Navigating constraints: Youth agency and entrepreneurial logics in Russian state grant competitions

This paper examines how entrepreneurial logics shape youth agency under authoritarian neoliberalism through the case of Russian state grant competitions. Drawing on scholarship on neoliberal governmentality and social relations in post-socialist spaces, I argue that participation in grant competitions affects youth in two ways: it draws them into entrepreneurial logics; and simultaneously provides them with repertoires for navigating an authoritarian environment and pursuing a sense of self-worth. Based on 19 semi-structured interviews with young grant applicants carried out virtually in 2024 and 2025, I show how young people rely on entrepreneurial dispositions to adapt their conduct across different settings. The experiences of grant-seeking youth demonstrate how being entrepreneurial operates as both a state-sanctioned mechanism of disciplinary control and a pragmatic tool for individuals managing structural limitations.