Children Need Parents, Not Institutions.
Second Phase of Research
(2005)

Joint project with the St. Petersburg Early Intervention Institute.
Coordinator: Lubov Ejova (CISR).
This was the second stage of the similarly named project which was conducted in 2003. Every Child (Great Britain), in conjunction with the specialists of the St. Petersburg Early Intervention Institute, made a film based on Russian materials. The film tells a compelling story of the peculiarities of children living in closed institutions, the problems of families and mothers with young children who have fallen into a difficult life situation, and the abilities of social institutions to offer help to the families. The primary methods of investigation were focus groups with professionals who work with children under three years of age. In all, four focus groups were conducted (two in both St. Petersburg and Luga).
Participants from CISR: Lubov Ejova, Natalia Kravec, Larisa Sedova.
Supported by the Every Child (Great Britain).

The Children's Initiative in Countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)
(2005)

Joint project with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.
Coordinator: Lubov Ejova (CISR).
Parents and professionals working with children at the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee were surveyed, with the goal of developing a new set of programs for children from the countries of the CIS. The survey focused on parents' and professionals' views about possible directions of work with families and children.
Participant from CISR: Lubov Ejova.
Supported by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.

New Approaches to the Organisation of Work with Juveniles in the Colony in Kolpino
(2004-2005)

Project of the European University at St. Petersburg.
Coordinator: Nataliya Danilova (CISR - European University at St. Petersburg).
The project was carried out in the only colony for juvenile delinquents in the Russian North-West. Goals of the project included: delivering the needed social assistance; the approbation of new approaches to working with juveniles in penitentiaries; and the evaluation of the effectiveness of methods of correction/education of juveniles. The project was an applied social project, where along with scientific goals (to study, to investigate) researchers proposed special events for the residents of the colony. Football teams were organised in the colony, and a series of development seminars were conducted with the juveniles. The empirical base of the project consisted of 36 interviews with the staff of colony, with the teachers at the colony and the teachers at the colony's vocational school, with employees at the firm "The New Generation," with inmates, and with NGO workers. Secondary data came from public opinion polls about juvenile delinquents, newspaper articles in local mass media, and researchers' field notes drawn from participant observation in different spheres of activity at the colony. The first results of the project were presented on 23 September, 2005, at the European University at St. Petersburg.
Participant from CISR: Nataliya Danilova.
Supported by the Penal Reform International (PRI).

Public Opinion about Young Offenders
(2004)

Joint project with the Research Centre "Region" (Ulyanovsk), the Centre "Socium (Society)" (Saratov), the Levada Center (Moscow) and the St. Petersburg State University of Economics and Finance.
Coordinator: Lubov Ejova (CISR).
The reform of the justice system as it relates to minors is still in progress in Russian legislative bodies. However, the reformation process is not developing as quickly as the Russian obligations to UNO and EC require. The research aimed to attract the general public's attention to the discussion about how society should form relations with youth. A brochure and a series of workshops in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Ulyanovsk and Saratov were the results of the research. The main research methods were problem-oriented interviews, representative polls of the population (three cities) and a poll of teenagers, both law-abiding and delinquent.
Participants from CISR: Nataliya Danilova, Lubov Ejova.
Supported by the Ford Foundation, the British Embassy in Moscow.

Expert Analysis of Social Problems - A Vital Part of Resource Centres' Activities
(2003-2004)

Joint project with the NGO Development Centre (NDC, St. Petersburg).
Coordinator: Anna Orlova (NDC).
The project was devoted to the analysis of current practices of drug prevention in St. Petersburg and the clarification of factors that reduce its effectiveness.
Participants from CISR: Natalia Fedorova, Peter Meylakhs.
Supported by the Eurasia Foundation.

Study of the Youth's Needs in Anti-Drug NGOs
(2003-2004)

Coordinator: Valeria Khalileva (Foundation "Spasenie (Salvation)").
The project was devoted to the study of young people's need for anti-drug NGOs. Its objective consisted in studying young people's awareness of existing anti-drug NGOs, specific features of their work, and shortcomings in their work. Methodology: questionnaire.
Participant from CISR: Peter Meylakhs.
Supported by the EU TACIS Programme.

The Construction of the Drug Problem in the St. Petersburg Press
(2003-2004)

The objective of the research consisted in studying the construction of the drug problem in the mass media, and also in studying the social context and its possible influence on the construction process. Within the project, discursive strategies directed toward the construction of the heightened danger of drug use were discovered (such as signification spiral, automatic problematisation, categorisation work, and selective typification). The mobilisation strategies of the mass media, such as the rhetoric of calamity, which is supposed to unite all agents competing on the social problems market under a kind of symbolic umbrella, and the strategy of direct mobilisation, were also established. Russian neo-moralist discourse was also studied as a social context of the construction of the drug problem.
Researcher: Peter Meylakhs.
Supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the CISR.

Children Need Parents, not Institutions
(2003)

Joint project with the St. Petersburg Early Intervention Institute.
Coordinator: Lubov Ejova (CISR).
The research aimed to define opinions and attitudes of the target groups towards institutional care for younger children, to study their opinions on the process of development of services focusing on the family and their views on various alternatives to official institutions. Target groups were children's homes and maternity hospitals' employees, administration officials of St. Petersburg and Luga, and officials responsible for the care of children. The research methods were focus groups and problem-oriented interviews.
Participants from CISR: Lubov Ejova, Natalia Kravec, Larisa Sedova.
Supported by the Every Child (Great Britain).

War and Memory in Russia's Modern Military Conflicts
(2003)

The main goal was to work on the theoretical aspect of the research project in order to analyse culture and memory in modern military conflicts in Russia: to define basic theoretical directions of war memory studies and cultural studies in supplement to war memorials research; to specify basic definitions (war memorial culture, commemoration, commemoration practices).
Researcher: Nataliya Danilova.
Supported by the Centre for International Mobility (CIMO) and the Renvall Institute for Area and Cultural Studies (University of Helsinki).

War Memorial Culture: From Afghanistan to Chechnya
(2003)

The goal of the project was to carry out pilot research of different aspects of war memorial culture after the war in Afghanistan. War memorials in Russia and the CIS devoted to victims of modern wars were the objects of the research. The research subject was the field of symbolic meanings of memorials, its genesis, and commemoration practices defining the character and function of memorial space. Methodology: memory studies and cultural studies. Methods: analysis of documents, observation.
Researcher: Nataliya Danilova.
Supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the CISR.

Building Bridges for Better Health Policies in Russia: Strengthening Interaction between NGOs and the Authorities
(2002-2003)

Project of the NGO Development Centre (NDC, St. Petersburg).
Coordinator: Evgenia Makhonina (NDC).
The main goal of questioning NGO experts was to study the input NGOs have in solving the drug addiction prevention and drug-abuse rehabilitation problem in St. Petersburg. The research also focused on the character of the resource base of St. Petersburg anti-narcotic NGOs, functions that they carry out in drug-abuse prevention, treatment and rehabilitation, features and potential of their interactions with each other and with state authorities, and definition of the main tension vectors between NGOs and traditional (state) social policy subjects.
Participant from CISR: Natalia Fedorova.
Supported by the MATRA program of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Civic Media as a Form of Civil Society
(2002-2003)

This pilot project aimed to study the composition and structure of non-mainstream, including alternative and civil, print and Internet sources in the Northwest region.
Researcher: Olessia Koltsova.
Supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the CISR.

Juvenile Offenders: Codification of Status and Principles of Preventive Measures
(2002-2003)

The research aimed to analyse the transformation of the discursive meaning of juvenile offender status and the codification of preventive methods as a way to express the conception of juvenile justice. The research tasks were to study changes in status codification and preventive measures for juvenile offenders fixed in legislative acts, intradepartmental directions and orders; to analyse discussions in mass media publications. "New social control" theories served as a methodological basis for the research (Lemert, Becker, Cohen etc.). The basic method was analysis of documents.
Researcher: Nataliya Danilova.
Supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the CISR.

Mobile Phone Use and Sociability in Russia
(2002-2003)

Joint project with the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies.
Coordinators: Zbigniew Smoreda (France Telecom) and Richard Ling (Telenor).
The project aimed to research ICT's role in communication and everyday life among St. Petersburg youth. Special attention was paid to the mobile phone as a new communication channel. In the framework of the research, complex methodology was used: two-phase interviews, communication diaries and analysis of personal documents.
Participant from CISR: Boris Gladarev.
Supported by the France Telecom and the Telenor.

The Gift in Modern Society
(2002-2003)

The project aimed to research gift-giving practices in modern society. The project proposed solutions to the following problems: analysis of classical and modern gift/exchange conceptions; working out of theoretical and methodological research basics; definition of the social and subjective meanings of gift-giving on the basis of secondary analysis of interviews, Internet sources and literature on modern etiquette.
Researcher: Olga Kalacheva.
Supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

The Role of Public Organisations in Solving the Problem of the Rehabilitation and Social Adaptation of Drug-Addicts in Northwest Russia
(2002-2003)

The purpose of the project was to study systems of and approaches to treatment and rehabilitation of drug-addicts in modern Russia and to analyse the activities of anti-narcotic NGOs (the case of organisations in Northwest Russia). Methods included case study of non-commercial therapeutic communities (rehabilitation centres rendering assistance to drug-addicts), biographical and expert interviews, and secondary analysis of relevant documents.
Researcher: Natalia Fedorova.
Supported by the Heinrich Boell Foundation.

The System of Crime Prevention and Punishment of Juvenile Offenders: Functioning Issues
(2001-2002)

Joint project with the European University at St. Petersburg.
Coordinator: Elena Zdravomyslova (CISR).
The project set out to analyze the work of subjects of the crime prevention and juvenile punishment system (уррЙоо). The aim was to bring to light sustainable and reproducible types of the crime prevention and juvenile punishment system (уррЙоо) structures and to study their influence on juvenile offenders and their families. Another goal was to reconstruct typical conflicts and discrepancies in the activities of these institutions that lead to the break down of the juvenile offenders prevention and correctional education system. A comparative multiple case study was used as the methodology of the research.
Participant from CISR: Nataliya Danilova.
Supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Changing Practices of Control in Russian Mass Media
(2000-2002)

The goal of the project was to find out which social agents participate in the TV news production process in contemporary Russia and how they do so. Another goal was to determine the influence they have on the final product. Another purpose was to compile classification of power practices of these agents. Methods were: participant observation, interview, documents collection, qualitative analysis of texts ("grounded theory" of Gleiser and Stross was used in the analysis).
Researcher: Olessia Koltsova.
Supported by the Open Society Institute.

Invalid-veterans of Afghanistan: Group Strategies for Overcoming Situation
(2000-2001)

The objects of research were veterans' social organizations, and the invalid-veterans of Afghanistan who live inside and outside of St. Petersburg and are members of such organizations. On the basis of the analysis of documents and in-depth interviews we intended to examine, on the one hand, the practices and rules of "exemption" of this category of people, and on the other hand, the group strategies of resistance employed by "Afghans."
Researcher: Nataliya Danilova.
Supported by the Heinrich Boell Foundation.

The Influence of "Donor" Foundations on Social Changes in Russia
(2000-2001)

Joint project with the St. Petersburg branch of Institute of Sociology (Russian Academy of Sciences).
Coordinator: Josif Gurvitch (Institute of Sociology).
The purpose of the research was to estimate the efficiency of foundations' project support in the form of grants. The research was based on the selection of the projects that had been provided with the grant support of the "Open Society" Institute in the Northwest region for the period from 1995 to 2000. In the course of the research, detailed interviews with the participants of the aforementioned projects and the representatives of target groups were conducted. The survey of the population of St. Petersburg and the selective analysis of publications about the attitude towards foreign foundations were made.
Participant from CISR: Eduard Fomin.
Supported by the Open Society Institute.

Dairy Method and its Application for the Social Network Research: Prospects of the Method Development
(2000)

The purpose of the research was to test the dairy method and to analyze its opportunities for studying social networks.
Researcher: Boris Gladarev.
Supported by the Centre for International Mobility (CIMO, Finland).

Civic Culture and Civil Society in the Baltic States and the Russian North
(1998-2000)

Joint project with the University of Joensuu (Finland).
Coordinator from CISR: Viktor Voronkov.
Project participants from Estonia, Finland and Russia explored people's everyday life, their public activity and social networks. Research in Narva (Estonia), Pitkjaranta and Petrozavodsk (Karelia), and St. Petersburg (Russia) was conducted within the framework of the project. Main research method: standardized interviews.
Participants from CISR: Olga Brednikova, Elena Nikiforova, Viktor Voronkov.
Supported by the University of Joensuu.

Charity in Russia as a Socio-Cultural Phenomenon
(1998-1999)

The project was initiated by the Baltic Humanitarian Foundation (St. Petersburg).
Coordinator: Oleg Leikind (Baltic Humanitarian Foundation).
The aim of the project was to study peculiarities of charity in Russia and the conditions and difficulties of its development. The research work was focused on the cases of St. Petersburg and Vyborg. The method of participant observation in charity organizations was used and 25 in-depth narrative interviews were conducted in the course of the research. In addition, an analysis of press sources was carried out. Within the project a round table on the issue was organized, where heads of leading St. Petersburg non-governmental organizations and journalists participated. A book was published based on the results of the research.
Participants from CISR: Elena Chikadze, Natalia Fedorova, Eduard Fomin.
Supported by the Open Society Institute.

Fictitious Marriage as Migration Strategy in Soviet and Post-Soviet Russia
(1998-1999)

The aim of the project was to study informal strategies of deconstructing migration barriers in Soviet and post-Soviet Russia. Problem-oriented interviews with persons who have had the experience of fictitious marriage were taken.
Researcher: Aglaya Toporova.
Supported by the Heinrich Boell Foundation.

Formation of the Communication Space in Transforming TV
(1998-1999)

The project aimed to study the processes which influence the construction of the space of communication in TV, to explore the borders of the "origin material" compared to the final content of the space of communication, to find out what actors take part in the process and how they cooperate, i.e. who and what influences the content of today's mass-media. Methods: participant observation, informal conversations and non-formalised interviews with journalists, and also analysis of archival materials.
Researcher: Olessia Koltsova.
Supported by the Moscow Public Science Foundation (MPSF).

Life-Cycle Festivals in a Sociological Context
(1998-1999)

The aim of the project was to show the meaning of festivals through analysis of meaningful differences (gender, age) in the structure and practices of festive events. The methodological basis of the research was constructivist approach. The basic methods of data collection were leitmotif problematic interviews and participant observation.
Researcher: Olga Kalacheva.
Supported by the European University at St. Petersburg.

The Youth of the Mega-polis and Mono-industrial City: Problems of Adaptation and the Ways out of Crisis (The Cases of Iskitim, Meschdurechensk, Novosibirsk)
(1998-1999)

The aim of the investigation was the examination of the specificities of perception of the city environments and the behavioral strategies of youth (15-20 years) in three Siberian cities - the mono-industrial cities of Iskitim and Meschdurechensk, and the large regional center of Novosibirsk. The basic method of investigation was group discussions (focus-groups) and biographical interviews with pupils and students. The research also used mass surveys which were conducted in the three cities, as well as statistical data. The result of the investigation was a comparative analysis of the behavioral strategies of the youth in small and large cities, as well as the interdependence of the perception of the cities' environments and the life strategies of the youth.
Researcher: Zoia Solovieva.
Supported by the Heinrich Boell Foundation.

Entrepreneurial Strategies of Modern Russia
(1996-1998)

The aim of the project was to study the quasi-religious phenomenon of the increasing activity of various magicians, wizards, quacks and other representatives of esoteric sciences closely connected with magician practices. The project investigated mechanisms which contribute to the rationally organized industry's production of irrational (magical) convictions and practices. Research methods were: participation observation and analysis of press sources connected with the theme of the research.
Researcher: Oleg Pachenkov.
Supported by the CISR.

Quality of Life: Male and Female Strategies of Health
(1996-1998)

Joint interdisciplinary project (sociology, social psychology, applied medicine) with the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health (FIOH).
Coordinators: Kaisa Kauppinen (FIOH), Viktor Voronkov (CISR).
The purposes of the project were: determination of quality of life indexes; comparative analysis of East and West; investigation of reasons for the deterioration of health as a result of way of life, socio-political situation, etc. In the course of the project interviews were held with focus groups on issues referring to "unhealthy" lifestyles (alcoholism, smoking, violence). Mass polls on quality of life and the attitudes of the population towards its health in Russian cities (St. Petersburg, Samara, Pskov) were conducted. Secondary analysis of the results of other research projects on the subject was carried out.
Participants from CISR: Elena Chikadze, Natalia Fedorova, Eduard Fomin, Valentina Martynova, Viktor Voronkov, Elena Zdravomyslova.
Supported by the INTAS (International Association for the Promotion of Cooperation with Scientists from the Independent States of the Former Soviet Union).

Education of Adults
(1996)

Coordinator: Eduard Fomin.
Information project aimed at studying the structure of the service market in the field of education and re-qualification of adults and their efficiency. The research was held in St. Petersburg and Smolensk. The work within the project contained expert problematic interviews with educational organisations and potential employers (labour exchange), and polls among trainees.
Participants: Tatyana Baraulina, Eduard Fomin.
Supported by the Institute for International Cooperation of the German Adult Education Association (Bonn).

Social Science Development in Russia (Russian-German Monitoring)
(1995-1996)

Joint project with the Association for Social Science Research and Journalism mbH Berlin (GSFP).
Coordinator from CISR: Viktor Voronkov.
The purpose of the project was the survey and analysis of theoretical discussions on the transformation of Russian social structures, and approaches to its study, as well as publications on the subject. A detailed bibliography was also compiled. As a result of the research, two books were published in Germany and a Russian version of the publication was prepared.
Participants from CISR: Olga Brednikova, Oksana Karpenko, Ingrid Oswald, Viktor Voronkov.
Supported by the Volkswagen Foundation (Germany).

Formation of Russian Political Symbolism
(1992-1994)

Researcher: Elena Zdravomyslova.
Supported by the Open Society Institute.

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