The Transformation of Russian Working Class Masculinitiesin the Context of Social Mobility

Abstract

Alexandrina Vanke — Candidate of Sociological Sciences, Senior Lecturer, Department of Sociology, the State Academic University for the Humanities; Research Fellow, Institute of Sociology, RAS. Address: bld. 5, 24/35 Krzhizhanovskogo St., Moscow, 117218, Russian Federation. E-mail: alexandrina.vanke@gmail.com
Irina Tartakovskaya — Candidate of Sociological Sciences, Senior Lecturer, Department of Sociology, the State Academic University for the Humanities; Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Sociology, RAS. Address: bld. 5, 24/35

This article examines working class masculinities in post-Soviet Russia and discusses their dynamics in relation to subjective social mobility between 1991 and 2015.
The authors approach masculinity from the constructivist theory by Raewyn Connell, who suggests studying how masculinities evolve in multiple domains, such as labour, power, symbolic representations, and emotional relationships. Using the concept of subjective social mobility, the researchers focus on the analysis of the symbolic dimension of class movements, subjective expectations and the anxieties of working-class men about their social status. Our empirical qualitative analysis is based on 62 interviews with Russian industrial workers conducted after 1991. The authors find that traditional and new types of masculinities coexist among the Russian working class. Traditional masculinity is typical among older male workers. It reproduces social practices of the Soviet gender order and forces men to achieve normative masculinity which is, however, barely possible for them to maintain today due to lack of economic resources. Young male workers strive to adopt a new type of masculinity, which contrasts with the traditional model in its independent, active and proactive character. Moreover, it forces men to perform the roles associated with the new gender order, which emphasizes the values of individualism, intensive consumption, and large investment in body and appearance. However, although young workers may want to shape their masculinity in such a way (and thus experience upward subjective social mobility), they also have restricted resources. Because of this, they often perceive themselves as ‘unsuccessful’ and experience habitual uncertainty. Nevertheless, they try to copy the lifestyle of the middle class and share some of their values.