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ABSTRACT
The article discusses the map of youth cultural scenes in Makhachkala, the capital of the Republic of Dagestan, and the third largest city in the North Caucasus region of the Russian Federation. The uniqueness of Makhachkala’s youth space is associated with the specific geopolitical and cultural circumstances of the history of the republic. This is set against the context of post-Soviet transformation: rising unemployment and severe inequality; the revival of Islam; radical changes in the gender regime, the ethnic and religious composition of Dagestanis; and a complicated political agenda involving the struggle with radicalization, and the growth of a terrorist threat. Thus, we consider it important and timely to study the local youth socialities, which exist in such a contradictory context. The research that underpins the article is focused on two opposing youth scenes in Makhachkala: street workout (inscribed in the context of the local patriarchal regime), and the anime community (symbolically resisting the pressure of social ‘normativity’). Using the theoretical concept of cultural scenes and a case-study approach (in-depth interviews, participant observation, community mapping), the potential to categorize youth that are not centred (that is, who are outside the ‘core’ of the capitalist world-system) is critically considered through the opposition between subcultural and mainstream groups. The key aim of the article is to demonstrate the importance of using the construct of the ‘other’ (that which is alien or dangerous) as the main way to define the more subtle (often latent) structure of group identity and cultural capital of a community. This also describes the intra- and inter-group solidarities and the value conflicts of youth in a complex and contradictory local urban environment. In this case, the process of growing up and the socialization of youth involve the selection of different strategies of acceptance and resistance to the social order, the structure of normativity and images of success.
Acknowledgements
The results of the project ‘Fields of positive interethnic interactions and youth cultural scenes in the Russian cities’ realized in 2015–2017 by the team of the Centre for Youth Studies (National Research University ‘Higher School of Economics’ in Saint-Petersburg).
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Elena Omelchenko is Professor of the sociological department and Head of Centre for Youth Studies National Research University Higher School of Economics St. Petersburg, Russia. Her research is located in the area of youth studies. She is an author and co-author of 17 monographs on globalization of youth cultures, ethnic and religious identities of youth, drug (ab)use cultures, the body and sexuality, xenophobia and migrant youth. Currently, she is working on developing the concepts of ‘solidarity’ and ‘cultural youth scene’ for the study of cultural practices of contemporary Russian youth.
Sviatoslav Poliakov is a Researcher and PhD-Student at the Centre for Youth Studies of the National Research University Higher School of Economics. The focus of his research interests is youth in post-Soviet Russia. He is currently working on such issues as youth cultures and solidarities of modern Russia, Islamic radicalization among young people in the North Caucasus, youth policy in the Russian and global context.
Alina Mayboroda is a PhD student, researcher at Center for Youth Studies at the National Research University High School of Economics St. Petersburg. Her main research interests are youth cultures, participatory cultures, fan studies, anime and cosplay cultures.
Notes
1 The Dagestani War began when the Chechnya-based Islamist group, led by warlords Shamil Basayev and Ibn al-Khattab, invaded Dagestan on 7th August 1999, in support of Salafi rebels. The war ended with a major victory for the Russian Federation and the Republic of Dagestan, and the retreat of the Islamists (Souleimanov Citation2005).
2 This stratification is especially deep in Makhachkala, where the majority of budget transfers allocated to the republic remains. This money, through corruption schemes, fall into the pockets of bureaucracy and related businessmen.
3 Supported by a Russian Science Foundation Grantno. 15-18-00078. Within the research project, the following city case-‘scenes’ were selected: in Makhachkala, workout and anime; in Ulyanovsk, a female Instagram site – a ‘scene’ for caring for oneself (which became an off-line ‘scene’ of ‘normal club get-togethers’) and eco-volunteers; in Kazan, a rap-‘scene’ (Tatar rap) and participants of search expeditions (‘poiskoviki’) [Those who seek and re-bury the remains of soldiers of the Second World War]; and in St. Petersburg, a post-Gothic ‘scene’ and vegans.
4 Anonymized.
5 In Russian ‘look like Papuan’ is a rude phrase, which means look ridiculous, not civilized, dressing too brightly.
6 ‘Non-formal’ is a common name in Russian for members of different subcultures. It has appeared in USSR, when subcultures (punks, hippie, style hunters) were contraposed to ‘formal’ and approved by authorities youth organizations (pioneers, comsomol). Today the notion is being used to describe youth that participates in different youth scenes (especially, creative), that has particular style and values. For anime scene participants, such a name in Russian (‘neformal’, ‘nifer’) is self-descriptive.
7 ‘Gopniks’ is a collective image of a certain masculine identity, represented through special practices and occupied spaces. ‘Gopniks’, in academic literature, are defined as a ‘collective community’, which has a narrow spectrum of interests and ‘unconsciously’ repeats group behaviour patterns (see Gavriluk Citation2010, Kosterina Citation2006). In Makhachkala the terms ‘vagabonds’, ‘khachi’, ‘bulls’, and ‘tigers’ are used as synonyms of ‘gopniks’.
8 In Makhachkala 91.4% of respondents consider themselves believers and about 20% define themselves as ‘active Muslims’.