2011. Vol. 12. No. 2

The paper presents a study of the motivation for childbearing in contemporary Russia. The research relies on 80 narrative interviews collected in seven Russian cities. Data analysis was performed in accordance with grounded theory techniques. The author questions the theory that suggests the connection between raising rationality of human behavior and decreasing childbearing. The research findings reveal parents’ inclination to grasp childbearing mostly in affective sense. Moreover, the observed participants face the necessity to conquer specific fears tied with uncertainty and doubts about their family’s future. With the only exception of churching (orthodox) respondents, they describe their parenting experience in a rational way. The article explicates the category of “responsibility” as a prime concept used by the respondents to conceptualize childbearing, or more precisely risk-spectrum associated with this decision. Collected interviews highlight the importance of health care institutions and medical discourse that provide substantive meanings for parent’s fears. The author conjectures that health care institutions effect childbearing attitudes in a negative way. Narratives provide a support for this hypothesis: respondents explain low childbirth motivation employing arguments and perceptions adopted from official medicine and the related fields. In conclusion, author argues inspiring family ideology is inherent in religious discourse, while the medical discourse ignores any kind of motivation.

This paper presents a review of the sociological and economic approaches to labor markets in order to demonstrate their advantages and disadvantages. Comparing different views, the author proposes to construct better models of labor market which result from a merger of economists’ sophistication about instrumental behavior and sociologists’ expertise on social structure and relations, and complex mixture of motives. The author’s methodological searching is illustrated with such themes as labor mobility, implicit contracts and efficiency wages, promotion within internal labor markets.  

The paper considers possibilities and problems of mentorship in the large industrial companies in Russia. Approaches to definitions of mentorship, its major functions in organizations and society are analyzed. Types and modifications of mentorship in contemporary Human Resource management and demands for their applications are systematized. Practical examples are used to demonstrate an effectiveness of mentorship in the business organizations. An experience of consulting projects is attracted to see how Programs of Mentorship are implemented at the Russian enterprises at present.

The paper presents an attempt to describe how status  among classmates is attained at the secondary school. Exchange theory perspective is applied. Making it similar to stratification research, the author reveals key factors of status attainment including educational scores and use of pocket money. Using  survey data collected from the seventh-grade pupils at a Moscow suburbs secondary school, the author draw some conclusions on potential connections between a child’s status and his/her inclinations to help classmates to study, as well as an impact of the pocket money usage and formal power.   

The paper is intended to be a brief introduction into the field of economic anthropology. The authors make an overview of the main issues of the discipline. More specifically, the paper focuses on the foundations of economic anthropology, key debates within the field and the topics the field typically deals with. Some classical works that concern these topics are mentioned. In conclusion, possible fruitful encounters between economic anthropology and economic sociology are described.