Social Class and Social Inequality in Russia and Eastern Europe

May 30th 2008

St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford

The collapse of the socialist variant of modernity in Eastern Europe is one of a number of factors underpinning the wider demise of ‘class’ as a focus of political and academic attention. However, the concept of ‘class’ remains vital in understanding the nature of social inequality and patterns of social stratification, not least in those societies undergoing ‘transition’ from socialist to capitalist systems. The transformations taking place in post-Socialist societies have in some cases seen the emergence of extreme levels of income differentiation, and raise questions about processes of social mobility, the experience of class-based inequality, and the expression of class in the political realm. This one-day seminar, the second in a series of CEELBAS events addressing aspects of social inequality, brought together a range of speakers in order to address these and other questions relating to emerging patterns of class-based divisions in post-Socialist Russia and Eastern Europe.

Topics addressed by the seminar included:

· Workers and the weakness of collective action

· The experience of the post-Socialist working class

· Subjective dimensions of social class and perceptions of social inequality

· Prospects for and processes of social mobility

· Class dimensions of social networks

The seminar was a free event, and was attended by academics, postgraduate students, and NGO representatives. Speakers at the event were drawn from established and emerging researchers in Russian and East European Studies both in the UK and elsewhere in Europe, and came from a range of disciplinary and methodological backgrounds. See full programme

The programme for the seminar consisted of 4 panels and 7 papers, the Powerpoints for which may be accessed through the links below:

Workers and the weakness of collective action (chair: Dr Charles Walker)

• Alexandra Janovskaia (LSE): Metalworker Unions in post-Communist Central Europe: Enterprise Coalitions for Production
• Maria Bytchkova (LSE): Tripartism in Russia: a Response to Trade Union Weakness?

Being working class in post-Socialism(chair: Professor George Kolankiewicz)

• Dr Alison Stenning (University of Newcastle): Working Class Lives in post-Socialist Europe
• Dr Charles Walker (University of Oxford): ‘Learning to Labour’ in post-Soviet Russia: Working-Class Routes to Adulthood

Emerging patterns and perceptions of class inequalities (chair: Dr Christopher Davis, University of Oxford)

• Alexey Bessudnov (University of Oxford): Social Class and Income in post-Soviet Russia
• Dr Matthew Loveless (University of Oxford): Being Unequal and Seeing Inequality: Economic Experience and Perceptions of Social Inequality in Central and Eastern Europe

Who benefits from networks? Class and Social Capital (chair: Dr Charles Walker)

• Dr Anna-Maria Salmi (Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki): Class Dimensions of Social Networks in Russia

For further information about this and future seminars, please contact Charles Walker.

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