Hilary Pilkington

Galina Yemelianova

This book, based on extensive original research in the field, analyses the political, social and cultural implications of the rise of Islam in post-Soviet Russia. Examining in particular the situation in Tatarstan and Dagestan, where there are large Muslim populations, the authors chart the long history of Muslim and orthodox Christian co-existence in Russia, discuss recent moves towards greater autonomy and the assertion of ethnic-religious identities which underlie such moves, and consider the actual practice of Islam at the local level, showing the differences between "official" and "unofficial" Islam, how ceremonies and rituals are actually observed (or not), how Islam is transmitted from one generation to the next, the role of Islamic thought, including that of radical sects, and Islamic views of men and women's different roles. Overall, the book demonstrates how far Islam in Russia has been extensively influenced by the Soviet and Russian multi-ethnic context.

Islam in Post-Soviet Russia

An exploration of the lives and expectations of young women in the new Russia, looking at the enormous changes that the new social and economic order have brought.

Gender, Generation and Identity in Contemporary Russia

Al'bina Garifzianova

Elena Omel'chenko

Russia’s Skinheads: Exploring and Rethinking Subcultural Lives provides a thorough examination of the phenomenon of skinheads, explaining its nature and its significance, and assessing how far Russian skinhead subculture is the ‘lumpen’ end of the extreme nationalist ideological spectrum. There are large numbers of skinheads in Russia, responsible for a significant number of xenophobic attacks, including 97 deaths in 2008 alone, making this book relevant to Russian specialists as well as to sociologists of youth subculture. It provides a practical example of how to investigate youth subculture in depth over an extended period – in this case through empirical research following a specific group over six years – and goes on to argue that Russian skinhead subculture is not a direct import from the West, and that youth cultural practices should not be reduced to expressions of consumer choice. It presents an understanding of the Russian skinhead as a product of individuals’ whole, and evolving, lives, and thereby compels sociologists to rethink how they conceive the nature of subcultures.

Exploring and Rethinking Subcultural Lives

Russia's Skinheads

Cynthia Miller-Idriss

Gender and the Radical and Extreme Right takes up an important and often-overlooked across scholarship on the radical right, gender, and education. These subfields have mostly operated independent of one another, and the scholars and practitioners who attend to educational interventions on the far right rarely address gender directly, while the growing body of scholarship on gender and the far right typically overlooks the issue of educational implications. This edited volume steps into this space, bringing together seven chapters and an afterword to help readers rethink the educational implications of research on gender and the radical right. As a starting point for future dialogue and research across previously disparate subfields, this volume highlights education as one space where such an integration may be seen as a fruitful avenue for further exploration. This book was originally published as a special issue of Gender and Education.

Mechanisms of Transmission and the Role of Educational Interventions

Gender and the Radical and Extreme Right

This electronic version has been made available under a Creative Commons (BY-NC) open access license. Loud and proud is an ethnographic study of grassroots activists in the English Defence League (EDL). Setting the findings within contemporary debates on race and racism, Islamophobia, social movements and the far right, the author draws on interviews, informal conversations and extensive observation at EDL events to explore and explain the gap between the public image of the movement as a violent Islamophobic and racist organisation and individual activists' understanding of it as 'one big family'. Presenting them neither as duped by a charismatic leader nor working class anti-heroes, this book introduces EDL activists as individuals with real lives whose diverse trajectories in and out of activism are embedded in personal life stories. The book will be of value to those researching or studying in the disciplines of sociology, political science and anthropology as well as those with an interest in contemporary political issues and the populist and radical right.

Passion and politics in the English Defence League

Loud and proud

Russian youth culture has been a subject of great interest to researchers since 1991, but most studies to date have failed to consider the global context. Looking West? engages theories of cultural globalization to chart how post-Soviet Russia&’s opening up to the West has been reflected in the cultural practices of its young people. Visitors to Russia&’s cities often interpret the presence of designer clothes shops, Internet caf&és, and a vibrant club scene as evidence of the &"Westernization&" of Russian youth. As Looking West? shows, however, the younger generation has adopted a &"pick and mix&" strategy with regard to Western cultural commodities that reflects a receptiveness to the global alongside a precious guarding of the local. The authors show us how young people perceive Russia to be positioned in current global flows of cultural exchange, what their sense of Russia&’s place in the new global order is, and how they manage to &"live with the West&" on a daily basis. Looking West? represents an important landmark in Russian-Western collaborative research. Hilary Pilkington and Elena Omel&’chenko have been at the heart of an eight-year collaboration between the University of Birmingham (U.K.) and Ul&’ianovsk State University (Russia). This book was written by Pilkington and Omel&’chenko with the team of researchers on the project&—Moya Flynn, Ul&’iana Bliudina, and Elena Starkova.

Cultural Globalization and Russian Youth Cultures

Looking West?

Yngvar B Steinholt

Ivan Gololobov

Punk culture is currently having a revival worldwide and is poised to extend and mutate even more as youth unemployment and youth alienation increase in many countries of the world. In Russia, its power to have an impact and to shock is well illustrated by the state response to activist collective and punk band Pussy Riot. This book, based on extensive original research, examines the nature of punk culture in contemporary Russia. Drawing on interviews and observation, it explores the vibrant punk music scenes and the social relations underpinning them in three contrasting Russian cities. It relates punk to wider contemporary culture and uses the Russian example to discuss more generally what constitutes 'punk' today.

Hilary Pilkington

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