This book explores the changing nature of growing-up working-class in post-Soviet Russia, a country dislocated by the experience of neo-liberal economic reform. Based on extensive ethnographic research in a provincial Russian region, it follows the experiences of vocational education graduates whose colleges continue to channel them into the ailing industrial and agricultural sectors. Rather than settling for transitions into ‘poor work’, the book shows how these young men and women develop a range of strategies aimed at overcoming the poverty of opportunity available to them in traditional enterprises, pursuing instead emerging opportunities in higher education, jobs in the new service sector and the prospect of migration. Drawing on a range of theoretical perspectives, Charles Walker analyses these strategies and their significance for wider processes of social change and social stratification in post-Soviet Russia.

Situated within the context of "post-soviet times", this book explores young people’s citizenship activities and values in three distinct environments: post-soviet union countries, post-soviet union satellites, and countries that were independent of the soviet-union. Its purpose is to investigate the influence of these contexts on the ways young people see their citizenship in what are now emerging democracies. The future of nations depends to a large extent on whether citizens will continue to support existing values and will engage in activities to support those values. Using a framework designed by Kennedy (2006) and further developed by Zalewska, Krzywosz-Rynkiewicz (2011) the study examined the citizenship values of 3794 students aged 11-14-18 from 11 European countries. The main themes of this book include exploring similarities and differences in citizenship activities within countries and across countries; advancing explanations for these similarities and differences; highlighting the importance of contexts that influence citizenship activities and values; and assessing the extent to which democratic values are reflected in young people’s citizenship activities.

One of the few English language studies to focus on the male experiences, this book addresses the important questions raised by the rise and fall of the Soviet experiment in transforming gender relations. Issues covered include; * the paternal role * women as breadwinners * men's loss of status at work * changing gender roles in the press * the relationship between the sexual and gender revoloutions. Featuring an outstanding panel of Russian contributors, this collection is a valuable resource for students and scholars of Politics, Gender Studies and Russian Studies.

Two decades have now passed since the revolutions of 1989 swept through Eastern Europe and precipitated the collapse of state socialism across the region, engendering a period of massive social, economic and political transformation. This book explores the ways in which young people growing up in post-socialist Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union negotiate a range of identities and transitions in their personal lives against a backdrop of thoroughgoing transformation in their societies. Drawing upon original empirical research in a range of countries, the book's contributors explore the various freedoms and insecurities that have accompanied neo-liberal transformation in post-socialist countries - in spheres as diverse as consumption, migration, political participation, volunteering, employment and family formation - and examine the ways in which they have begun to re-shape different aspects of young people's lives. In addition, while 'social change' is a central theme of the issue, all of the chapters in the collection indicate that the new opportunities and risks faced by young people continue both to underpin and to be shaped by familiar social and spatial divisions, not only within and between the countries addressed, but also between 'East' and 'West'. This book was originally published as a special issue of Journal of Youth Studies.

A collection of essays which examine the reform of the educational system in post Soviet Russia in historical and comparative perspective.

This collection provides the first comprehensive analysis of the nature of the relationship between the military and society in post-Soviet Russia. It brings together a multidisciplinary group of leading Western and Russian experts to investigate both the ways in which developments in the Russian armed forces influence Russian society, and the impact of broader societal change on the military sphere.

This book, based on extensive original research, including new survey research amongst young people, examines the political attitudes of Russian and Ukrainian adolescents without any firsthand experience with communism.

Title first published in 2003. This timely and original book is the most comprehensive and authoritative analysis of Russia's risk society to date. Referring to the works of Douglas, Beck and Giddens, it considers a variety of theories of risk and applies them to young people in different risk societies, showing how these youngsters have adapted to cope with risk.

This expansive, lively introduction charts the connections between international youth cultures and the development of global media and communication. From 1950s drive-ins and jukeboxes to contemporary social media, the book examines modern youth cultures in their social, economic, and political contexts. Exploring the rise of young people as a distinct media market, the book examines the relation of youth to modern consumerism, marketing, and digital technologies. The chapters are packed with analysis of media representations of youth, debates about the media’s 'effects' on young audiences, and young people’s use of the media to elaborate identities and negotiate social relationships. Drawing on a wealth of international examples, the book explores the impact of globalisation and new media technologies on youth cultures around the world. Assessing a profusion of worldwide research, the book shows how modern youth cultures can only be understood as part of an international web of connections, exchanges, and experiences. With an ideal balance between detailed examples and engaging analysis, this book is a must-read for anyone interested in youth cultures and the modern media.

Russian youth culture has been a subject of great interest to researchers since 1991, but most studies to date have failed to consider the global context. Looking West? engages theories of cultural globalization to chart how post-Soviet Russia's opening up to the West has been reflected in the cultural practices of its young people. Visitors to Russia's cities often interpret the presence of designer clothes shops, Internet cafés, and a vibrant club scene as evidence of the Westernization of Russian youth. As Looking West? shows, however, the younger generation has adopted a pick and mix strategy with regard to Western cultural commodities that reflects a receptiveness to the global alongside a precious guarding of the local. The authors show us how young people perceive Russia to be positioned in current global flows of cultural exchange, what their sense of Russia's place in the new global order is, and how they manage to live with the West on a daily basis. Looking West? represents an important landmark in Russian-Western collaborative research. Hilary Pilkington and Elena Omel'chenko have been at the heart of an eight-year collaboration between the University of Birmingham (U.K.) and Ul'ianovsk State University (Russia). This book was written by Pilkington and Omel'chenko with the team of researchers on the project--Moya Flynn, Ul'iana Bliudina, and Elena Starkova.