Categorical Data Analysis
From 29 June to 12 July the HSE Laboratory of Comparative Social Research is holding the Fourth International Summer School on Categorical Data Analysis in Zelenogorsk in the suburbs of St Petersburg. This year academics have come both from the Russian regions and from abroad — CIS, Germany, Israel, Romania and the USA.
Happiness as an economic category
Renowned American sociologist and political scientist, Professor at the University of Michigan and head of the HSE Laboratory for Comparative Social Research in St. Petersburg, Ronald Inglehart told the HSE news service about his research – the study of happiness.
Financial Crisis Affects Gender Attitudes
The economic crisis in European countries did not pass by unnoticed as concerns the public’s set of values. In some groups, there was a shift from emancipative values to more traditional ones. Above all, this involves the socially vulnerable strata that the crisis hit hardest of all, Natalia Soboleva, a researcher with HSE’s Laboratory for Comparative Social Research (LCSS), concluded in a study.
Doctors Consider Informal Payments Normal
Many patients are dissatisfied with the health services they receive, but prepared to pay doctors extra for quality care. Doctors, in turn, consider it normal to receive cash or gifts from grateful patients. However, the line can be very thin between gratitude and extortion, according to a study by Alla Chirikova, Senior Research Fellow of the RAS Institute of Sociology, and Sergei Shishkin, Academic Supervisor of the HSE's Institute for Health Economics, published in the Universe of Russia journal.
In a Dialogue with the International Academic Community
HSE Associate Professor Sarah Busse Spencer held a research seminar for lecturers at HSE’s Perm campus.
No 'Culture of Poverty' in Russia Yet
Despite the wide income gap between the rich and poor in Russia, their basic values and attitudes are not dissimilar. However, there are indications of an impending rift, says Svetlana Mareeva, Associate Professor of the HSE's Sub-department of Socio-Economic Systems and Social Policy, based on her findings from a survey of poor Russians.
Traditions of Helping inside Families are Changing in Russia
Relationships within Russian families are being transformed. While most people in the country still think that mutual support between the different generations within a family are necessary, these traditions of ‘family service’ are receding into the past. Russia is becoming more oriented to Western cultural values, including the priority of individual interests, reported Cecile Lefevre, Irina Korchagina and Lidya Prokofieva at the HSE XV April International Academic Conference on Economic and Social Development.
Laws Affect Attitudes towards Homosexuality
If laws exist at the state level that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation, then the impact of individual values creating a negative attitude towards homosexuality falls. People are inclined to adapt their behavior to conventional norms. A group of European researchers came to this conclusion over the course of an international study, the results of which Peter Schmidt presented at the XV April International Academic Conference on Economic and Social Development of the Higher School of Economics.
The Future's in Their Hands
Sociologists have conducted research on what professions Russian parents would like their children to do in the future. The results follow the changing dynamics of the job market in recent years and show that humanities-based occupations are no longer seen as desirable.
Russians Respect Doctors and Lawyers
Many Russians, when asked whether certain occupations, particularly those of a politician or an academic, are prestigious or desirable,will give a different answer depending on whether they are refering to their own attitudes, perceived societal attitudes, or preferred career choices for their children. So Konstantin Fursov and Valentina Polyakova, research fellows at the HSE's ISSEK, found in their study Monitoring Innovative Behaviour in the Russian Population.