INSTITUT FÜR

GESELLSCHAFTSWISSENSCHAFTEN

BEREICH SOZIOLOGIE

Derzeitige Position

Projektleiter des DFG-geförderten Projekts „Die Wechselwirkungen zwischen der orthodoxen Religion und der Politik im zeitgenössischen Russland“

Bücher/Monographien

2012. Practising without Belonging? Entrepreneurship, Religion and Morality in Contemporary Russia. Berlin: LIT Verlag und Transaction publishers.

2010. Practising without Belonging: Entrepreneurship, Religion and Morality in Contemporary Russia. Dissertation, Fakultät für Geschichte, Kunst- und Orientwissenschaften. Universität Leipzig.

Artikel in Büchern

2013. “The Moral, Religious and Social Implications of Church Building Activities in Contemporary Russia”, in Modern Religious Architecture: Anthropological Perspectives. Herausgegeben von Oscar Verkaaik. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.

2011. “Built with Gold or Tears? Moral Discourses on Church Construction and the Role of Entrepreneurial Donations”, in Multiple Moralities in Russia. Herausgegeben von Jarrett Zigon. Oxford, New York: Berghahn Books.

Zeitschriftenartikel

2015. "Patriotismus, orthodoxe Religion und Bildung - Ergebnisse einer empirischen Forschung im zeitgenössischen Russland", Arbeitsbericht des Instituts für Soziologie an der Universität Magdeburg Nr. 69

2014. "Orthodoxe Religion bei Unternehmern im zeitgenössischen Russland: Identität, Glaube, Moral und Kalkül", in: Religion und Gesellschaft in Ost und West

2013. “Ritual and Commemoration: State-Church Relationship and the Vernacularisation of the Politics of Memory”, Focaal: European Journal of Anthropology. Special issue “Divine kinship and politics” 67 (2013): 61-73.

2013. “Aspects of Religious Individualization and Privatization in Contemporary Russia: Religiosity among Orthodox Businessmen and their Relation to Priests and Parishes”. Archives de sciences sociales des religions. Special issue «L’orthodoxie russe aujourd’hui» Herausgegeben von Kathy Rousselet 162 (2): 37-53.

(mit Lothar Abicht). 2010. „Noch lange nicht Methusalem! Plädoyer für eine Qualifizierung älterer Mitarbeiter“, GenoGraph 2/2010: 22-24.

2010. “Entrepreneurship, Religion and Morality in Contemporary Russia”, in Religion, Identity, Postsocialism. The Halle Focus Group 2003-2010. Herausgegeben von Christopher Hann, S. 98-102. Halle/Saale: Max-Planck-Institut für ethnologische Forschung.

(mit Milena Benovska-Sabkova, Tünde Komáromi, Agata Ładykowska, Detelina Tocheva und Jarrett Zigon). 2010. “‘Spreading Grace’ in post-Soviet Russia”, Anthropology Today 26 (1): 16-21.

(mit Milena Benovska-Sabkova, Tünde Komáromi, Agata Ładykowska, Detelina Tocheva und Jarrett Zigon). 2008. “Religion and Morality in European Russia”, Report of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology (2008): 51-54.

Entrepreneurship, Morality, and Religion in Contemporary Russia

Since perestroika, Russia’s economy has undergone significant transformation. The state-organised and centrally planned economy of the Soviet Union has been replaced by a national economy based on market principles, and new forms of business have emerged from private entrepreneurial initiatives. During this same period, Russia has experienced a parallel process of religious revival or ‘rebirth’ (religioznoe vozroshdenie). Individual religiosity has increased, and religious feasts, processions, and events of all kinds have reappeared in public.

Inspired by Max Weber’s Protestant ethic thesis, this project examined the intersection of Russia’s economic transformation and religious revival. Does religious belief drive entrepreneurs to establish new businesses? How do church teachings shape business practice? Are the ethics and morals of Russian businessmen distinctly ‘Orthodox’? As revealed through the ethnographic study of businessmen in the city of Vladimir, the relations between Church and state, politics and religion, and belief and practice, are deeply ambiguous. The religiosity of businessmen is characterised by a constant tension between the desires to seek individual gains and to uphold social and moral values. Russian Orthodoxy, as it is practised by contemporary Russian businessmen, is characterised by efforts to comply with official church teachings concerning prayer, penance, and forgiveness, but it is also characterised by a fear of evil forces, a concern for national history and cultural heritage, and barely disguised efforts to profit financially and politically.

Russian businessmen ‘practice without belonging’. They rarely attend church services or integrate themselves in parish communities, even when they fund church construction and other activities. Instead, the religious practices of businessmen are guided through the establishment of a personal relation with a spiritual teacher (dukhovnyi nastavnik). These relationships often provide a more satisfying form of guidance than that offered during regularly scheduled church services, and they provide mutual markers of prestige for businessmen and the priests who serve them. The substitution of personalised spiritual guidance for regular church attendance also helps to perpetuate stereotypes about the sinfulness of businessmen and business practices, and produces ‘multiple moralities’ among Orthodox believers.