Conference in St. Petersburg: ‘Cultural and Economic Changes under Cross-national Perspective’
From November 10 to 14, the HSE Laboratory for Comparative Social Research’s (LCSR NRU HSE) 4th International Annual Research Conference 'Cultural and Economic changes under cross-national perspective' will take place in St. Petersburg. The programme includes dozens of themed sessions on current social, political and economic problems, and lectures by the world’s leading sociologists.
Each year, the conference brings together Russian and international academics who work on issues related to: values, trust and social capital; corruption and inequality in our changing world; the role played by religion in political activity; and other social problems from a cross-national perspective.
Most conference participants are involved in the LCSR research network, which means they are able to develop their projects in close cooperation with each other, and each new conference demonstrates their professional growth. Lectures will be given by Laboratory for Comparative Social Research managers. Ronald Inglehart, Academic Supervisor and Manager at the LCSR, is giving a lecture entitled ‘From Class Conflict to Cultural Issues—and Back Again?’. Christian Weltsel, LCSR Professor and Chair for Political Culture Research at the Leuphana University in Germany, is giving a talk about civilization turned into human empowerment. Eduard Ponarin, LCSR Director, will present his research into the links between the number of suicides committed and the spread of religious sects in the United States.
Bogdan Voicu (Romanian Academy of Sciences), Musa Shteiwi (The University of Jordan), Eric Uslaner (Maryland University), and Arye Rattner (The University of Haifa), who have worked in collaboration with the Laboratory for a considerable time, are also speaking at the conference.
This year’s conference will also see Arne Kalleberg (University of North Carolina) take part – for the first time – with a presentation on non-standard employment (and its consequences), and Alejandro Moreno (World Association for Public Opinion Research), who is also joining for the first time, will give a presentation on research into the development of democratic principles and norms.
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HSE Researchers Study Emerging Adulthood in Russia
Sociology today distinguishes more developmental stages of growing up than just childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood, as commemorated in Leo Tolstoy’s trilogy Childhood, Boyhood, Youth. For the past two decades, sociologists have been exploring the concept of emerging adulthood, a transitional stage that occurs between adolescence and early adulthood. Researchers at the HSE Institute of Education have discovered that in Russia, one out of every two young respondents, with females more frequently than males, falls within the emerging adult category. The study findings have been published in Emerging Adulthood.
News Finds You: HSE Researchers Study Media Consumption of People Who Avoid News
News avoidance is a global phenomenon that affects millions of people around the world. Despite their conscious refusal to consume media content, many argue that the most important news still finds them. Researchers at the HSE Laboratory for Studies in Economic Sociology have studied how people perceive the ‘news-finds-me’ effect. The results of the study were published in the Bulletin of Moscow University.
Good Deeds Bring Moral Satisfaction to Russians
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Alcohol Consumption Patterns Vary Across Social Groups in Russia, According to HSE Research
Although there is a larger percentage of drinkers among high-status professionals and executives compared to low-status workers, the former consume less alcohol. This is one of the findings of a study carried out by researchers of the HSE Faculty of Economic Sciences and published in Voprosy Statistiki.
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Factors Affecting Alcohol Consumption Are Shaped in Childhood
Economists and sociologists who study alcohol consumption patterns often link them to people's living conditions and human capital such as education, work experience, and knowledge. Researchers of the HSE Laboratory for Labour Market Studies and the HSE Laboratory for Studies in Economic Sociology have found that non-cognitive skills developed in childhood and adolescence can have a major effect on the likelihood of alcohol abuse later in life and can diminish the role of education in this respect. The paper has been published in the Journal of Comparative Economics.
Capabilities as an Indicator of Poverty
Using a multidimensional approach, sociologists from HSE University have identified some vulnerable categories of the population that have rarely been the focus of research on poverty. According to their calculations, pensioners and people with disabilities also fall into the ‘poor’ category. The study was published in the Russian Journal of Economics.
People Spend 1/6th of their Lifetime on Enhancing Their Appearance
An international team including HSE researchers has conducted the largest ever cross-cultural study of appearance-enhancing behaviours. They have found that people worldwide spend an average of four hours a day on enhancing their beauty. Caring for one's appearance does not depend on gender, and older people worry as much about looking their best as the young do. The strongest predictor of attractiveness-enhancing behaviours appears to be social media usage. The study findings have been published in Evolution and Human Behaviour.
Alcohol Consumption by Young Russians Drops by Half, Study Says
Sociologist Valeria Kondratenko used data from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey-HSE (RLMS-HSE) to demonstrate that the percentage of young Russians aged 14 to 22 who consume alcohol decreased by 2.3 times from 62.1% to 26.9% between 2006 and 2019. This paper also explores the correlation between the alcohol consumption habits of children and those of their parents. A paper with the findings of this study has been published in the Bulletin of RLMS–HSE.