?
Идентичность заводского рабочего в постсоветском контексте: этнографическое кейс-стади района Уралмаш
The article contributes to the examination of working-class identity. The research is based on the theories of cultural class analysis (Savage, 2015) and genetic structuralism by Pierre Bourdieu. The workers of the Uralmash factory, the largest enterprise in the USSR still functioning today, were selected as an empirical research object. The field research was conducted in the genre of ethnographic case-study. During data collection in May-June 2017, the researchers including the authors became temporary residents of the Uralmash neighbourhood. The example of the Ural case shows that a contemporary worker in the post-Soviet area is a bearer of multiple and fragmented identity combining Soviet and post-Soviet practices and values. Workers describe themselves as ordinary people”, “a good man” using personal traits and values such as honesty, industriousness, sociability, dignity, simplicity, as well as in terms of identity in private life, e.g. a family person, a pensioner, a gardener. Many representatives of elder generations perceive themselves as people “living in the past”, “Soviet people”. Thus, the Soviet past remains the main resource and a ‘universal’ prop supporting subjective perception of factory workers of elder generations. ‘Neighbourhood-level’ patriotism is another significant sense-making resource for the identity of Uralmash workers. However, as our interviews and observation show, workers in the post-Soviet times become an “invisible” group in the neighbourhood initially constructed for their happy life. Due to specific habits and mentality elder workers cannot accept the new lifestyles imposed by new actors such as developers, cultural activists, and representatives of entertainment industry acting in the neighbourhood. Consequently, a factory worker in the post-Soviet times loses class identity typical for the Soviet period. As a result, workers reproduce or re-accept other identity types but keep the memory about the Soviet past and try to find a new basement for identity in private life.