HSE Sociologists in Europe

The conference ESA 2013 – Crisis, Critique and Change took place in Turin, in Italy at the end of August 2013. It was organized jointly by the ESA and the Turin University Department of Culture, Politics and Society. Three papers from the Laboratory for Sociology Education and Science at HSE Saint Petersburg Campus were presented at the conference.

The first was Technical College as a Low-Risk Strategy in the Face of Economic Uncertainty by Ksenia Tenisheva, Daniel Alexandrov and Svetlana Savelieva. Their research looks at the choices made by school leavers and their families in various social groups about the route to take to work or university which would guarantee the least risk of status loss, and increase chances of upward mobility.

Alexey Gorgadze and Daniel Alexandrov gave a paper on Migration, Ethnicity and Identity Politics on Social Network Sites in the former Soviet Union. They researched how young people from ethnic groups of the former Soviet republics living in Russia use social network friendship groups to develop their identity as part of a diaspora and maintain unity of their ethnic groups virtually and in reality.

The third paper was on Sociometric Popularity in the School Context by Vera Titkova,Valeria Ivaniushina and Daniel Alexandrov. They investigated what determines school children’s attitudes to learning and achievement. Looking at schools in St Petersburg they found that attitudes to school are formed more strongly by friendship groups and family than by the schools themselves.