2010. Vol. 11. No. 2

The theoretical background of the research is an economic sociology approach toward the analysis of private household agricultural activity. On the basis of Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (1994–2006 years) the dynamic of household agricultural activity is examined, the typological analysis of agricultural specialization is carried out; factors that have an impact on household probability to work on their land plots and to put the products of this activity to sale are reviewed.

Qualitative analysis of historical data concerning the diffusion of life insurance in the United States during the 19th century helps to explore the problem of establishing monetary equivalents for those aspects of the social order, such as death, that are culturally defi ned as above fi nancial relationships. The fi nancial evaluation of a man’s life introduced by the life insurance industry was initially rejected by many as a profanation which transformed the sacred event of death into a vulgar commodity. By the latter part of the 19th century, the economic defi nition of the value of death became fi nally more acceptable, legitimating the life insurance enterprise. However, the monetary evaluation of death did not desacralize it; life insurance emerged as a new form of ritual with which to face death.

The article is devoted to studying styles of consumption in the field of leisure, focusing on sporting clays which became popular among the Russian elite in the second half of 1990s.  The study demonstrates that today people with medium and low income are also engaged in sporting clays. The question arises as to whether sporting clays stimulates social differentiation or social integration. The empirical data collected from participants of a sporting clays club describe the institutionalization process of sporting clays in modern Russia, show social and economic qualities of shooters, and present a typology of people engaged in this kind of shooting

The paper is devoted to a socio-cultural analysis of the market for Soviet movies on DVD. The Soviet cinema is considered as a cultural object; and its positioning is connected with the production and distribution of cultural symbols representing meanings and values of the Soviet movies, on how the present and the Soviet past are related; on the role which the Soviet film production plays in the modern cultural context. The author brings up the following questions: how the Soviet movies are positioned in the DVD market?  What cultural symbols are transmitted through this market positioning process? In which way do the properties of a movie conditioned by the institutional context of the Soviet film production define the distributors’ market strategies? The empirical data are collected from the covers of DVDs and descriptions, series, and collections of the Soviet movies presented on distributor-companies’ websites. The research covers 450 DVDs of the Soviet films.

The paper analyzes the methodological and empirical research on issues of informal economic activity of the police in the developed and developing countries and countries with transition economies. The focus is set on reasons, mechanisms and practices of police corruption. The comparative analysis of the indicated types of countries demonstrates that the origination of corruption is many-faceted. The police corruption in the developed countries contrasts with that in the developing and transition countries. Moreover, these diversities shed light upon the scales and forms of police corruption in the developing and transition countries, and upon the necessary tools to reduce it.

The author of this article presents a critical review of the monograph «Organized Labor in Postcommunist States: From Solidarity to Infi rmity». The book, written by a famous researcher of labor movements P. Kubicek, includes the analysis of organized labor in Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, and Poland within postcommunist transformation. The book is written in a methodologically original way with a lot of data being used. The  author looked at organized labor within three dimensions: market, democracy and globalization. Comparative research is not confi ned to four mentioned states, but also involves the comparison of labor movement in Western and Eastern Europe. In spite of interesting fi ndings the study of organized labor in postcommunist states is mainly descriptive. The reasons and the results of declining of labor organizations are not thoroughly examined.