The Solidarities and Cultural Practices of Russia's Young People at the Beginning of the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

The article looks at the experience of studying young people in today's Russia and the way the experience correlates with Western traditions of research. The analysis that is proposed is oriented toward understanding the analytical and empirical potential of the concept of solidarity applicable to the current agenda.

This article is the republished version of:

The Solidarities and Cultural Practices of Russia's Young People at the Beginning of the Twenty-First Century

Notes

English translation © 2015 Taylor & Francis, from the Russian text © 2013 the author. “Solidarnosti i kul’turnye praktiki rossiiskoi molodezhi nachala XXI veka: teoreticheskii kontekst,” Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniia, 2013, no. 10, pp. 52–61. A publication of the Russian Academy of Sciences; the Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Psychology, and Law, Russian Academy of Sciences; and the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs. Elena Leonidovna Omel’chenko is a doctor of sociological sciences and the head of the department of sociology and the director of the Center for Youth Research, Higher School of Economics National Research University (St. Petersburg). The article was prepared with the support of the Center for Fundamental Research at the Higher School of Economics National Research University. Grant 01201165827, “Youth Solidarities in the Local and Global Context: Economics, Politics, Culture.”Translated by Kim Braithwaite. Translation reprinted from Russian Education and Society, vol. 57, no. 1. DOI: 10.1080/10609393.2015.1012021

^1. The solidarity approach is a theoretical concept that is being formulated in regard to new forms of young people's sociality today. It has been named by analogy with the existing subcultural, post-subcultural, style, and other approaches. Originally these ideas were developed in the framework of projects implemented by the “Region” National Research Center at Ul’ianovsk State University, and starting in 2009 they have come to be a key direction in empirical studies and theoretical formulations of projects by the Center for Youth Research at the Higher School of Economics National Research University (St. Petersburg), with the support of the Center for Fundamental Research at the Higher School of Economics National Research University.

^2. In this sense it is not surprising that the DOM 2 project was successful, along with similar youth programs oriented toward the youth mainstream and the need for endless conversation “about nothing” and practices of “doing nothing,” revolving endlessly around relationships, gossip, sex, and popular music.