Conference in St. Petersburg: ‘Cultural and Economic Changes under Cross-national Perspective’

From November 10 to 14, the HSE Laboratory for Comparative Social Research’s (LCSR NRU HSE) 4th International Annual Research Conference 'Cultural and Economic changes under cross-national perspective' will take place in St. Petersburg. The programme includes dozens of themed sessions on current social, political and economic problems, and lectures by the world’s leading sociologists.

Each year, the conference brings together Russian and international academics who work on issues related to: values, trust and social capital; corruption and inequality in our changing world; the role played by religion in political activity; and other social problems from a cross-national perspective.

Most conference participants are involved in the LCSR research network, which means they are able to develop their projects in close cooperation with each other, and each new conference demonstrates their professional growth. Lectures will be given by Laboratory for Comparative Social Research managers. Ronald Inglehart, Academic Supervisor and Manager at the LCSR, is giving a lecture entitled  ‘From Class Conflict to Cultural Issues—and Back Again?’. Christian Weltsel, LCSR Professor and Chair for Political Culture Research at the Leuphana University in Germany, is giving a talk about civilization turned into human empowerment. Eduard Ponarin, LCSR Director, will present his research into the links between the number of suicides committed and the spread of religious sects in the United States.

Bogdan Voicu (Romanian Academy of Sciences), Musa Shteiwi (The University of Jordan), Eric Uslaner (Maryland University), and Arye Rattner (The University of Haifa), who have worked in collaboration with the Laboratory for a considerable time, are also speaking at the conference.

This year’s conference will also see Arne Kalleberg (University of North Carolina) take part – for the first time – with a presentation on non-standard employment (and its consequences), and Alejandro Moreno (World Association for Public Opinion Research), who is also joining for the first time, will give a presentation on research into the development of democratic principles and norms.