Articles by Laboratory of Public Sociology

About Laboratory of Public Sociology

Laboratory of Public sociology (PS Lab) is an autonomous project of young researchers based on Center for Independent Social Research. PS Lab is the new incarnation of a research group “Politicization Researchers Collective” where scholars from different fields studied Russian protests in 2011-2012. More information on their website: http://cisr.ru/en/platform/ps-lab/ .
November 7, 2014

Where Is the Movement Going: the Identity of Russian protest 2011-2012

by Laboratory of Public Sociology  

written by Oleg Zhuravlev, Natalya Savelyeva, Maxim Alyukov (Laboratory of Public Sociology) The Bolotnaya Square protest, which divided Russian society in 2011, is now barely discussed in any public forum.  How can it be that the first real large-scale protest since 1993 has been forgotten so quickly, and although it did prompt repression by the government, did not succeed in becoming a long-term social movement with the ability to radically change society?  Many commentators attempted to answer this question with a discussion of the weakness of the political opposition and institutions of civil society in Ru ..

October 6, 2014

Apoliticism and Solidarity: Local Activism in Russia

by Laboratory of Public Sociology  

Two years ago, the fair election protests were one of the most popular topics in the Russian media. But today they have been largely forgotten, and the nation’s attention is focused elsewhere. Meanwhile, arrests of Russian activists continue as before – activists who were, nevertheless, preparing for city-wide and municipal elections on September 14th, 2014. Could the September elections revive the Russian protest movement? To answer this question, it’s important to pose another one: what, if anything, is left of the “Bolotnaya” movement? Have the fair election protests truly affected civil society? In ..