OVERHAULING RUSSIA'S CHILD WELFARE SYSTEM: INSTITUTIONAL AND IDEATIONAL FACTORS BEHIND THE PARADIGM SHIFTThis article studies the causal factors behind the major overhaul of Russia's system for children in substitute care that has been taking place since the late 2000's. A series of reforms have promoted fostering and family-like care in contrast to the large residential homes used in the Soviet period and 1990's. We highlight the fundamental change in the 'ideal of care' represented by the move to 'deinstitutionalise' the care system by promoting domestic adoptions, increasing the number of foster families, creating early support services for families as well as restructuring remaining residential institutions into smaller, home-like environments. These are all key elements of the global deinstitutionalisation trend that is taking place around the globe. We look at the evolution of the related policies and ask why this policy shift happened during the 2010's even though the issue of reform had partially been on the Russian policy agenda for some time. Building on an explanatory approach to family policy changes by Magritta Mäztke and Ilona Ostner, which incorporates material and ideational driving forces, we explain that the 'political will from above' behind these major reforms was shaped by a range of other societal and political factors. instance, the increasing conservative turn in policies towards children and families, which are driven by the severe demographic decline in the country, work alongside the influence of international norms around children's rights and changing socio-economic circumstances. In the 1990's Russian NGOs had considerable input into the reforms as 'epistemic communities' in policy formation thanks to the high level of expertise that they developed in international networks and the increasing number of cross-sector consultative platforms at governmental bodies in contemporary Russia. We conclude that ideational factors were necessary preconditions for the reforms, but that political forces were ultimately the key driving force. The recentralisation of power and prioritisation of social policy under President Putin allowed new ideas to gain concrete policy realisation.
This paper analyzes contemporary Russian family policy, focusing on the state's ideological orientation and the political measures it has taken with regard to the family as a social institution. Documents representing official and normative discourse of family policy in contemporary Russia serve here as data for the study. The paper identifies stages of the formation and realization of Russian family policy. Analysis of these stages shows that neither at the level of ideology nor in terms of specific tools of implementation is this policy coherent. A pronatalist strategy ensures that many real problems faced by families stay on the periphery of family policy. This paper maintains that Russian family policy should take into account the diversity of modern forms of family relationships and increase societal support for citizens with family responsibilities, not limited only to family financial support.
Статья посвящена концептуализации современного российского гендерного порядка. Для этого автор использует идею И.С. Кона о трех революциях как социальных процессах переустройства гендерных отношений в сфере сексуальности, семьи, образования и занятости. Также предлагается аналитическая рамка, позволяющая по-новому интерпретировать специфику (вос)производства гендерных отношений в современной России, а также выделить факторы, как способствующие, так и препятствующие гендерной революции, то есть изменению отношений между мужчинами и женщинами в публичной и приватной сферах в сторону большего гендерного равенства. Концепция множественного равновесия Г. Эспинг-Андерсена и институционального бриколажа С. Данкена позволяют проанализировать взаимосвязь между советским опытом гендерной политики и современными тенденциями индивидуализации и плюрализации. Рассмотрение сексуальной, гендерной и семейной революций в историческом контексте позволяют сделать вывод о том, как происходит (пере)изобретение традиции в современном контексте, как сильно и почему современный гендерный порядок базируется на советском опыте гендерной политики и какой вклад постсоветские трансформации и глобальные тенденции вносят в его специфику.
The article examines the reproductive decisions of Russian urban middle‐class women. We look at women’s lives in the context of Russian pronatalist family policy and the official conservative gender ideology of 2019–2020. Based on biographical interviews with 35 young women, we focus on working mothers. The sample is composed of middle‐class mothers since their lifestyle serves as a cultural model for the whole Russian society. We reconstruct the everyday rationalities deployed by the mothers to justify their reproductive decisions. The respondents seek “self‐realization,” postponing childbirth or limiting their reproduction. We reconstruct the discourse of “pragmatic individualism” as an everyday logic used by mothers, which helps them cope with the instability of the labor market and marriage and the lack of state social support. Using the logic of “pragmatic individualism,” women present themselves as respectable, socially competent individuals able to build their lives according to middle‐class living standards. The logic of pragmatic individualism contradicts the message of pronatalist state ideology based on “traditional” gender roles and high fertility. It gives women a rational explanation for why, despite socially supported childbearing, they decide to have only one or two children. We argue that while women rationalize childbearing decisions for financial security and social well‐being, their rationale is determined by class standards of respectability. These standards are associated with high standards of care and quality of life for a small number of children.
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