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Despite decades of Putin, it is too simplistic to assert that authoritarianism has eliminated Russian activism, especially in relation to everyday life. Instead, we must build an awareness of diverse efforts to mobilize citizens to better understand how activism is shaped by and, in turn, shapes the regime.
Varieties of Russian Activism focuses on a broad range of collective actions, from labor unions to housing renovation, religion, electoral politics, minority language rights, and urban planning. Contributors draw attention to significant forms of grassroots politics that have not received sufficient attention in scholarship, or that deserve fresh examination. The volume shows that Russians find novel ways to redress everyday problems and demand new services. Together, these essays interrogate what kinds of practices can be defined as activism in a fast-changing, politically volatile society.
An engaging collection, Varieties of Russian Activism unites leading scholars in the common aim of approaching the embeddedness of civic activism in the conditions of everyday life, connectedness, and rising society-state expectations.
Despite decades of Putin, it is too simplistic to assert that authoritarianism has eliminated Russian activism, especially in relation to everyday life. Instead, we must build an awareness of diverse efforts to mobilize citizens to better understand how activism is shaped by and, in turn, shapes the regime.
Varieties of Russian Activism focuses on a broad range of collective actions, from labor unions to housing renovation, religion, electoral politics, minority language rights, and urban planning. Contributors draw attention to significant forms of grassroots politics that have not received sufficient attention in scholarship, or that deserve fresh examination. The volume shows that Russians find novel ways to redress everyday problems and demand new services. Together, these essays interrogate what kinds of practices can be defined as activism in a fast-changing, politically volatile society.
An engaging collection, Varieties of Russian Activism unites leading scholars in the common aim of approaching the embeddedness of civic activism in the conditions of everyday life, connectedness, and rising society-state expectations.
Acknowledgments
1. Everyday Activism: Tracking the Evolution of Russian State and
Society Relations, by Jeremy Morris, Andrei Semenov, and Regina
Smyth
Introduction to Part 1: The Building Blocks of Everyday Activism:
Identity, Networks, and Social Trust
2. Cultural Production as Activism: National Theaters,
Philharmonics, and Cultural Organizations in Russia's Regional
Capitals, by Katie L. Stewart
3. The Promotion of Minority Languages in Russia's Ethnic
Republics: Social Media and Grassroots Activities, by Guzel
Yusupova
4. From Neighbors to Activists: Shared Grievances and Collective
Solutions, by Regina Smyth, Madeline McCann, and Katherine
Hitchcock
Introduction to Part 2: Organizational Roles in Mobilization for
Activism: Communication, Cooperation, and Conjunction
5. Social Activism in the Russian Orthodox Church, by John P.
Burgess
6. The River of Urban Resistance: Renovation and New Civic
Infrastructures in Moscow, by Anna Zhelnina
7. Activists and Experiential Entanglement in Russian Labor
Organizing, by Jeremy Morris
8. Skateboarding Together: Generational Civic Activism and
Non-Transition to Politics in Sosnovyi Bor, by Anna A. Dekalchuk
and Ivan S. Grigoriev
Introduction to Part 3: Institutional Environment and Opportunity
Structures for Urban Activism
9. Policy Activism in Urban Governance: The Case of Master Plan
Development in Perm, by Eleonora Minaeva
10. Urban Planning and Civic Activism, by Carola Neugebauer, Andrei
Semenov, Irina Shevtsova, and Daniela Zupan
11. Manipulating Public Discontent in Russia: The Role of Trade
Unions in the Protests against Pension Reform, by Irina
Meyer-Olimpieva
12. Active Urbanites in an Authoritarian Regime: Aleksei Navalny's
Presidential Campaign, by Jan Matti Dollbaum, Andrei Semenov, and
Elena Sirotkina
13. Why Grassroots Activism Matters, by Jeremy Morris, Andrei
Semenov, and Regina Smyth
Index
Jeremy Morris is Professor of Global Studies at Aarhus University. He is author most recently of Everyday Post-Socialism: Working-Class Communities in the Russian Margins.
Andrei Semenov is Senior Researcher at the Sociological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences. His work appears in Russian Politics, Social Movements Studies, and Post-Soviet Affairs.
Regina Smyth is Professor of Political Science at Indiana University. She is author most recently of Elections, Protest, and Authoritarian Regime Stability: Russia 2008–2020.
"Much has been written about Russian activism, but this volume
takes the reader into unexpected realms, to the (almost) hidden and
liminal spaces of everyday life. The excellent studies of this book
give dedicated tribute to the many forms of Russian engaged
citizenship way beyond political apathy. This volume is an eye
opener and an enjoyable, even adventurous read for academics and
interested parties alike."—Christian Fröhlich, HSE University,
Russia
"What Russian citizens want from their state—and from one
another—has become a question of global significance. By embracing
the complexity and contradictions of authoritarian contention,
Varieties of Russian Activism does more than any recent book to
help us understand how Russian society functions today, and what
might happen when Russia once again belongs to its citizens."—Sam
Greene, Director, Democratic Resilience at the Center for European
Policy Analysis and Professor, Kings College Russia
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