Muscovites and Migrants don’t Understand Each Other
The tension between migrants from the North Caucasus and local residents in Russia is due to cultural and value differences. Migrants share collectivist values, while the local population is more individualistic. Olga Verbilovich and Viktoria Galyapina, researchers at the HSE Laboratory for Socio-cultural Research, investigated the specifics of the mutual attitude between migrants and local residents in Moscow and Stavropol Krai through the use of focus groups.
One Person in Two Lives in Debt in Russian Small Towns
Some 45% of residents in Russia’s small towns live with loans, and 23% have problems with repayments. A lack of financial literacy is the main cause of the problem. Formal credit has replaced informal borrowing and lending between community members and local retailers, Grigory Yudin and Ivan Pavlyutkin found in their study 'Debt and the Community: Two Debt-driven Economies of Small Towns'.
Cultural Nationalism Contributed to the Fall of the Soviet Union
Nationalism in the post-Soviet republics did not arise solely as a result of the economic and political crisis in the Soviet Union. The longstanding policy of the Soviet elite aimed at forming a multinational state is what enabled it. Authorities sought to use ethnic diversity to strengthen the state structure, but the result was exactly the opposite. A study by Andrey Shcherbak, senior research fellow at the HSE’s Laboratory for Comparative Social Research (LCSR).
Corruption and Social Values — A Challenging Area to Research
Prof. Dr. Christian Welzel's (Leuphana University, Laboratory of Comparative Social Research at the HSE — Saint Petersburg) research focuses on the question of how ordinary people’s value orientations vary across the political cultures of contemporary societies in a global comparative perspective. The HSE English language News Service asked Professor Welzel to tell us more about how he sees the problem of corruption.
International Recognition of Quality
Between January and March, 2014, the University of London (UoL) carried out a cycle of events as part of the annual monitoring of ICEF as a UoL Affiliate Centre. This is the highest status, which is only assigned to a small part of the institutions in partnerships with the UoL. The monitoring meetings were concluded with a visit by the UoL representative delegation to ICEF on February 24.
To Develop the University Has to Change
20th March 2014, at a conference of staff and teachers at the HSE, Rector Yaroslav Kuzminov gave an account of the results of the 2009-2013 HSE Programme for Development. These are the main points of his presentation.
Imperial Nation
On March 13, 2014, Ronald Suny, Professor of Social and Political History at the University of Michigan and Emeritus Professor of Political Science and History at the University of Chicago, delivered a public lecture at the HSE Saint Petersburg.
Professor Jonathan Linton: 'An Opportunity to Learn a Great Deal in Moscow'
Professor Jonathan Linton, Power Corporation Professor for the Management of Technological Enterprise of the University of Ottawa, Canada, and Editor-in-Chief of the ‘Technovation‘ journal has been appointed as the new Head of the HSE Laboratory for Science and Technology Studies at ISSEK the Institute of Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge. In this interview for the HSE English Language News Servicel he talked about what he hopes to achieve in his new job.
Russia Pays Too Much Attention to Rankings
On March 13, 2014, the HSE Center for Institutional Studies held a seminar to discuss the role of the joint comparative studies being carried out by universities in various countries to measure national systems of higher education. Philip Altbach, Research Professor and Director of the Center for International Higher Education at Boston College, USA, took part. Later, in an interview for the HSE News Service, he shared his experiences conducting joint research with Russian universities.
Most Russians Are Worried about Price Increases, Poverty and Unemployment
Results of a survey by the Levada Centre for social research show that price increases are the thing that Russians worry about most. The second thing on their worry list is poverty and the third, – unemployment. Only a tiny 4% of those asked said they worry about restrictions on civil rights and democratic freedoms. HSE professor and researcherNataliya Tikhonova explains why, if we look more closely, these results are not actually surprising at all.