Fourth LCSR International Workshop: the Beginning
Starts in Moscow on March 28
Tomorrow, on March 28th, the opening of the 4nd International LCSR Workshop will take place at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow. The workshop will be a part of the XV April International Conference of NRU HSE ‘Modernization of Economy and Society’. Reports will cover the research projects of the Laboratory carried out by means of the grant provided by the government of the Russian Federation. There will be more than ten panel discussions on current social, political and economic issues, alongside with the lectures given by the prominent international social scientists.
The workshop program includes the reports of the world-renowned social scientists, such as Ronald Inglehart (professor at the University of Michigan; winner of Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science in2011) and his regular co-author Prof. Christian Welzel (University of Leuphana and HSE). During the plenary session they will present the results of their studies: prof. Inglehart will be talking on the reasons of increasing tolerance towards homosexuality, abortion and divorce, while prof. Welzel will give a speech on the declining motivation of citizens to participate in armed conflicts. The plenary session also includes the presentations of a number of prominent scholars dealing with Russian cases. For instance, prof. Christian Haerpfer (the president of the World Values Survey, the University of Aberdeen) will report on his study of the impact of changing economic values on social capital in Russia and other Eastern European countries and professor Evgeny Yasin will present a research called ‘The Influence of Culture in the Modernization in Russia’.
The workshop will include panels on various fields of social studies such as religiosity, tolerance, trust and social capital, happiness and subjective well-being, gender and family relations, and ageing. Some of the reports will also concern acute topics for Russia such as migration, corruption and historical roots of state efficiency.
Among the key speakers there is a famous German political scientist Dr. Hans-Dieter Klingemann who studies political attitudes of people unsatisfied with the quality of democracy. He aims to find out if they undermine the legitimacy of democratic regime or simply give some stimulating pressure to the elites in power. Another key speaker, the professor of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland Eric M. Uslaner is interested in whether the immigration processes and growing ethnic diversity result in decline of general trust in the society. He finds out that the level of trust is much affected by the ethnic segregation that isolates populations with certain backgrounds, not level of diversity itself. The third key speaker, Jan Delhey from Jacobs University, will discuss a recently developed 'spirit-level' theory that suggests that the quality of life in developed countries is more connected to social inequality than to economic growth. Pr. Hermann Dülmer (University of Köln) will deliver a report on changing attitudes towards commonly accepted moral norms in modern Western society. He inquires if we currently have strict division between good and evil and if people tend to justify deviations from the widespread ethic norms. The famous German social scientist and methodologist Peter Schmidt will present the project that analyses the impact of individual values and national legislation on attitudes towards homosexual people.
Among the most interesting studies of the LCSR fellows the research by Malgorzata Mikucka should be mentioned. She investigates the relationship between economic growth and social capital and subjective well-being. Another speaker, Francesco Sarracino, presents an optimistic view on this issue claiming that economic well-being and happiness based on social capital are quite consistent. Fabio Sabatini works on the project on social networks websites demonstrating that online contacts increase the intensity of real life communication but negatively impact the level of trust. Invigorating result will be presented by Anna Nemirovskaya who revealed that objective low quality of life in Russian regions does not correspond with high subjective well-being.
The topics of the workshop will benefit not only academics but also policymakers, experts in the applied political science, as well as those concerned about the socio-political problems of Russia and the world.
Working language of the workshop is English. We would be glad to see scholars, professionals, policymakers and anyone interested in issues of contemporary social studies at our conference!
Further information is available on the LCSR website. If you would like to take part in panel discussions, it is necessary to send a registration letter to hse.lcss@gmail.com.