the eyes of many, the greatest goalkeeper, ever to have played the game of football. Since his death in 1990, coinciding with the dying days of the Soviet Union, his legacy has played an important role in post-Soviet history, a factor that is gaining more importance as Russia prepares to host the 2018 World Cup tournament. Yashin’s memory is notably being maintained in the public perception not least through the material form of two key sculptures erected in Moscow in the late 1990s. Yet these works, part of a wider international trend to memorialize footballers in the form of public monuments, offer more than a unique insight into Yashin’s career, status and reputation. They also address concerns about the relationship between art and sport as it emerged historically in the Soviet Union and how that cultural legacy is being re-explored in a post-Soviet context. Accordingly this essay examines these two key examples of football statuary as significant case studies through which issues relating to Soviet sport, history and art can be more widely analysed.

Clerics, weightlifters, and politicians: Ramzan Kadyrov's Instagram as an official project of Chechen memory and identity production

Head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov's Instagram has been the focus of popular interest and news since it was launched in 2013. This article strives to show that Kadyrov's communication through Instagram reproduces and imposes a new, authorized discursive hegemony that positions Chechen national identity within a broader pro-Russian ideological framework legitimating Kadyrov's power in his Chechen nation-building project. The findings reveal the deployment of three main themes: Islam, sport, and government Public Relations (PR), which serve as discursive vehicles to encourage national cohesion. Situated within a discourse analysis analytical framework, the findings contribute to understandings of social media as a communicative platform in a post-Soviet authoritarian context for normalizing new ideologies.

Teacher Satisfaction in High Poverty Schools: Searching for Policy Relevant Interventions in Estonia, Georgia, and Latvia

Provided the shared post-soviet context and the rapidly declining school age population, this comparative study of teachers in Estonia, Georgia, and Latvia can shed light on alternative approaches to increased teacher satisfaction for countries in similar contexts that are unable to make across the board increases in teacher salary. The focus on high poverty schools is essential in these countries as the changing demographics and present school funding mechanisms disproportionately affect rural schools which are often high poverty. This study addresses two pressing research questions, exploring each independently for Estonia, Georgia, and Latvia: 1) How does teacher satisfaction and other teacher characteristics differ by school poverty level? 2) What policy relevant factors are related to increased satisfaction for teachers in high poverty schools? Data from the 2013 Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) were used in this study. Given the dichotomous measures of the outcome variable (teacher satisfaction), hierarchical generalized linear modeling (HGLM) was the primary method of analysis. Although the policy implementation and internalization process is challenging, this study indicates that simplistic, externally driven policy solutions, such as introducing induction programs or changing the contract status of teachers, are not as effective in increasing teacher satisfaction as investments that contribute to a positive school climate where teachers feel valued and included as professionals.

Rural gentrification in Russia: Renegotiating identity, alternative food production and social tensions in the countryside

In this paper, processes of rural gentrification are assessed in the post-Soviet context. In-depth, qualitative interviews were undertaken with 22 dacha (second country home) owners and 11 rural dwellers in two Russian regions. We draw on Bourdieu's concepts of capital exchange to assess processes of capital investment, social-up grading, landscape change and population displacement. Findings demonstrate a diverse range of approaches to dacha occupation, grounded in the Soviet legacy of elite and subsistence dacha cultures. Gentrification processes are distinguished in three types of dacha settlement: (1) the spread of gated communities through supergentrification and the ‘new dachniki’ movement, (2) transformations within dacha and garden comradeships through inheritance and reorientation of dacha food practices, and (3) gentrification in traditional villages, which features seasonal migration of urban offspring and a growing ‘back to the land’ movement. We focus on the ‘demand side’ of Russian gentrification and distinguish multiple pull factors, such as acquisition of a status symbol, access to rural pursuits, spaces for family reunion, production of ‘ecologically clean food’, and an escape from consumerist society. The authors argue that the analysis of the Russian case identifies areas for further development of rural gentrification literature more broadly, particularly ‘super-gentrification’, alternative food production movements in the countryside and the potential for gentrification from within locales through inheritance and rural wealth creation (in multiple forms).

Spiritual care as perceived by Lithuanian student nurses and nurse educators: A national survey

Political restrictions during 50years of Soviet occupation discouraged expressions of spirituality among Lithuanians. The aim of this paper is to describe Lithuanian nursing educators' and students' perception of spiritual care in a post-Soviet context. This cross-sectional study was carried out among student nurses and nursing educators at three universities and six colleges in Lithuania. The questionnaire developed by Scott (1959) and supplemented by Martin Johnson (1983) was distributed to 316 nursing students in the 3rd and 4th years of studies and 92 nurse educators (N=408). Student nurses and their educators rated general and professional values of religiousness equally; although students tended to dislike atheistic behavior more than educators. Four main categories associated with perceptions of spirituality in nursing care emerged from the student nurses: attributes of spiritual care, advantages of spiritual care, religiousness in spiritual care, and nurse-patient collaboration and communication. Themes from nurse educators paralleled the same first three themes but not the last one. Student nurses and nurse educators acknowledged the importance of spiritual care for patients as well as for care providers - nurses. In many cases spiritual care was defined by nursing students and nurse educators as faith and religiousness. Being a religious person, both for students and educators, or having spiritual aspects in students' personal lives influenced the perception of religious reflection.

The Mediating Role of Leadership Relationship in Building Organisational Trust on Ethical Culture of an Organisation

IntroductionTrust is important for individual well-being (Solomon and Flores, 2001), organisational performance (Connell et al., 2003; Jones and George, 1998; McAllister, 1995; Whitener et al., 1998; Wicks and Berman, 2004; Wicks et al., 1999) and socio-economic development of the country (Fukuyama, 1995; Putnam, 1993; Uslaner, 2002). From an organisational perspective, trust is critical for minimizing uncertainty, risks and operating costs, enhancing employees' commitment and productivity, facilitating organisational learning, knowledge sharing and creation, organisational innovativeness and innovation (Chung and Jackson, 2011; Ellonen et al., 2008; Perry, 2004; Tschannen-Moran, 2001; Zanini, 2007). Trust becomes an acute issue when it is missing. To compensate lack of trust, organisations implement monitoring and control measures, individuals engage in self- protective behaviours, get distracted from task performance, which accounts for increased workload and diminished efficiency at both individual and organisational levels (Mayer and Gavin, 2005; Colquitt et al., 2011). At societal level, low trust and consequent uncertainty and risk are handled by developing coping strategies such as bribery, favouritism, excessive litigiousness etc. (Sztompka, 1999). Socialization of individuals in a low-trust societal context affects their attitudes and behaviour in the organisational context, which raise obstacles to organisational development and national competitiveness. Therefore, although in certain cases high trust may account for groupthink and eliminate competent outsiders from an organisation (Fukuyama, 1995; Granovetter, 1973), it is generally desirable.In this paper, we regard organisational trust as a positive attitude held by one organisational member towards the other as competent, honest and benevolent (cf. Mayer et al., 1995) and continuously acting by fair-play rules, ethical norms and common values (Fukuyama, 1995). Such behaviour signals to the trustor that the trustee will not take an advantage of her vulnerability and dependence in a risky situation (Das and Teng, 1998; Lewis and Weigert, 1985; Six, 2007). Abilities and integrity provide rational reasons to trust and account for development of the so-called cognitive trust, and perceived benevolence as well as compliance with the same ethical norms and values constitutes the background for enhancement of emotional trust (Colquitt et al., 2011; McAllister, 1995; McAllister et al., 2006). In this light, organisational trust is an issue in post-soviet context where sociohistorical processes conditioned a rather flexible attitude to norms and standards, lack of integrity, professional negligence among society members, which resulted in low trust (Ees and Bachmann, 2006; Ivanauskas, 2006; Pucetaite and Lamsa, 2008a; Rees and Miazhevich, 2008; Vasiljeviene and Freitakiene, 2002; Ziliukaite et al., 2006). Therefore, building organisational trust is a practical challenge that calls for theoretically sound and contextsensitive models (Doney et al., 1998; Lamsa and Pucetaite, 2006; Li, 2012; Wicks and Berman, 2004).However, there is little research from post-soviet context highlighting antecedents of organisational trust. Prior research in this context (Pucetaite et al., 2010a) found organisational trust to depend on human resource management (HRM) practices that are based on the principles of fairness and justice as well as employee participation in decisionmaking and open communication. Another study on the effects of ethics management tools such as ethics codes, ethics training, ethics auditing etc. in Lithuanian organisations (Pucetaite and Lamsa, 2008b; Pucetaite et al., 2010a) indicated that the explanatory power of ethics management tools in relation to organisational trust is weak. Besides, post-soviet societies are characterised by a tendency to take documented ethical norms as relativistic conventions (Ryan, 2006; Ungvari-Zrinyi, 2001; Vasiljeviene and Freitakiene, 2002). …

The Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center in Moscow: Judaism for the masses

In 2012, a new Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center opened in Moscow – an event unthinkable during the Soviet regime. Financed at the level of $50 million, created by an international crew of academics and museum designers, and located in a landmark building, the museum immediately rose to a position of cultural prominence in the Russian museum scene. Using interactive technology and multimedia, the museum's core exhibition presents several centuries of complex local Jewish history, including the Second World War period. Naturally, the Holocaust is an important part of the story. Olga Gershenson's essay analyzes the museum's relationship to Holocaust history and memory in the post-Soviet context. She describes the museum's struggle to reconcile a Soviet understanding of the “Great Patriotic War” with a dominant Western narrative of the Holocaust, while also bringing the Holocaust in the Soviet Union to a broader audience via the museum. Through recorded testimonies, period documents, and film, the museum's display narrates the events of the Holocaust on Soviet soil. This is a significant revision of the Soviet-era discourse, which universalized and externalized the Holocaust. But this important revision is limited by the museum's choice to avoid the subject of local collaborators and bystanders. The museum shies away from the most pernicious aspect of the Holocaust history on Soviet soil, missing an opportunity to take historic responsibility and confront the difficult past.