‘They should cook borsch, chop wood … ’: contemporary images of social work in the context of welfare policy reforms in Russia’s print media

ABSTRACT

This article traces the main features of social work in contemporary Russian printed media in the context of social policy reforms and social work services transformation from 1994 to 2018. This article analyses the mass media portrayal of social work within a broader picture of the Russian social policy, taking into account the interplay of the macro-context of the welfare reforms, on the one hand, and the mezzo-context of the profession, on the other. The analysis of social work images reveals changing professional status and societal beliefs concerning this occupation against the background of welfare policy reforms. This analysis gives an important perspective on the transformation of social work in Russia and poses the broader questions of how social policy affects the professional status of social work and how the profession itself through the media images is becoming a political issue; a care-and-control tool. In addition, this study contributes to research on the rise of non-governmental participation in social work in the Russian regions, where there has been a long history of the state monopolising social service provision.

Аннотация

В этой статье прослеживаются основные черты образа социальной работы в современных российских печатных СМИ в контексте реформ социальной политики и трансформации услуг социальной работы с 1994 по 2018 годы. Анализ репрезентаций социальной работы в СМИ проводится с учетом взаимодействие макро-контекста реформ социального обеспечения, с одной стороны, и мезо-контекста профессии, с другой. Образы социальной работы затрагивают изменения профессионального статуса и общественных представлений относительно этой профессии на фоне реформ социальной политики. Это исследование рассматривает трансформации социальной работы в России и ставит более широкие вопросы о том, как социальная политика влияет на профессиональный статус социальной работы и как сама профессия через образы СМИ становится политической проблемой; инструментом заботы и контроля. Кроме того, данное исследование заостряет внимание на растущем участии неправительственных организаций в развитии социальной работы в российских регионах.

KEYWORDS:

• Social policy
• social work
• media
• Russia

Ключевые слова:

• социальная политика
• социальная работа
• средства массовой информации
• Россия

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Jørn Holm-Hansen, Matthew Blackburn, anonymous reviewers and editors of the European Journal of Social Work for valuable comments and work with our text. The initial study was conducted under the Research Council of Norway project number 228196, the article was prepared under the Russian Science Foundation project number 18-18-00321.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 The article was prepared within the framework of the Basic Research Program of the HSE University Basic Research Program and funded by the Russian Academic Excellence Project ‘5–100’.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Norges Forskningsråd: [grant number 228196]; Russian Science Foundation: [grant number 18-18-00321].

Notes on contributors

Elena Iarskaia-Smirnova

Elena Iarskaia-Smirnova is a professor at the Department of Sociology and a Head of an International Laboratory of Social Integration Research at the National Research University ‘Higher School of Economics’, Moscow, Russia. She was Head of the Department of Social Anthropology and Social Work and a professor at that Department in 1995–2008 in Saratov State Technical University, Russia. She was co-founder and academic director of an independent Center for Social Policy and Gender Studies during 1996–2014 in Russia. She received her MSW and PhD from the University of Goteborg and her Candidate in Philosophy from the Saratov State Chernyshevski University and Doctor in Sociology from the Saratov State Technical University, Russia. Email: [email protected]; [email protected].

Rostislav Kononenko

Rostislav Kononenko is Dotsent at the Department of Sociology at the National Research University ‘Higher School of Economics’, Moscow, Russia. He received his first degree in Social Anthropology and Candidate degree in Sociology from the Saratov State Technical University, Russia. He specialises in sociology of culture and mobilities. Email: [email protected].

Olga Kosova

Olga Kosova is an independent researcher, she received her MA in Sociology from the National Research University ‘Higher School of Economics’, Moscow, Russia. Email: [email protected].

Valentina Yarskaya

Valentina Yarskaya is a professor and a Director of the Scientific-Educational Regional Monitoring Research Center at the Gagarin Saratov State Technical University. She received her Doctoral Degree in Philosophy at Institute of Philosophy Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. She specialises in philosophy of time, space and social work, sociology of youth and social policy, urban studies and inclusion. Email: [email protected].