Discovering Real Social Groups in Contemporary Russia Gordey Yastrebov Research Associate State University – Higher School of Economics Russia, Moscow

Socio-Occupational Classification  System restrictions Certain types of economic activity are historically less stable, than the social classes they are associated with Russian specifics: occupations are associated with certain character of labor and not particular status characteristics

Socio-Occupational Classification  Classification criteria 1) balance of executive and organizational functions 2) level of creativity and diversification of functions 3) degree of labor self-organization 4) labor complexity (education required) 5) economic value of labor (income)

Social Stratification in Post-Soviet Russia Social strata Entrepreneurs Officials and upper middle managers Middle managers Supervisors Highly skilled professionals Professionals with higher education Professionals with specialized secondary education White-collar workers (in trade and service sectors) Skilled and highly skilled workers Semi and unskilled workers Self-employed workers--1.2 Total100

Post-Soviet Russia Compared to Other European Countries CountriesSocial strata IIIIIIIVVVIVII Russia Czech Republic Hungary Poland Slovenia Germany Spain Classes according to EGP scheme: I – higher-grade professionals, administrators, and officials, managers in large industrial establishments, large proprietors, II – lower-grade professionals, administrators, and officials, higher grade technicians, managers in small industrial establishments; supervisors of non-manual employees, III – routine non- manual workers, clerical workers, sales personnel, and other rank and file employees in services, IV – small proprietors, including farmers and smallholders, self employed artisans and all other ‘own account’ workers apart from professionals, V – supervisors of manual workers and lower grade technicians (to some extent manual work), VI – skilled manual workers in all branches of industry, VII – semi and unskilled manual workers in industry and agricultural workers.

Individual Private Property Distribution in Post-Soviet Russia Social strataShare of enterprise ownersShare of securities owners Enterpreneurs Officials and upper middle managers Middle managers Highly skilled professionals Professionals with higher education White-collar workers (in trade and service sectors) Skilled and highly skilled workers Semi and unskilled workers

List of Properties Included in Entropy Analysis Groups of propertiesContent of properties Economic resource ownership of a firm/enterprise ownership of shares/bonds nature of primary income realty in property type of realty Human resource occupation education foreign language skills computer skills compliance with qualification health Authoritylevel of authority Values and motivation attempt to start up a business plans for further education desire for harder and more responsible work additional work

List of Properties Included in Entropy Analysis Groups of propertiesContent of properties Social resource social capital indicator mother’s occupation father’s occupation partner’s occupation friend’s occupation parents’ well-being Cultural resourceleisure variety indicator size of library Acquired resources income per family member housing space per family member general family well-being marketed services (parents) marketed services (children) Social environment sector of employment form of ownership (where employed) territorial environment (settlement type) gender

First 10 Combinations with Maximum Entropy №HNHN Combinations ownership of a firm/enterprise, ownership of a shares/bonds, nature of primary income attempt to start up a business, ownership of a firm/enterprise, ownership of a shares/bonds ownership of a firm/enterprise, ownership of a shares/bonds, level of authority attempt to start up a business, ownership of a firm/enterprise, nature of primary income ownership of a firm/enterprise, nature of primary income, level of authority attempt to start up a business, ownership of a firm/enterprise, level of authority foreign language skills, ownership of a firm/enterprise, ownership of a shares/bonds attempt to start up a business, ownership of a shares/bonds, nature of primary income additional work, ownership of a firm/enterprise, ownership of a shares/bonds ownership of a shares/bonds, nature of primary income, level of authority

Clusters in ‘Power-Property’ Set of Coordinates PropertiesCluster Centers Owners of a firm/enterprise No YesNo YesNo Owners of shares/bonds No YesNo YesNo Level of authority Number of observations % from total

Concluding Remarks  Two alternative methods for constructing of real social groups used  Entropy method: in contemporary Russia economic capital and authority (power) rather than occupations determine inequality and social structure  Particular type of social stratification: estate hierarchy determined through authority with some elements of class differentiation