Socio-economic sustainable development and the precariat: a case study of three Russian cities

Abstract

Sustainable social and economic processes of the recent decades are characterized by the emergence of new phenomenon known as precarity and its new accompanying class known as the precariat. The precariat as a social class or social community is primarily associated with a factor of instability and insecurity of workers with flexible employment. This paper studies the precarity on the labor market for the socially-oriented professions in the three Russian metropolitan areas: Moscow, Kazan, and Rostov-on-Don. The paper searches for the causes of precarity of socially-oriented professions based upon the analysis of economic processes in the public sector, and of the reformers' rhetoric and its reflection in the discourses of the main actors about the goals and direction of the reforms. Sociallyoriented professions are associated with the creation of benefits, which are very little associated with markets and in most cases belong to public or mixed goods. Our findings suggest that the reforms of Russian education and healthcare spheres are accompanied by large-scale institutional changes which resulted in bureaucratization, orientation toward achieving performance indicators not related to professional values, stagnation of incomes, inequality between regions, and instability of professional trajectories. We conclude that reducing the prestige of socially-oriented professions, the material well-being, along with instability, become the main factors of precarity.

Professional dynasties in the public consciousness of Russians

“…According to official figures, the average salary in the capital of the Russian Federation is 2 times higher than in the regions. Also, teacher pay in Kazan is about 25% higher than in Rostov-on-Don (Volchik et al, 2018). At the same time, the conditionality of attitudes toward labor succession in the family by career prospects in the profession is not revealed ( Table 1).…”

“…In the medical sphere, interregional income differentiation is also significant, when the highest salaries from the cities in question are fixed in Moscow and the lowest in the Rostov region. In general, according to official data, the income of school teachers is on average 30% less than that doctors (Volchik et al, 2018). In addition, in the professional environment of doctors, there is a correlation between attitudes toward professional dynasty and satisfaction with the career prospects of respondents (Table 2).…”

Профессиональные Династии В Бизнесе: Специфика И Потенциал Развития

“…Помимо этого, в настоящее время в условиях прекариатизации российского общества нарастает актуальность проблемы размывания профессиональной идентичности и преемственности. Все большее количество людей лишается уверенности в ценности своего труда, страдают от неопределенности и правовой незащищенности в сфере их трудовой деятельности Volchik, Klimenko, Posukhova 2018]. В этих условиях трудовая династийность может минимизировать негативные последствия прекариатизации в силу ранней профессиональной социализации членов династии и семейной капитализации профессиональных знаний в семье.…”

Female leadership and a competency-based portrait of a leader as perceived by female students

“…An analysis of social and psychological studies also shows that women's gender role in terms of leadership is not reflected well enough at present (see e.g. Volchik et al 2018).…”