Елена Ярская-Смирнова
Biographic Data
| ID | 4416315 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Елена Ярская-Смирнова |
| GIVEN NAMES | Елена |
| FAMILY NAME | Ярская-Смирнова |
| SIGNATURE | ЯРСКАЯ-СМИРНОВА Е |
| AFFILIATIONS | National Research University Higher School of Economics |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3139-5215 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 29 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 65 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 29 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1999 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
A Friendly Educational Environment in the Context of Targeted Universalism: A Theoretical Model and Practical Relevance
This article presents a conceptual model of a friendly educational environment. The rationale for whether it is a necessity is based on two types of arguments. Firstly, based on the results of analyzing the transformation of the idea of inclusive education in its representation in the Russian public space, the limitations of targeted educational policy are demonstrated. Secondly, based on a brief review of academic publications, the internal inco…
Silver ecosystem of education for the benefit of the older generation
The era of longevity, which characterizes many countries, including Russia, requires a revision of ageing and the role of the elderly in society. The idea of the older cohort of the population as passive beneficiaries, creating an additional burden on the labor market, social services, and health care systems, is gradually replaced by a more inclusive approach based on the principles of active ageing, empowerment for the elderly and their social …
Visibility Politics of Disability Representative Civil Society Organizations Pursuing Social Justice in Russia
Inclusion in education: Its bonds and bridges
Inclusive education in Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus: Comparing parental satisfaction
Comparative Studies of Russian and European Welfare Polities
The authors provide a scholarly conspectus of comparative studies involving Russian, EU8 and EU15 Welfare Polities. They elaborate the notion of the ‘welfare polity’ and its potential for enhancing comparative studies of welfare institutions, policies and practices. This is accompanied by an overview of trends in comparative studies involving Russian, EU8 and EU15 countries, along with a consideration of how comparative research involving these s…
Welfare Reforms in Post-Soviet States: Current Issues and Research Highlights
HAS ADOPTED major social policy reforms that incorporate contemporary state-of-the-art international principles and practices.New legislation has mandated deinstitutionalisation, that is, closing Russia's large network of residential facilities for children 'without parental supervision' ('deti bez popecheniya roditelei') 1 and people with disabilities.Programmes of foster care and adoption are emptying orphanages, while efforts have been made to…
The Life World of a Helping Profession in the Pandemic: Rethinking of Symbolic Boundaries
Trying to Reverse Demographic Decline: Pro-Natalist and Family Policies in Russia, Poland and Hungary
During the early 2000s governments in Russia, Poland and Hungary declared demographic crises and adopted pro-natalist programmes to increase fertility, as well as policies to support families with children. Our article compares their ‘flagship’ pro-natalist programmes: Russia’s Maternity Capital, Poland’s Family 500+, and Hungary’s enhanced earned income tax credit, all framed by governments’ neo-familialist discourses. We confirm these policies …
Models of legitimation of non-profit organizations as social service providers
Inclusive Education in Today’s Russia: Room for Manoeuvre
The development of regulatory frameworks has accelerated in Russia after the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2012. Using public opinion poll data and interviews with school administrators, teachers, assistants and parents, the authors show the challenges of moving towards inclusive education in contemporary Russia. The development of an inclusive school culture is analysed at the levels of artefacts…
Quality of Life of People with Disabilities in Central Asia: Policy and Practice
‘They should cook borsch, chop wood … ’: Contemporary images of social work in the context of welfare policy reforms in Russia’s print media
This article traces the main features of social work in contemporary Russian printed media in the context of social policy reforms and social work services transformation from 1994 to 2018. This article analyses the mass media portrayal of social work within a broader picture of the Russian social policy, taking into account the interplay of the macro-context of the welfare reforms, on the one hand, and the mezzo-context of the profession, on the…
It’s No Longer Taboo, is It?” Stories of Intimate Citizenship of People with Disabilities in Today’s Russian Public Sphere
This article examines how disability and sexuality are represented in today’s Russian media, and how disabled people navigate these understandings. Drawing on online storytelling and first person stories about sexuality told by disabled people in the public sphere, the article provides a qualitative account of people with disabilities, journalists and civil rights advocates, analyzing how contemporary Russians with disabilities narrate their own …
Outsourcing social services to NGOs in Russia: Federal Policy and Regional Responses
Our research bears on two critical issues for contemporary Russia: federal–regional power relations; and whether Moscow can modernize institutions and address dissatisfaction with social service delivery, a major political issue. It is the first comprehensive study of a major 2015 reform that ended the state monopoly over service provision and initiated outsourcing (contracting out) to socially oriented non-profits (SONPOs) and other non-state or…
Disability
Disability is a part of the human condition but it is also a contested field of various definitions and policies. Various approaches to understanding and treatment of disabilities are referred to as models of disability. The two main, opposing, approaches are social and medical models. In the medical model, disability is considered as a personal problem, caused by a trauma, an illness, or some other health condition, thus calling for a need for m…
Professionalization
Functionalist sociologists have described professionalization as a positive and progressive force that fosters social change in ways that minimize social conflict and disintegration. The basis of professional practice was considered to be technical knowledge and the ideal of service. Early studies assumed a clear divide between the professions and occupations. Lists of traits were developed to distinguish the ideal type of a profession. The funct…
Social Work in Contemporary Russia: Analysis of the Status of a Profession
The article demonstrates the potential of a neo-Weberian approach to the study of professionals working in the field of social work. Based on materials obtained from a regional survey, we have been able to gather certain economic, status, and cultural characteristics of the profession and its interrelationships. The study showed that social work is characterized by a low income, a lack of prestige, and a relative degree of autonomy; the professio…
Social work in FSU countries: Mapping the progress of ‘the professional project’
This article presents material from literature and responses from national experts about social work developments in the 15 Former Soviet Union (FSU) states, since independence in 1991. Taking professionalization as a theoretical framework and considering the role of the state and other actors, the authors use a thematic approach to analyse the factors relevant to the professional project. Throughout the region, the state is identified as still t…
Social Work in Russia
Girlhood Studies in Post-Socialist Times
Girls born between the late 1990s and the early 2000s in the countries of the former USSR and Eastern Europe are fast entering into a particular kind of social life. In contrast to previous generations of girls born and bred under communist regimes, this post-socialist generation has access to the Internet, social networks, and global mass culture. They speak in a different voice, and they raise new issues and seek answers to them
Parenting Children with Disabilities in Russia: Institutions, Discourses and Identities
This essay aims to understand how the complex configurations of welfare shape and change the identity of carers, and the conditions and relations in the policy and practice of social care. It is based on the analysis of interviews with mothers of children with disabilities, collected in 2006 and 2008 in Russia, as well as analysis of more recent material in the public sphere (blogs and electronic mass media). In the interviews and blogs, women te…
Foreign agents’ in the field of social policy research: The demise of civil liberties and academic freedom in contemporary Russia
Independent scholarship in the Russian social sciences has received significant support from the West in the 1990s, but since 2000, it has faced increasing difficulties. In this overview, the authors describe the development of the non-profit sector and its relationship with academia from the founding of the Soviet state to today, paying particular attention to the social sciences and social policy analysis. The survival of many independent resea…
Integrating practice into Russian social work education: Institutional logics and curriculum regulation
Coming at the cusp of 20 years of social work training in Russia, this article analyses why education in universities is still so disconnected from the field of social work practice. Our attention focuses on institutional dynamics that shape the national regulation of social work education, limited practice content in curricula and the mixed impact of international co-operation. The research highlights that achieving broad agreement on the need f…
Gendering social work in Russia: Towards anti-discriminatory practices
Purpose This article seeks to uncover the gendered nature of discourses in social services and social work textbooks and their impact on the professional identity of social workers in Russia. Design/methodology/approach It is based on qualitative methodology, referring to interview material, and discourse analysis of the Russian textbooks used in social care education. It addresses three dimensions of gender: labour market policies and women's wo…
Foreign agents’ in the field of social policy research: The demise of civil liberties and academic freedom in contemporary Russia
Independent scholarship in the Russian social sciences has received significant support from the West in the 1990s, but since 2000, it has faced increasing difficulties. In this overview, the authors describe the development of the non-profit sector and its relationship with academia from the founding of the Soviet state to today, paying particular attention to the social sciences and social policy analysis. The survival of many independent resea…
Trying to Reverse Demographic Decline: Pro-Natalist and Family Policies in Russia, Poland and Hungary
During the early 2000s governments in Russia, Poland and Hungary declared demographic crises and adopted pro-natalist programmes to increase fertility, as well as policies to support families with children. Our article compares their ‘flagship’ pro-natalist programmes: Russia’s Maternity Capital, Poland’s Family 500+, and Hungary’s enhanced earned income tax credit, all framed by governments’ neo-familialist discourses. We confirm these policies …
Outsourcing social services to NGOs in Russia: Federal Policy and Regional Responses
Our research bears on two critical issues for contemporary Russia: federal–regional power relations; and whether Moscow can modernize institutions and address dissatisfaction with social service delivery, a major political issue. It is the first comprehensive study of a major 2015 reform that ended the state monopoly over service provision and initiated outsourcing (contracting out) to socially oriented non-profits (SONPOs) and other non-state or…
Parenting Children with Disabilities in Russia: Institutions, Discourses and Identities
This essay aims to understand how the complex configurations of welfare shape and change the identity of carers, and the conditions and relations in the policy and practice of social care. It is based on the analysis of interviews with mothers of children with disabilities, collected in 2006 and 2008 in Russia, as well as analysis of more recent material in the public sphere (blogs and electronic mass media). In the interviews and blogs, women te…
Inclusive Education in Today’s Russia: Room for Manoeuvre
The development of regulatory frameworks has accelerated in Russia after the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2012. Using public opinion poll data and interviews with school administrators, teachers, assistants and parents, the authors show the challenges of moving towards inclusive education in contemporary Russia. The development of an inclusive school culture is analysed at the levels of artefacts…
Integrating practice into Russian social work education: Institutional logics and curriculum regulation
Coming at the cusp of 20 years of social work training in Russia, this article analyses why education in universities is still so disconnected from the field of social work practice. Our attention focuses on institutional dynamics that shape the national regulation of social work education, limited practice content in curricula and the mixed impact of international co-operation. The research highlights that achieving broad agreement on the need f…
A Salary is not Important Here”: The Professionalization of Social Work in Contemporary Russia
Helping professions address the growing number of social problems which have emerged, along with contextual changes in Russian society, culture and state social policy. Social work only emerged in Russia in 1991 and it still lacks recognition by public opinion and by other caring professions. This paper addresses the current development of the social work profession in Russia, considers its context and reviews the main issues affecting processes …
Gendering social work in Russia: Towards anti-discriminatory practices
Purpose This article seeks to uncover the gendered nature of discourses in social services and social work textbooks and their impact on the professional identity of social workers in Russia. Design/methodology/approach It is based on qualitative methodology, referring to interview material, and discourse analysis of the Russian textbooks used in social care education. It addresses three dimensions of gender: labour market policies and women's wo…
Welfare Reforms in Post-Soviet States: Current Issues and Research Highlights
HAS ADOPTED major social policy reforms that incorporate contemporary state-of-the-art international principles and practices.New legislation has mandated deinstitutionalisation, that is, closing Russia's large network of residential facilities for children 'without parental supervision' ('deti bez popecheniya roditelei') 1 and people with disabilities.Programmes of foster care and adoption are emptying orphanages, while efforts have been made to…
It’s No Longer Taboo, is It?” Stories of Intimate Citizenship of People with Disabilities in Today’s Russian Public Sphere
This article examines how disability and sexuality are represented in today’s Russian media, and how disabled people navigate these understandings. Drawing on online storytelling and first person stories about sexuality told by disabled people in the public sphere, the article provides a qualitative account of people with disabilities, journalists and civil rights advocates, analyzing how contemporary Russians with disabilities narrate their own …
Social work in FSU countries: Mapping the progress of ‘the professional project’
This article presents material from literature and responses from national experts about social work developments in the 15 Former Soviet Union (FSU) states, since independence in 1991. Taking professionalization as a theoretical framework and considering the role of the state and other actors, the authors use a thematic approach to analyse the factors relevant to the professional project. Throughout the region, the state is identified as still t…
Perspectives of inclusive education in Russia
This paper discusses the issues of exclusion and inclusion of children with disabilities in educational policies. The background and context for inclusion in Russia is described, with a short overview of the history of special education and with the emphasis on the current legislative conditions for inclusion. The article analyzes peculiarities of the hidden curriculum in a Russian boarding school for children with disabilities, and discusses the…
Professionalization
Functionalist sociologists have described professionalization as a positive and progressive force that fosters social change in ways that minimize social conflict and disintegration. The basis of professional practice was considered to be technical knowledge and the ideal of service. Early studies assumed a clear divide between the professions and occupations. Lists of traits were developed to distinguish the ideal type of a profession. The funct…
What the Future Will Bring I Do Not Know: Mothering Children with Disabilities in Russia and the Politics of Exclusion
Elena Iarskaia-Smirnova, "What the Future Will Bring I Do Not Know": Mothering Children with Disabilities in Russia and the Politics of Exclusion, Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, Vol. 20, No. 2, Motherhood and Maternalism (1999), pp. 68-86
What the Future Will Bring I Do Not Know: Mothering Children with Disabilities in Russia and the Politics of Exclusion
Elena Iarskaia-Smirnova, "What the Future Will Bring I Do Not Know": Mothering Children with Disabilities in Russia and the Politics of Exclusion, Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, Vol. 20, No. 2, Motherhood and Maternalism (1999), pp. 68-86
A Salary is not Important Here”: The Professionalization of Social Work in Contemporary Russia
Helping professions address the growing number of social problems which have emerged, along with contextual changes in Russian society, culture and state social policy. Social work only emerged in Russia in 1991 and it still lacks recognition by public opinion and by other caring professions. This paper addresses the current development of the social work profession in Russia, considers its context and reviews the main issues affecting processes …
Applied Anthropology: Management and Development
Perspectives of inclusive education in Russia
This paper discusses the issues of exclusion and inclusion of children with disabilities in educational policies. The background and context for inclusion in Russia is described, with a short overview of the history of special education and with the emphasis on the current legislative conditions for inclusion. The article analyzes peculiarities of the hidden curriculum in a Russian boarding school for children with disabilities, and discusses the…
Gendering social work in Russia: Towards anti-discriminatory practices
Purpose This article seeks to uncover the gendered nature of discourses in social services and social work textbooks and their impact on the professional identity of social workers in Russia. Design/methodology/approach It is based on qualitative methodology, referring to interview material, and discourse analysis of the Russian textbooks used in social care education. It addresses three dimensions of gender: labour market policies and women's wo…
Integrating practice into Russian social work education: Institutional logics and curriculum regulation
Coming at the cusp of 20 years of social work training in Russia, this article analyses why education in universities is still so disconnected from the field of social work practice. Our attention focuses on institutional dynamics that shape the national regulation of social work education, limited practice content in curricula and the mixed impact of international co-operation. The research highlights that achieving broad agreement on the need f…
Social Work in Russia
Girlhood Studies in Post-Socialist Times
Girls born between the late 1990s and the early 2000s in the countries of the former USSR and Eastern Europe are fast entering into a particular kind of social life. In contrast to previous generations of girls born and bred under communist regimes, this post-socialist generation has access to the Internet, social networks, and global mass culture. They speak in a different voice, and they raise new issues and seek answers to them
Parenting Children with Disabilities in Russia: Institutions, Discourses and Identities
This essay aims to understand how the complex configurations of welfare shape and change the identity of carers, and the conditions and relations in the policy and practice of social care. It is based on the analysis of interviews with mothers of children with disabilities, collected in 2006 and 2008 in Russia, as well as analysis of more recent material in the public sphere (blogs and electronic mass media). In the interviews and blogs, women te…
Foreign agents’ in the field of social policy research: The demise of civil liberties and academic freedom in contemporary Russia
Independent scholarship in the Russian social sciences has received significant support from the West in the 1990s, but since 2000, it has faced increasing difficulties. In this overview, the authors describe the development of the non-profit sector and its relationship with academia from the founding of the Soviet state to today, paying particular attention to the social sciences and social policy analysis. The survival of many independent resea…
Social Work in Contemporary Russia: Analysis of the Status of a Profession
The article demonstrates the potential of a neo-Weberian approach to the study of professionals working in the field of social work. Based on materials obtained from a regional survey, we have been able to gather certain economic, status, and cultural characteristics of the profession and its interrelationships. The study showed that social work is characterized by a low income, a lack of prestige, and a relative degree of autonomy; the professio…
Social work in FSU countries: Mapping the progress of ‘the professional project’
This article presents material from literature and responses from national experts about social work developments in the 15 Former Soviet Union (FSU) states, since independence in 1991. Taking professionalization as a theoretical framework and considering the role of the state and other actors, the authors use a thematic approach to analyse the factors relevant to the professional project. Throughout the region, the state is identified as still t…
Professionalization
Functionalist sociologists have described professionalization as a positive and progressive force that fosters social change in ways that minimize social conflict and disintegration. The basis of professional practice was considered to be technical knowledge and the ideal of service. Early studies assumed a clear divide between the professions and occupations. Lists of traits were developed to distinguish the ideal type of a profession. The funct…
Disability
Disability is a part of the human condition but it is also a contested field of various definitions and policies. Various approaches to understanding and treatment of disabilities are referred to as models of disability. The two main, opposing, approaches are social and medical models. In the medical model, disability is considered as a personal problem, caused by a trauma, an illness, or some other health condition, thus calling for a need for m…
Quality of Life of People with Disabilities in Central Asia: Policy and Practice
‘They should cook borsch, chop wood … ’: Contemporary images of social work in the context of welfare policy reforms in Russia’s print media
This article traces the main features of social work in contemporary Russian printed media in the context of social policy reforms and social work services transformation from 1994 to 2018. This article analyses the mass media portrayal of social work within a broader picture of the Russian social policy, taking into account the interplay of the macro-context of the welfare reforms, on the one hand, and the mezzo-context of the profession, on the…
It’s No Longer Taboo, is It?” Stories of Intimate Citizenship of People with Disabilities in Today’s Russian Public Sphere
This article examines how disability and sexuality are represented in today’s Russian media, and how disabled people navigate these understandings. Drawing on online storytelling and first person stories about sexuality told by disabled people in the public sphere, the article provides a qualitative account of people with disabilities, journalists and civil rights advocates, analyzing how contemporary Russians with disabilities narrate their own …
Outsourcing social services to NGOs in Russia: Federal Policy and Regional Responses
Our research bears on two critical issues for contemporary Russia: federal–regional power relations; and whether Moscow can modernize institutions and address dissatisfaction with social service delivery, a major political issue. It is the first comprehensive study of a major 2015 reform that ended the state monopoly over service provision and initiated outsourcing (contracting out) to socially oriented non-profits (SONPOs) and other non-state or…
Models of legitimation of non-profit organizations as social service providers
Inclusive Education in Today’s Russia: Room for Manoeuvre
The development of regulatory frameworks has accelerated in Russia after the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2012. Using public opinion poll data and interviews with school administrators, teachers, assistants and parents, the authors show the challenges of moving towards inclusive education in contemporary Russia. The development of an inclusive school culture is analysed at the levels of artefacts…
The Life World of a Helping Profession in the Pandemic: Rethinking of Symbolic Boundaries
Trying to Reverse Demographic Decline: Pro-Natalist and Family Policies in Russia, Poland and Hungary
During the early 2000s governments in Russia, Poland and Hungary declared demographic crises and adopted pro-natalist programmes to increase fertility, as well as policies to support families with children. Our article compares their ‘flagship’ pro-natalist programmes: Russia’s Maternity Capital, Poland’s Family 500+, and Hungary’s enhanced earned income tax credit, all framed by governments’ neo-familialist discourses. We confirm these policies …
Comparative Studies of Russian and European Welfare Polities
The authors provide a scholarly conspectus of comparative studies involving Russian, EU8 and EU15 Welfare Polities. They elaborate the notion of the ‘welfare polity’ and its potential for enhancing comparative studies of welfare institutions, policies and practices. This is accompanied by an overview of trends in comparative studies involving Russian, EU8 and EU15 countries, along with a consideration of how comparative research involving these s…
Welfare Reforms in Post-Soviet States: Current Issues and Research Highlights
HAS ADOPTED major social policy reforms that incorporate contemporary state-of-the-art international principles and practices.New legislation has mandated deinstitutionalisation, that is, closing Russia's large network of residential facilities for children 'without parental supervision' ('deti bez popecheniya roditelei') 1 and people with disabilities.Programmes of foster care and adoption are emptying orphanages, while efforts have been made to…
Visibility Politics of Disability Representative Civil Society Organizations Pursuing Social Justice in Russia
Political science (25 works) · Sociology (25 works) · Law (17 works) · Law (12 works) · Politics (12 works) · Psychology (9 works) · Social Policy and Reform Studies (9 works) · Gender Studies (8 works) · Public relations (8 works) · Social Work Education and Practice (8 works)