Political Science
Document Type
Article
Abstract
This article examines Russian citizens’ support for and participation in civic activism today, nearly three decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Specifically, we consider how activism has evolved over time in two key issue sectors—environmentalism and women’s rights. We draw on a recent nationally representative survey that challenges existing stereotypes of Russians as apathetic and/or fearful of participating in civic activism, showing, to the contrary, that Russians are willing and interested in engaging in public activities. Data from field interviews with environmental and feminist activists, along with the authors’ past twenty-five years of research in these areas of Russian civic activism, allow us to identify an ongoing shift from professionalization and formalization of NGOs in the 1990s and early 2000s, to informal organizing, often assisted by social media platforms, today. We argue that the three major social and political drivers of this change in Russian civic activism are the contraction of political freedoms, the decline in foreign funding, and the availability of web-based communication and fundraising technologies.
Publication Title
East European Politics and Societies
Publication Date
11-2022
Volume
36
Issue
4
First Page
1377
Last Page
1399
ISSN
0888-3254
DOI
10.1177/08883254211070851
Keywords
activism, civil society, environment, feminism, Russia
Repository Citation
Sundstrom, Lisa Mc Intosh; Henry, Laura A.; and Sperling, Valerie, "The Evolution of Civic Activism in Contemporary Russia" (2022). Political Science. 86.
https://commons.clarku.edu/faculty_political_science/86
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Copyright Conditions
Sundstrom, L. M., Henry, L. A., & Sperling, V. (2022). The evolution of civic activism in contemporary Russia. East European Politics and Societies, 36(4), 1377-1399. https://doi.org/10.1177/08883254211070851
