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Middle class families in Russia: management of emotions and work on «relationships»

Middle class families in Russia: management of emotions and work on «relationships» Larisa Shpakovskaya Higher School of Economics, St Petersburg RN 13 Families and Intimate Lives Family Relations and Social Inequalities ESA 10 th Conference, 7-10.09.2011 Geneve.

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Middle class families in Russia: management of emotions and work on «relationships»

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  1. Middle class families in Russia: management of emotions and work on «relationships» Larisa Shpakovskaya Higher School of Economics, St Petersburg RN 13 Families and Intimate Lives Family Relations and Social Inequalities ESA 10th Conference, 7-10.09.2011 Geneve

  2. Middle class, family and parenthood. Research questions. • The middle class's practices and attitudes to the family and childbearing • Higher degree of reflexivity (A. Giddens) can be found, self-reflection and individualism • Reflexivity — strategic planning of life trajectory, making choice • Reflexivity related to the «work» • «Work» - emotional and physical efforts of self-adjustment to standard and norms of «decent», «normal», «good» life

  3. Data and research design • About 100 interviews with family and mothers conducted in 2009-2011 in Higher School of Economics and European University at St Petersburg (Russia) • Two types of respondents: • Middle class couples (cohabiting or married, with children or childless, in St Petersburg) • Middle and lower class women (cohabiting or married, having children and childless, in St Petersburg and Ulyanovsk)

  4. What is middle class in Russia? • Class criteria: education, employment, income and identity • 14-22% of population belong to the middle class • Middle people have higher education, «intellectual» job employment, average income (up to 400 EUR) and identify themselves as “average” or “middle” • Life styles and consumer preferences are similar to the middle class in Europe • Carriers of social innovation

  5. Family relations: “relationships” and division of labour • “Relationships” in middle class • Work on relationship • Opposite to the family roles • Result of emotional work and self-control efforts • Result of negotiations and agreements (about household work, reproductive plans etc). • Similar to the notion of “pure relationships” (Giddens) • No “relationships” in lower classes?

  6. Parenthood and childbearing • Reflexive parenthood of middle class • Work on the sufficient condition of childbearing, to be “normal”, “good” family, to respond to the living standards • Parenthood is part of life project (carrier, income, number of children and time of their birth) • Problem for young middle class women,gender asymmetry of parenthood • Low classes – no planning and no resources

  7. Some conclusions: family relations and social inequalities • Middle class and lower classes families are carriers of different types of practices and attitudes toward family and childcare • Middle class is associated with “new” practices and attitudes: • Contracts and negotiations • Bourgeois family (breadwinner and housewife) • Lower classes is associated more with “old soviet” practices • “working mother” gender contract • Coping with difficulties

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