Moral Emotions and the New Work Ethic of the Rural Population in Modern Russia.

• In Event: 114 - Section on Altruism, Morality and Social Solidarity Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 02. The Source and Mechanisms of Altruism and Morality

Abstract

The paper considers the new work ethic that has emerged among Russian rural population. This is achieved presumably through an analysis of the verbal markers employed in moral emotions. Building on the existing body of work on the sociology of emotions, which has focused on studies of shame and envy, we have identified new demonstrations of emotion arising from new socio-cultural conditions in the Russian village. 30 semi-structured interviews were collected in accordance with random sampling in several villages of Belgorod region, Russia in 2013. The use of qualitative methods provided evidence as to how the villagers used a mass of emotional evaluations to describe both actual socio-cultural conditions and their own situation. The emotions expressed by respondents in the form of both verbal and physical markers, suggested that these emotions were being used a way to explain social processes.
We discovered “contempt” for rural/physical labour from both the immediate surrounding environment and wider society more generally. This emotional backdrop brings with it negative effects such as shame and envy that corrode self-esteem and self-efficacy among the rural population, leading even to withdrawal from active employment on the land and the weakening of social ties. As a result, the rural ethical worldview views work as a thing needed purely in order to meet one’s basic needs, a position that weakens any aspirations toward economic success and simultaneously promotes a sense of endurance and suffering among the rural habitants who are forced by ‘necessity’ to do such hard and ‘dirty’ work.

Author

• Olga Alexandrovna Simonova, The Higher School of Economics