The collapse of the Soviet Union prompted unprecedented forms of social dislocation: steep and rapid stratification, widespread poverty, a deterioration of welfare institutions, and the emergence of the social group of "New Rich". All these processes are closely linked with the re-formation of class relations and identities in contemporary Russia. This course examines this re-formation from a variety of disciplinary, theoretical and methodological perspectives. The lectures examine how class is represented and evaluated in public discourses; how class positions are constituted in various institutional practices; and how class is experienced, lived, and embodied at the level of subjectivity and identity. The course, firstly, offers a historical background by examining the constitution of class relations in Imperial and Soviet Russia, and secondly, discusses class formation in a range of sites and practices in contemporary Russia, including media, consumption, popular culture, everyday life, health, education and politics.

The course is organized in cooperation with Aleksanteri Institute's Russian and East European Master's School.

Programme:

• Introduction (Suvi Salmenniemi) Tuesday 8.3. 16-18

• Class relations in Imperial Russia (Arja Rosenholm) Thursday 10.3. 16-18

• Social divisions in the Soviet Union (Harri Melin) Tuesday 15.3.2011 16-18

• Contemporary Russian class structure (Harri Melin) Thursday 17.3.2011 16-18

• Film: Moscow does not believe in tears Tuesday 22.3. 16-19

• Social welfare and class (Maija Jäppinen) Tuesday 29.3. 16-18

• Class and health practices (Marja Rytkönen) Thursday 31.3. 16-18

• Class in Russian politics (Sirke Mäkinen) Tuesday 5.4. 16-18

• Media from a class perspective (Jukka Pietiläinen) Thursday 7.4.2011 16-18

• Class, gender and consumption (Saara Ratilainen) Tuesday 12.4.2011 16-18

• Class and education politics (Nelli Piattoeva) Thursday 14.4.2011 16-18

Enrollment via NettiOpsu