print«Economy of Adoption»:
Street-Level Bureaucracy VS. Rural Community
Galindabaeva V.V.
Senior Researcher, Sociological Institute of FCTAS RAS, St. Petersburg, Russia. vgalindabaeva@gmail.com
Karbainov N.I.
Researcher, Sociological Institute of FCTAS RAS, St. Petersburg, Russia. nkarbainov@gmail.com
Galindabaeva V.V., Karbainov N.I. «Economy of Adoption»: Street-Level Bureaucracy VS. Rural Community. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. 2024. No 4. P. 49-59
The case study of the “adoption economy” examines the social factors that determine the decision-making of street-level bureaucrats. Research deals with small villages, whose residents adopted children in the 2000th in order to increase the number of pupils in the underutilized local schools and thus resisted their shutdown. The authors studied cases from five different regions in Russia, where at the time of the field study underutilized local schools were closed in three rural settlements, but in the other five settlements they were “saved” with the help of the “adoption economy”. The authors relied on M. Lipsky’s concept of “street-level bureaucrats” and A. Portes’ theory of social capital. Qualitative data were collected from 88 individual semi-structured interviews, an observation diary, documents, and photographic materials. The institutional context of “bureaucratic” discretion in determining what rural schools are subject to shut down is analyzed. The results of the study showed that the social capital of rural “street-level bureaucrats” (usually teachers of rural schools), due to their (un)inclusion in close interaction with local residents, to whom they provide services, becomes an important factor in (un) making a decision to retain a underutilized school in small rural settlement. In Portes’ theory perspective street-level bureaucrats are regarded as donors for rural community as they are forced by the territorial community to share economic resources – to continue financing a small-size school despite the obvious economic inexpediency.
Abankina T. (2010) Development of a Network of Regional General Education Institutions: The 2007–2008 Results of the National Priority Project. Voprosy obrazovaniya [Education Issues]. No. 2 (December): 5–17. (In Russ.)
Anurin V.F., Sadulina A.M. (2010) Bureaucracy: views from ‘inside’ and ‘outside’. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. No. 2(310): 29–37. (In Russ.)
Galindabaeva V., Karbainov N. (2022). The Economy of Adoption: Love or/and Money. Mir Rossii. Sociologiya. Etnologiya [Universe of Russia. Sociology. Ethnology]. No. 31(4): 57–78. (In Russ.)
Gimpelson, V., Magun V., Brym R.J. (2009) Hiring and promoting young civil servants: Weberian ideals versus Russian reality. In: Russian bureaucracy and the state: officialdom from Alexander III to Vladimir Putin. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK: 231–252.
Gorshkov M.K., Petuhov V.V., Andreev A.L. (2005) Bjurokratija i vlast’ v novoj Rossii: pozicija naselenija i ocenki jekspertov: Analiticheskij doklad [Bureaucracy and Power in the New Russia: Population’s Position and Experts’ Assessments: Analytical Report]. Moscow: IS RAN. (In Russ.)
Lipsky M. (2010) Street-level bureaucracy: Dilemmas of the individual in public service. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Portes A., Landolt P. (2000) Social capital: promise and pitfalls of its role in development. Journal of Latin American Studies. No. 2 (32): 529–547.
Rogozin D.M. (ed.) (2015) Russian Official: Sociological Analysis of the Life World of State and Municipal Employees. Moscow: IS RAN. (In Russ.)
Roshchina Y., Chernenko O. (2010) Regional and Municipal Models of Social Policy in Secondary Education (Part 1). Voprosy obrazovaniya [Education Issues]. No. 1 (December): 251–268. (In Russ.)
Zacka B. (2017) When the state meets the street: Public service and moral agency. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Zakharova A. (2023) Moral Cartography: Classifications of Village Residents in the Everyday Life of Rural Bureaucrats. Antropologicheskij forum. [Anthropological Forum]. No. 59: 103–129. (In Russ.)
Zav’jalov D. Ju. (2008) Vzaimodejstvie organov gosudarstvennoj vlasti i mestnogo samoupravlenija: bjudzhetnyj aspect. Finansy i kredit [Finance and Credit]. No. 17 (305): 24–34. (In Russ.)