Selected Themes in Russian Studies: Gender and Social care in Russia, 5 cr

Categories of gender and care are central to understanding everyday life both in contemporary Russia, and in previous periods. In terms of gender arrangements, Russian society in the course of its history has oscillated between the most progressive ideas to the most conservative ones. Care (a phenomenon intertwined with gender) to a large extent framed relations between Soviet citizens and the state. In contemporary Russia transformations of care patterns in different domains exemplify departure from or continuation of Soviet legacies. The aim of this course is to deal with the issues of gender and social care in Russia both on conceptual and empirical level. We will consider social and historical research on the topic to get deeper insights in Russian society. We will also explore analytical potential of this kind of researches, and focus of theoretical challenges that can be derived from studying Soviet and post-Soviet experience. The course consists of lectures and seminars. Students also will be required to develop and present individual projects, which should be focused on analyzing particular example of social care policies, institutional arrangements and/or practices in Soviet and/or Russian context.

Themes of classes

1. Lecture. Theme 1. Care and gender citizenship. Theoretical considerations

2. Lecture. Theme 2. Soviet gender order: 1918-1930’s, political mobilization of women and politics of defamilialization

3. Theme 3. Soviet gender order: 1930’s – 1950’s, economic mobilization of women and introduction of ‘working mother’ gender contract

4-5. Lecture and seminar. Theme 4. Soviet gender order: 1950’s – 1980’s, liberalization of gender policy

6-7. Lecture and seminar. Theme 5. Transformations of gender citizenship in contemporary Russia

8-9. Lecture and seminar. Theme 6. State care for women-mothers: institutional reforms and citizens’ reproductive choices

10-11. Lecture and seminar. Theme 7. Child care and family policies

12-13. Lecture and seminar. Theme 8. Elderly care: ideologies, institutions and practices

14. Presentation of individual research projects.