Working with Single Fathers in Western Siberia: A New Departure in Russian Social Provision

SINCE THE COLLAPSE OF THE SOVIET SYSTEM considerable emphasis has been placed in both academic studies and media reporting on the loss of welfare and social provision and what have been termed the ‘torn safety nets’ of the post-Soviet era. Processes of change which began before the demise of the USSR have severely disrupted previous securities and have raised a range of social policy issues and concerns. Since the early 1990s numerous studies have examined the failings of Soviet provision and yet have repeatedly pointed out that, whatever its shortcomings, there was at least some sort of coherent system in the past. Much of this work has led to assertions that, with the Soviet system gone, no viable replacement has been established in the intervening decade. This in turn has been interpreted in some studies as contributing to a loss of social cohesion and damage to the social fabric, resulting in a generalised picture of Russian society foundering in the grip of an apparently interminable and ever-deepening crisis. A more positive picture has emerged out of research focused on the development of informal networks and strategies at the local level, where numerous examples of resilience, ingenuity and the development of innovative forms of formal and informal support and security have been found. However, it has been argued elsewhere that informal approaches and horizontal networks are not necessarily conducive to interaction with administrative bodies and policy makers and therefore have little impact on the development of government-led social policy at the local, regional and national levels. In making such arguments some authors have resorted both to rather simplistic and perhaps over-optimistic models of policy making and consultancy processes in the ‘democratic West’ and to essentialist notions about the ‘nature’ of Russian society, questioning its capacity for progressive change and the sort of flexible and innovative thinking deemed crucial for the development of a ‘modern’ and ‘democratic’ society. In keeping with such representations of Russia, the stance of many international policy-making and funding bodies throughout the period since 1991 has appeared to be based on an assumption that this situation can only be rectified by the import and implementation of Western models of good practice. This view of Russia has been questioned by academic researchers and practitioners in the field, who have called for a more culturally sensitive approach to the study of