2018. Vol. 19. No. 3

An interview with Alexander Pavlov, an expert at the Khamovniki Foundation and editor-in-chief of the news agency “Ulyanovsk — the Сity of News,” was conducted in February 2018 by Elena Gudova, a junior researcher at the Laboratory for Studies in Economic Sociology, Higher School of Economics.

Alexander Pavlov talks about his unique experience of research in the construction industry at various levels of decision-making, from obtaining a land plot by a general contractor to buying property by the final owners. Until 2016, cooperation among stakeholders mostly relied on acquaintance and personal connections, while the mere square meter became the main currency.

The construction industry functioned quite successfully, largely due to informal agreements and a lack of government presence up to the moment when the problem of defrauded co-investors emerged in political discourse. However, these investors were more likely to be legal entities involved in the redistribution of financial resources rather than potential tenants with mortgages. 
Attempts to make it all “like in Europe” disturb the existing structure and order, since the state’s main task in this sphere is the distribution of housing regardless of the real needs of population. Simultaneously, these needs have greatly changed from the 1950s rhetoric that “by the year 1980 everyone will get an apartment” towards the quality of housing. Ironically, quality was threatened due to the fact that only the construction teams had actual knowledge of what was happening at the construction areas. 
Alexander Pavlov’s ‘Saga of the Square Meter’ allows us to have another perspective of the construction industry, but it reveals many topics familiar to economic sociologists as well: a contradiction between informal economic practices and actions of the state; failures of high modernism; the importance of trust because of kidalovo or scam threats; the emergence of a symbolic order based on a new currency, and other subjects.

This paper is the first of a two-part critical essay on the discursive methods used by great German sociologist Max Weber in his classic study on the relationship between economy and religion “The Protestant Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism” (1904–1905). The author examines in detail the place of modern (rational) capitalism in Weber’s general taxonomy of the various historical forms of economic organization and describes its major differences from alternative types of capitalism, for example, political, booty or robber, and adventure capitalism. Another important issue also discussed in the paper is the relationship between two central Weberian concepts: protestant ethics and the spirit of capitalism. The author shows that Weber’s authentic thesis on the genesis of modern capitalism was fatally misinterpreted by almost all of his critics. Special attention is paid to the religious exegetics provided by Weber in his work. A key point in his theological exercises was a notion of “psychological premium” that adherents of ascetic Protestantism obtained if they achieved success in their worldly activities, such as occupational careers or profit-seeking. In their eyes this signaled that they were destined by God to salvation and thus relieved the burden of religious doubts associated with the absolute incomprehensibility of God’s plans. In such a way Weber explained how Protestantism might become an engine of modern capitalism. HHowever, Weber’s exegetics of religious texts was subject to devastating criticism by Canadian sociologist R. MacKinnon who demonstrated Weber’s deep theological illiteracy. Counter-criticism with a defense of the Weberian analytical scheme was provided by American sociologist D. Zaret. Commenting on this discussion, the author concludes that the arguments of Weber’s critics are much more convincing since his exegetics of religious texts seem to be at best partially, and at worst totally, incorrect. This implies that the pivotal thesis of “The Protestant Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism” of Protestantism as a launching pad for modern capitalism is devoid of solid behavioral foundations.

The purpose of this article is to show that, at the present stage, the institutional matrix of contractual razdatok provides conditions for the social state and democratic development of Russia, and to refute the myth that only market institutions are needed for the development of democracy. The new integralinstitutional paradigm radically changes the view of mankind’s evolution which is regarded as the development of institutional forms of the market and razdatok. At the local level, the market and razdatok are “equal hands” of the state, which equally regulates markets and also distributes resources on the basis of state orders. The reality of the 21st century consists not in the opposition of market and razdatok economies, but in the synthesis of market institutions and razdatok. And so, the dilemma is not a plan or a market, not socialism or capitalism, but a quasi-market or contractual razdatok. Outwardly, both models look similar; resources are distributed on a competitive basis through state orders and contracts are concluded with legal guarantees. However, extractive synthesis creates a quasi-market which leads to limited access orders and protects the monopolistic public rent acquisition by a narrow group of individuals with personal interests, whereas the contractual razdatok model relies on inclusive institutions which ensures the inclusion of all social groups in the process of social development through the redistribution benefits of a market economy. Inclusive synthesis in the form of contractual razdatok gives rise to a new institutional matrix of the social state and democracy for the economy, with both market and distributional prior development. As a result, economic rationality, and not ideological opposition, will determine the use of market or distributing relations through their combination in different forms. The economic course based on an institutional matrix of contractual razdatok in modern Russia will not be a return to the Soviet authoritarian past but will serve as an effective engine for overcoming the systemic crisis and the establishment of a democratic open access order.

This section presents the third volume of Max Weber’s fundamental work Economy and Society which has been translated into Russian for the first time. The third volume includes two works devoted to the sociology of law. The first, ‘The Economy and Laws’, discusses differences between sociological and juridical approaches to studies of social processes. It describes peculiarities of normative power arenas (orders) at different levels and demonstrates how they influence the economy. The second, ‘Economy and Law’ (‘Sociology of Law’) , reviews the evolution of law orders (primarily, the three “greatest systems of law” including Roman Law, Anglo-American Law, and European Continental Law) in the context of changes in the organization of economy and structures of dominancy. Law is considered an influential factor of the rationalization of social life which in turn is affected by a rationalized economy and social management.
The Journal of Economic Sociology here publishes an excerpt from the chapter ‘Law, Convention and Custom’ in this third volume, which shows the role of the habitual in the formation of law; explains the importance of intuition and empathy for the emergence of new orders; and discusses the changeable borders between law, convention and custom.
The translation is edited by Leonid Ionin and the chapter is published with the permission of HSE Publishing House.

This paper is devoted to studying the process of transformation of a hobby into an occupation in the creative economy, specifically in the case of streamers of gaming content. In particular, the main strategies, the prerequisites, and the consequences of deciding to monetize activities and turn leisure practices into a source of income are considered. The purpose of this work was to identify socially determined problems in the process of transforming a hobby into an occupation. For this, 15 semi-structured interviews with streamers and producers of gaming content were conducted and analyzed, which allowed the features and mechanisms of transformation to be determined. As a result, changes in the subjective perception of monetized leisure practices were determined and the main factors contributing to the changes were identified. The roles of the platform, the audience, and professional standards in the process of hobby transformation were also discovered.
A further result was the identification of the process accompanying transformation: formalization, defined as the integration of hobbies into external institutional frameworks; commodification, defined as the emergence of practices for the reification of emotional aspects of streamer activity and the implementation of practices for their evaluation and sale; economization, defined as the reorganization of the structure of activities to maximize earnings; and marketization, defined as orientation to the audience and delegation of opportunities for viewers to partially define the structure of activities.

Major changes have happened in the Russian educational system in recent decades. The number of people who continue studying after finishing secondary school has increased significantly, as well as the number of universities and students. The key predictor of educational trajectory is the socioeconomic status (SES) of the students’ families. A lot of research has been devoted to studying family influence on educational trajectory choice. This article considers the main theoretical approaches to studying the relationship between trajectory choice and student SES in the context of higher education expansion. In addition, empirical studies are analyzed, to test the implementation of the described theories in various education systems.
Macro- and micro-theories are identified to explain the reasons for the reproduction of inequality at state and individual levels respectively. Macro-theories describe conditions when inequality persists despite increasing access to education and tell us how to overcome inequalities. These theories are used for comparing students’ cohorts and identifying changes in accessibility to a certain level of education over time. Micro-theories study educational transitions at the individual level and consider the reasons for choosing a trajectory in terms of students’ opportunities, preferences, and limitations. The current review of both empirical and theoretical studies will be useful for future research in this area to make predictions and determine a valid model of the relationship between SES and the choice of educational trajectory in Russia.

This book by Jonathan Morduch and Rachel Schneider allows us to be immersed in the life of American families and to discover the most hidden area of family life— financial well-being. Reading this book, it is possible to find out how household income is formed, how money is spent, how savings are made, what kind of debt practices are applied and, most importantly, what problems and decision-making processes Americans have to face on this difficult path. The authors compare the financial path of the study participants to a rocky road, and their lives to a struggle in a world of uncertainty. The researchers show that the main problem for people in the US is not low income but instability, which leads to the fact that families live far from the normal financial patterns for almost half the year. The results show how far American families are from the predictions of Franco Modigliani’s lifecycle model and how misunderstood they remain by the main programs of social support which are mainly built around long-term plans and specific goals such as retirement savings, while families need short-term assistance—to live to the next month. The research topic is, of course, extremely urgent, and its implementation deserves recognition in the methodological field of research into the financial behavior of families. This is an example of financial ethnography, which is embodied in the book and can bring each reader closer to understanding how real families live on another continent and what problems they have to face.

The round table ‘Surrogate Motherhood in Russia and in the World: Legal Issues and Vectors of Sociological Research’ was held at the Laboratory for Studies in Economic Sociology at the Higher School of Economics on February 22, 2018. At the present time, the theme of surrogate motherhood is highly deliberated not only in Russia but also abroad. Despite the fact that there is a clear worldwide trend of legalizing the service, the question of its legitimization and normalization remains open. In that regard, there is a need for sociological research covering various aspects of surrogate motherhood. The reports presented at the round table were devoted to the complex, multifaceted consideration of the surrogate motherhood market. The participants’ presentations covered a wide range of topics, starting with the adjustment policies of the medical service and constructing a discourse around it, and ending with an overview of the potential risks to the well-being of children born with the help of surrogate programs. Some reports also included the first results of empirical research which allowed participants to focus on the specifics of surrogate motherhood in Russian society. The aim of the round table was to clarify the specifics and the problems of surrogate motherhood in Russia, as well as to determine the vectors of sociological research in this field.
The keynote speakers of the session were Olga Khazova (Institute of State and Law, Russian Academy of Sciences, and member of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child), Maria Denisova (LSES NRU HSE), Oksana Dorofeeva (LSES NRU HSE), Olga Doletskaya (NRU HSE), Elena Berdysheva (LSES NRU HSE).

This article presents an overview of the key issues discussed at the Scientific Conference in the sessions ‘Labor and employment problems: new challenges and prospects’ and ‘Information economy and labor,’ This article presents an overview of the key issues discussed at the Scientific Conference in the sessions ‘Labor and employment problems: new challenges and prospects’ and ‘Information economy and labor’, held within the framework of the Second St. Petersburg International Youth Labor Forum which was conducted in St. Petersburg on February 28, 2018. The article describes the main ideas discussed at the conference. The main leitmotif of the presentations was the idea that the modern understanding of the problems of labor is very diverse. Young professionals entering the modern Russian labor market face a huge list of problems. The key issues on which speakers constantly focused their attention were the impact of new information realities on the sphere of work, the employment of young professionals in the context of changing labor market demands, and the dissemination of competence-oriented criteria for assessing the quality of specialists. Participants also discussed the dynamics of graduate employment, creativity and flexibility in the demand and development of intellectual work, training in the workplace, and many other areas. The general conclusion of the review, summarizing the work of the Scientific Conference sessions, was that young people want and will be ready for the challenges of the 21st century work context held within the framework of the Second St. Petersburg International Youth Labor Forum which was conducted in St. Petersburg on February 28, 2018. The article describes the main ideas discussed at the conference. The main leitmotif of the presentations was the idea that the modern understanding of the problems of labor is very diverse. Young professionals entering the modern Russian labor market face a huge list of problems. The key issues on which speakers constantly focused their attention were the impact of new information realities on the sphere of work, the employment of young professionals in the context of changing labor market demands, and the dissemination of competence-oriented criteria for assessing the quality of specialists. Participants also discussed the dynamics of graduate employment, creativity and flexibility in the demand and development of intellectual work, training in the workplace, and many other areas. The general conclusion of the review, summarizing the work of the Scientific Conference sessions, was that young people want and will be ready for the challenges of the 21st century work context.