Received:
2018-03-20 | Accepted:
2018-09-10 | Published:
2018-09-30
Title
Socio-economic sustainable development and the precariat: a case study of three Russian cities
Abstract
Sustainable social and economic processes of the recent decades are characterized by the emergence of new phenomenon known as precarity and its new accompanying class known as the precariat. The precariat as a social class or social community is primarily associated with a factor of instability and insecurity of workers with flexible employment. This paper studies the precarity on the labor market for the socially-oriented professions in the three Russian metropolitan areas: Moscow, Kazan, and Rostov-on-Don. The paper searches for the causes of precarity of socially-oriented professions based upon the analysis of economic processes in the public sector, and of the reformers’ rhetoric and its reflection in the discourses of the main actors about the goals and direction of the reforms. Socially-oriented professions are associated with the creation of benefits, which are very little associated with markets and in most cases belong to public or mixed goods. Our findings suggest that the reforms of Russian education and healthcare spheres are accompanied by large-scale institutional changes which resulted in bureaucratization, orientation toward achieving performance indicators not related to professional values, stagnation of incomes, inequality between regions, and instability of professional trajectories. We conclude that reducing the prestige of socially-oriented professions, the material well-being, along with instability, become the main factors of precarity.
Keywords
institutional changes, entrepreneurship, education, healthcare, precariat
JEL classifications
O15
, O43
, J08
URI
http://jssidoi.org/jesi/article/228
DOI
HAL
Pages
411-428
Funding
The article is written with the assistance of Russian Science Foundation, Project № 16-18-10306
This is an open access issue and all published articles are licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
References
Alonso, A.; Ferreira, S.; Alonso, D. 2016. Middle Class Evolving to Precariat: Labour Conditions for the 21st Century. SocialWork & Society. http://www.socwork.net/sws/article/view/46
Search via ReFindit
Bezes, P. et al., 2012. New public management and professionals in the public sector. What new patterns beyond opposition? Sociologie du Travail, 54, pp.e1–e52. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soctra.2012.07.001
Search via ReFindit
Bobkov V.; Csoba J.; Herrmann P. (eds.) 2014. Labour Market and Precarity of Employment: Theoretical Reflections and Empirical Data from Hungary and Russia. Bremen: Wiener Verlag fuer Sozialforschung.
Search via ReFindit
Brougham, D.; Haar, J. 2017. Employee assessment of their technological redundancy. Labour & Industry: A Journal of the Social and Economic Relations of Work 27(3): 213–231. http://doi.org/10.1080/10301763.2017.1369718
Search via ReFindit
Čábelková, I.; Strielkowski, W. 2015. Tax revenue and morale: a case study of the Czech Republic. International Journal of Economic Research 12(1): 23-35.
Search via ReFindit
Čábelková, I.: Strielkowski, W.; Mirvald, M. 2015. Business influence on the mass media: a case study of 21 countries. Transformation in Business & Economics 14(1): 65-75.
Search via ReFindit
Dobbins, T.; Plows, A.; Lloyd-Williams, H. 2014. 'Make do and mend' after redundancy at Anglesey Aluminium: Critiquing human capital approaches to unemployment. Work, Employment & Society 28(4): 515-532. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017013491454
Search via ReFindit
Earle, J.; Moran, C.; Ward-Perkins, Z. 2017. Econocracy, Vol. 1, Manchester University Press.
Search via ReFindit
Frase, P. 2013. The Precariat: A Class or a Condition? New Labor Forum 22(2):11–14. http://doi.org/10.1177/1095796013482888
Search via ReFindit
Gregory, C. 2016. From public policy to pure anthropology: A genealogy of the idea of the hybrid economy. In Sanders W. (ed.). Engaging Indigenous Economy: Debating diverse approaches (pp. 29-42). Australia: ANU Press.
Search via ReFindit
Hartung, C.; Barnes, N.; Welch, R.; O’Flynn, G.; Uptin, J.; McMahon, S. 2017. Beyond the academic precariat: a collective biography of poetic subjectivities in the neoliberal university. Sport. Education and Society 22(1): 40–57. http://doi.org/10.1080/13573322.2016.1202227
Search via ReFindit
Hayek, F. A. 2012. The Fatal Conceit: the Errors of Socialism. University of Chicago Press.
Search via ReFindit
Hood, C., 1991. A public management for all seasons? Public Administration, 69(1), pp.3–19. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1991.tb00779.x
Search via ReFindit
Janda, K.; Rausser, G.; Strielkowski, W. 2013. Determinants of Profitability of Polish Rural Micro-Enterprises at the Time of EU Accession. Eastern European Countryside 19:177-217. https://doi.org/10.2478/eec-2013-0009
Search via ReFindit
Jenkins, K., Charteris, J., Bannister-Tyrrell, M., & Jones, M. (2017). Emotions and Casual Teachers: Implications of the Precariat for Initial Teacher Education. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 162–179. https://doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2017v42n12.10
Search via ReFindit
Kirdina, S. 2014. Institutions and the Importance of Social Control in a Nation’s Development. Journal of Economic Issues, 48(2): 309–322. http://doi.org/10.2753/JEI0021-3624480204
Search via ReFindit
Klimina, A. 2016. The Role of Culture, Historicity, and Human Agency in the Evolution of the State: A Case Against Cultural Fatalism. Journal of Economic Issues 50(2):557–565. http://doi.org/10.1080/00213624.2016.1179064
Search via ReFindit
Kopycińska, D., & Kryńska, E. (2016). The precariat in the labour market in Poland – social and economic aspects. Journal of International Studies, 9(2), 79–89. https://doi.org/10.14254/2071-8330.2016/9-2/5
Search via ReFindit
Koudelková, P., Strielkowski, W., & Hejlová, D. (2015). Corruption and System Change in the Czech Republic: Firm-Level Evidence. DANUBE: Law and Economics Review, 6(1), 25–46. https://doi.org/10.1515/danb-2015-0002
Search via ReFindit
Kulagina, E. V.; Eliseeva, M. A. 2014. Schools' pedagogical staff resources at the stage of education modernization: experiences of Moscow, Russia, and developed countries. Sociological Studies 4(4), 111-121.
Search via ReFindit
Lorenz C. 2015. The Metrification of 'Quality' and the Fall of the Academic Profession. Oxford Magazine 355: 7–11.
Search via ReFindit
Lorenz, C. 2012. If You're So Smart, Why Are You under Surveillance? Universities, Neoliberalism, and New Public Management. Critical Inquiry 38(3), 599–629. http://doi.org/10.1086/664553
Search via ReFindit
Lorenz, C. 2014. Fixing the Facts the Rise of New Public Management, the Metrification of Quality and the Fall of the Academic Professions. Moving the Social 52: 5–26. http://doi.org/10.13154/mts.52.2014.5-26
Search via ReFindit
Maslov, A.; Volchik, V. 2014. Institutions and Lagging Development: The Case of the Don Army Region. Journal of Economic Issues 48(3):727–742. http://doi.org/10.2753/JEI0021-3624480307
Search via ReFindit
Mirowski, P.; Nik-Khah, E. 2017. The Knowledge We Have Lost in Information. Oxford University Press.
Search via ReFindit
Muller, J. 2018. The Tyranny of Metrics. Princeton University Press.
Search via ReFindit
Niño-Amézquita, J.; Dubrovsky, V.; Jankurová, A. 2017. Innovations and competitiveness in regional development: a comparison of Latin America, Europe, and China, Czech Journal of Social Sciences, Business and Economics 6(1):28-36. http://doi.org/10.24984/cjssbe.2017.6.1.4
Search via ReFindit
North, D. C. 1990. Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Search via ReFindit
North, D.C., 2005. Understanding the Process of Economic Change. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400829484
Search via ReFindit
O’Flynn, J., 2007. From New Public Management to Public Value: Paradigmatic Change and Managerial Implications. Australian Journal of Public Administration, 66(3), pp.353–366. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8500.2007.00545.x
Search via ReFindit
Oleinik, A. 2012. Institutional Transfers in the Russian System of Higher Education: A Case Study. Journal of Economic Issues 46(4):881–908. http://doi.org/10.2753/JEI0021-3624460403
Search via ReFindit
Polanyi К. 2002. The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time. Saint-Petersburg: Aleteya Publishing Redden, G.; Low, R. 2012. My school, education, and cultures of rating and ranking. Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies 34(1-2): 35-48. https://doi.org/10.1080/10714413.2012.643737
Search via ReFindit
Standing, G. 2011. The Precariat. The New Dangerous Class. London: Bloomsbury, 198 p
Search via ReFindit
Standing, G. 2012. The Precariat: From Denizens to Citizens? Polity 44(4):588–608. http://doi.org/10.1057/pol.2012.15
Search via ReFindit
Štreimikienė, D.; Strielkowski, W.; Bilan, Y.; Mikalauskas, I. 2016. Energy dependency and sustainable regional development in the Baltic States: A review. Geographica Pannonica 20(2):79-87. https://doi.org/10.5937/GeoPan1602079S
Search via ReFindit
Strielkowski, W.; Lisin, E.; Tvaronavičienė, M. 2016a. Towards energy security: sustainable development of electrical energy storage. Journal of Security & Sustainability Issues 6(2):235-244. https://doi.org/10.9770/jssi.2016.6.2(4)
Search via ReFindit
Strielkowski, W.; Tumanyan, Y.; Kalyugina, S. 2016b. Labour market inclusion of international protection applicants and beneficiaries. Economics and Sociology 9(2):293-302 https://doi.org/10.14254/2071-789X.2016/9-2/20
Search via ReFindit
Strielkowski, W.; Weyskrabova, B. 2014. Ukrainian Labour Migration and Remittances in the Czech Republic. Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie 105(1):30-45. https://doi.org/10.1111/tesg.12052
Search via ReFindit
Taylor, I. 2007. Discretion and control in education: The teacher as street-level bureaucrat. Educational Management Administration & Leadership 35(4):555-572. https://doi.org/10.1177/1741143207081063
Search via ReFindit
Tvaronavičienė, M; Gatautis, R. 2017. Peculiarities of income distribution in selected countries, Economics and Sociology 10(4): 113-123. https://doi.org/10.14254/2071-789X.2017/10-4/9
Search via ReFindit
Tvaronavičienė, M. 2018. Preconditions of sustainable entrepreneurship: estimating of Brexit scenarios' impact on macroeconomic environment. Polish Journal of Management Studies 17 (2): 222-234 https://doi.org/10.17512/pjms.2018.17.2.19
Search via ReFindit
Vasylchak, S.; Halachenko, A. 2016. Theoretical basis for the development of resort services: regional aspect. International Economics Letters 5(2):54-62. https://doi.org/10.24984/iel.2016.5.2.3
Search via ReFindit
Verger, A.; Curran, M. 2014. New public management as a global education policy: its adoption and re-contextualization in a Southern European setting. Critical Studies in Education 55(3):253-271. https://doi.org/10.1080/17508487.2014.913531
Search via ReFindit
Volchik, V.; Posukhova, O. 2016. Precarity and professional identity in the context of institutional change. Terra Economicus 14(2):159–173. https://doi.org/10.18522/2073-6606-2016-14-2-159-173
Search via ReFindit
Walliser, B. 2008. Cognitive economics. Springer.
Search via ReFindit